With the WWDC 2013 (Worldwide Developers
conference) being announced, it’s safe to assume that Apple plans on releasing
the much awaited iOS 7 - at least the beta version for its developers.
Back in September 2012 (roughly 7 months ago) when
iOS 6 was launched, nobody imagined it would be THAT bad. Having said that, I
personally feel it is an understatement. Fans around the world have shown
strong aversion towards the present day, full-of-skeuomorphism design of the
iOS 6. The abhorrence has been so strong that the OS has often been called as
‘stale’ and ‘boring’. Almost 6 versions and 5 years old, the iOS hadn’t seen a
single design overhaul.
But come June 10, 2013 and all that is set to
change (hopefully)! Some interesting rumors are going viral on the internet as
to what the head of Human interface department; Sir Jonathan Ive plans to do
with iOS 7.
What you can expect from Apple’s OS for the
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:
FLAT DESIGN –
The current (and older) versions of the iOS
reek of skeuomorphic designs. Be it the wooden panels in the Game Center,
wooden shelves of the newsstand, yellow papers for the notes, the leather used
in the contacts and calendar apps on the iPad and the list goes on. Though the
weather and stocks app are third party stock applications (Yahoo), they look
rather cluttered and often fail to update on GPRS/EDGE and slow internet speeds
in India.
Left: Artist's impression of a flatter design for the weather app Right: Current Yahoo! weather app on the iOS
So what exactly is the flat design? To start
off, all the aesthetics will go the Scott Forstall way – Out of Apple, Inc. The
company has dropped subtle hints of this transition when they changed the
overall look of the podcast. Internet is abuzz with the rumors that the
software engineers at Apple have been busy ‘deforstallizing’ the iOS 7. The OS
is also set to have a new set of icons for its default apps.
Left: Old version of the Podcast App | Right: New design changes
GESTURE CONTROL –
While this may not see the light of the day
with iOS 7, the internet world has been speculating that Ive has had meetings
with makers of gesture control technologies to discuss its implementation with
the hardware.
ADDED FUNCTIONALITY –
It is rumored that the software engineers
responsible for the iOS (including the engineers pulled from the OS X for Mac)
are looking to revamp the Calendar and Email apps ‘dramatically’. This could mean
that not only will they get a design overhaul, but will see functionality
changes as well. However, these changes remain a best kept secret with the
company and its employees.
SIMPLICITY –
Since the iOS was launched in 2007, one of its
key features has been its simplicity of operation. Be it a 70 year old or a 5
year old, one has learnt how to operate the OS with a bit of hit and trial.
With the operating system expected to have an overhaul pretty soon, the company
is rumored to maintain the simplicity of the OS, despite adding more
functionality and design changes.
Comments have been pouring in on articles
related to the iOS 7. While most of the fanboys are eagerly awaiting this
change, others seem to be a bit skeptical and prefer sticking to the traditional
iOS look and feel. There have also been rumors of delays due to Ive’s design
overhaul plans. Personally, I’d rather
wait patiently for Apple to roll out the spruced up iOS with everything working
perfectly than using a half baked, non functioning OS that brings back the
horrid memories of the heavily criticized Apple Maps.
If your Smartphone has been the iPhone and your
Tablet, the iPad, are you excited to see what Apple plans to reveal at the WWDC
2013, where we will get the 1st look of the much awaited iOS 7?
Watch out for this space as more information
rolls out over the coming days.
All images are the properties of their respective owners. Images have been used only for illustrative purposes and I do not claim ownership of the content of the images.
India, Incredible India! No, honestly, it is truly incredible! Unfortunately, I say this with shame rather than pride. If that is the case, why is it incredible, you ask?
Well, for the sheer fact that this country has been running its operations for well over 55 years of independence, without any proper system in place. Do I blame the government? Well to an extent, yes! If the government is not the problem, who/what is? The people! How can the people be at fault if the government is not functioning efficiently?
Back in December 2012, a girl was brutally raped who eventually succumbed to her injuries and died a painful death. Just when the word 'rape' was beginning to lose the limelight, a 5 year old was raped, leading to huge protests and a female protester being slapped by a police official. Continuing the horror story, this was the same police which had 'bribed' the parents of the 5 year old to not register a FIR (first Information Report).
Instead of protesting quick action by the government, one must ask the society - WHY must the 'need' arise to rape a woman? That too a 5 year old?! If the whole purpose is satisfying the 'sexual need', the rapists wouldn't have even enjoyed it! Before this statement comes out wrong, I should make it clear - I condemn rape. It sickens me, to say the least!
