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[harihb]

Disappointing Ashes series

Australia had two chances to win. They were denied Victory thanks to Broad in first test. Rain saved England again in third test. In my opinion, this series was Australia's to lose as England never looked threatening with their Batting.

[harihb]

You're plain silly Ponting

Australia to win series 2-1? Hahaha... What were you thinking?

[harihb]

Citibank, Why do you need to access my messages?

Dear Citibank, Why does your android app need permissions to access my personal messages? The iOS variant doesn't require it. You better remove it.

[harihb]

Lazy to go to bookmarks and choose a bookmarked URL?

When I use firefox, I immediately install extensions which gives alias to a long URL that we would have bookmarked, or corporate URLs which does not look pretty. Or for truly lazy like me, when I type fb, I want my browser to go to facebook.com.

It's a good thing that this feature is built in Chrome. In settings, I choose Manage search engines, in the second section, I add a Name called Facebook, fb as keyword and facebook.com as the URL. Open a new tab, type fb and there we go!

[harihb]

iPhone 5 vs iPod Touch 5

The keynote is over, grand unveiling done. The products are ready to be out in the wild (two months ago, thanks to the leaks). Now, time for some questions.

As a consumer from India, will I buy the iPhone 5? - NO. Why? 

Let's see, the screen size is bigger, yet retaining the awesome look of iPhone 4. So that's a plus. Faster graphics and processors is a big plus. Battery life and thinner form factor are good plus points. But that's about it. Rest of the features in the hardware and in the software does not make any sense for an Indian consumer. LTE? We don't even have 4G nationwide yet. Let's come to iOS6. I am yet to see Maps in action, as iOS6 is not available for general public. But I am positive it would not be as accurate as Google Maps or Nokia's ovi maps. Passbook feature - Yet to see the practical purpose of the app in India. Siri - Sorry. No WiFi, no Siri. 3G costs will shoot up with Siri around (kinda like managing a girlfriend :P). Nano sim - In a country where Microsim is slowly gaining traction, iPhone 5 will be less than useful.

However, the scenario is different for iPod touch. Now this device has impressed me a lot. Amazingly thin, same 4" display, packed with dual core A5 for the first time and still having a great battery life. What's more important, it is not carrier bound, so no unlocking nonsense. Airplay mirroring is there as well, but you need to buy the $99 AppleTV device. Useful for showing product demos for iOS development organizations. 1080p video recording and widescreen resolution (finally!) for all my TV shows. 8 hours battery for video play back and 40 hours for music playback is good enough for me. Bank balance permits, I'll ask my sister to get one from the states for $300 and pay back in INR xD.

What's going to be prices? I have no clue. But if the past is any indication, it will be priced about INR 65 per USD. Expect the iPhone price to shoot up.

[harihb]

Sencha Touch + Phonegap = Awesome HTML5 App

Please note that I am not affiliated with Phonegap/Nitobi/Adobe in any way.

"I'm the small package that good things come in" - Howard's dialogue to Summer Glau in the popular TV sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" is very much applicable to Phonegap. It gives you nice template to write your HTML5,CSS and JS files, a folder to put your plugins and easy way to pass data to/fro from UIWebView to the Phone's numerous classes. For a developer who wishes to do stuff on his/her own terms and need just a template, according to me, Phonegap fits the bill. Sencha Touch on the other hand is truly powerful javascript framework, with a lot of features. Even twitter uses Sencha touch. For those who want to get their hands dirty, go through this excellent post from Sencha website.

Hybrid (Web apps packaged as Native apps) applications is surely gaining prominence.

[harihb]

Edit Skydrive docs in Web

Microsoft Skydrive was missing just one thing that Google docs was offering. The ability to edit the file that is synced with one's computer. When Google Drive was rolled out, one can add the file to a folder in the computer which automatically syncs with Google Docs online. Then if it is a word/excel file, one can use the Google doc apps and edit them. It syncs the contents back to the computer. The scenario was different with Skydrive, where Office web apps did not allow the user to edit the documents in Skydrive synced storage. Now Microsoft is offering similar functionality, with 2GB extra storage. However, the web app (Word/Excel/Powerpoint) is really slow to open and do the changes.

Oh well, one step at a time. 

[harihb]

The best Wimbledon final yet?

Roger Federer - The only person in the recent times to play Single handed backhand, a 16 time champion, looking for his 7th wimbledon title and 17th grand slam title.

Andy Murray - The promising scot, looking for his first wimbledon title and his first grand slam title ever.

Is this the best promo for this final or what? Let the better man win today. But for the good of the game, let Andy Murray win it, as Federer uncle has won 16 other titles.

[harihb]

Stubborn mind

After listening to ARR’s ‘kadhal rojave’, I think present ARR can never beat that and wish he can give such songs these days.. Even if he does, I doubt if I'd appreciate it as my mind is stubborn and unable to let go. The thought that Roja album is the best from ARR is fixed.. sigh..

[harihb]

Are we looking at the resurgence of Microsoft?

Microsoft has not had a good time for past 5 years as Apple kept smashing with its variety of consumer electronics. But now, it has introduce Microsoft Surface, a tablet that will come in two variants (running ARM and x86 processors). Then the recent release of Windows Phone 8(Apollo), which has launched the tech world into a frenzy. Also rumored is the in house production of Windows phones (yes, after the surface, Microsoft are planning to produce phones too!) having three resolutions (WXGA 800x480, WVGA 1280x768 and HD ready 1280x720), making life definitely easy for developers.

Let's see what the future holds for Microsoft and Windows Phone developers.

[harihb]

Viswaroopam Trailer

WoW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi3xuekL2TU

Don't know/care about "Tamil Vazhga" gumbal, but I'd like it very much if at least 50% of the dialogues are in English.

[harihb]

A long way ahead

Began my F.R.I.E.N.D.S 720p HD download marathon to play on my HDTV. 6 episodes completed today, and 230 more to go. Certainly a long road ahead.

[harihb]

Thirai kadal thandiyum thiraviyam thedu

Leaving to Germany in another 4 hours in Air France. Wish me luck :) By the way, the title means search gold even if you are leaving the country.

[harihb]

Changing Tab size in Firefox

After the release of Firefox 4 exactly 13 months ago, Mozilla updated few things with respect to User interface and its customization. I was put off by the tab width immediately after the upgrade and I couldn't help but install an extension to reduce it to my liking. However, there is a much simpler alternative which one can use and avoid installing one extension. What needs to be done:

Enter about:support in the address bar. Click "Show Folder" button

Create a directory called "chrome" and create a file called userChrome.css

Paste the following code to reduce the size of the tab to how it was in Firefox 3.

.tabbrowser-tab[fadein]:not([pinned]) {    min-width: 0px !important;    max-width: 140px !important; }

Tada!

[harihb]

Weird connection timeout error in OSX Lion

I got myself a TP Link router (for a 1000 bucks) and configured my Hathway broadband connection appropriately. Everything was working fine (iPod, iPhone etc), but not my MacBook pro! Whenever I selected the connection, I got "Connection Time out" error. Thanks to one solution online at macrumors forum, I am now able to connect to the internet :-). You've to add the desired WiFi network (Network Preferences -> WiFi -> Advanced button) by clicking + sign and choose WPA/WPA2 Personal as security. Enter an incorrect password, click OK and click Apply. Try to connect to the network and sure enough, the password screen appears and enter the correct password now.

Boom!

[harihb]

Finally, England won

After a horrid tour in UAE and a poor start in Sri Lanka, England has finally won a test. Kevin Pietersen delivers it when it mattered. Good outing for him as well, after 3-0 drubbing against Pakistan in UAE. Thanks to this win, England retain their No.1 ranking.

[harihb]

WrestleMania 28 is over. What's next?

Ultra exiting event with few dud matches and silly promos. WrestleMania may or may not have lived up to its expectations, but it was a fun 4 hour show. So now that HHH, Undertaker and Rock have 'unofficially' retired from the ring, what is next in line?  1. Lord Tensai (Prince Albert) is going to make his debut soon. 2. Cena is now going to sell green colored crap (t-shirt,armband, wristband) 3. Daniel bryan's title run meant nothing after losing to Sheamus in 18secs. He'll probably be made fun of that for the whole year.. he might even win a slammy this december. 4. Punk had a good feud with Jericho. Stone cold Steve austin at WM 29?