Indian people displaying their great Lane Driving Skills
Next - The traffic. Ask any foreigner who has been
to India, traffic tops the list of 'What-you-don't-like-about-India' I do not
blame three wheelers (auto rickshaws) or man powered rickshaws being driven on
the streets. What I absolutely loathe is the fact that people can’t drive in a
LANE. How difficult is lane driving? If a person owns a vehicle - a two, three
or four wheeler, it is safe to assume that he/she has some sort of thinking
ability. Driving right in between a lane marker is absolutely stupid and
doesn't solve ANY purpose at all! Taking into consideration another aspect of
traffic problems, I would LOVE to know - how much time does one really save by
jumping a red light? 10 seconds? I'm all for it, if it saves a life. But it’s
utterly preposterous if you’re just bored and don't have the patience to wait!
I'm sure the people stuck in traffic jams will end up blaming it on the government.
Well, what else can we do? That is what we are best at - the blame game!
Let's see what comes after traffic. Ah, the population! 1.3 billion and
counting! One simple question, which doesn't even require any sort of education
- if you can't afford them, why have them in the 1st place? I'm dumbfounded
when I see my local fruit seller having 4 kids (all between the age gap of 2-6
years) and a pregnant wife. Seeing his plight, I'm sure he cannot afford to
have even one!
After a huge discussion with my cousin, we came to a conclusion that the people
of India are victims of injustice. Nobody would mind standing in queues for
hours provided everybody lawfully waits for their turn. Nobody would be
irritated getting stuck in a traffic jam if everybody sticks to their lane
rather than constantly shifting lanes just to get out of the jam in the
quickest way possible.
Having said this, no country is perfect. The only difference between India and
a developed country is the people. The need of the hour is reformation of our
society, rather than our government. Stop the blame game and act on your own
for once. Gone are the days of non-violent protests. Our inner self needs a
violent protest. Change the society and a reformed government will follow.
One of the actors from the Bollywood fraternity has started a brilliant campaign - MARD. Staying true to the motive, I'm proud to say, I am a MARD (Men against Rape and Discrimination). Are you a MARD?
After coming back to India after 6 months and getting used to high speed internet, I
realized that I cannot stand my ISPs (BSNL – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited)
services. Despite paying for a decent plan, my internet connection would keep
dropping at its own free will. Irritated and frustrated, after using the
services of the public sector company for over 6 years now, I decided to
change; and to my relief, Airtel (a private sector telecom service provider)
had recently launched 4G/LTE services in my city (after Kolkata, Bangalore and
Pune).
The Airtel 4G/LTE router in all its glory
After a bit of inquiry, I visited their store
and was attended properly. I was told that in order to avail 4G services, a
technician will visit my home to check the signal strength and inform further
about the procedure to apply for the services. Since I wanted a solution for my
family and not just me, I was interested in purchasing a router rather than a
dongle which is restricted to one user at a particular time.
As promised, the
technician visited my home the next day (only an hour later than the decided
time – acceptable).
- After a quick demo, I
was quite impressed by the speeds that the dongle (demos are given only via
dongles and not routers) was giving (5-7 Mbps download | 2-3 Mbps Upload) via the
speedtest.net website.
- I visited the store again to purchase the
router and the SIM. Again, I was attended properly and all the formalities were
completed in 20-25 minutes. Due to the unavailability of routers at that very moment, I was told that
I would get the router in the evening and the employees were kind enough to
deliver it at my doorstep (though I managed to collect it from the store on my own).
- Next was the
verification process which took almost 2 days to complete. Surprisingly, I had
to verify the details that I had provided, thrice.
- Being a typical
service provider in India, I received no further assistance on the installation
process. However, it didn't require any rocket science as it was quite easy.
Pop in the SIM, power on the device and press the WiFi button on top and you’re
done.
- The router worked perfectly for a day (ignoring
1-2 hiccups here and there) but started giving problems thereafter. I just couldn't get it to work. I tried switching it OFF and ON thousands of times, but to no success.
- Here is where the trouble started. Airtel has a
dedicated helpline number for the 4G services but it is flawed. When you do
manage to get connected to a customer care executive, they have absolutely ZERO
technical knowledge. They transferred my call to the mobile helpline which
asked me to call the dedicated toll free helpline number. What kind of sorcery
was this? I WAS calling through that very same helpline number. After a huge
argument, their so called ‘senior executive’ agreed to register a complaint and
informed that they complaint would be resolved within 12 hours (to be precise,
it was to be resolved before 3PM, the next day).
- The following day, around 12 PM, a technician visited my home and
started doing something on his laptop. After half an hour of jostling and
preparing a report, he asked me to pull out the SIM; put it in his cell phone
(it required a phone which has a normal sized SIM tray) and switched on the
phone. The cell phone displayed full signal strength and boom, the router
started working again. Since then, I have had no issues.
So, the big question? If you can afford the
tariff plans, should you go for it? I’d say, YES! I’m sure a lot of Indian
readers have been a victim of slow, crappy internet at some point in their
life. Most of us are still struggling on extremely poor internet speeds.
Internet speeds after installing 4G Router.
If you can afford it, 4G LTE speeds are a huge
leap forward. There is no harm in paying a few extra bucks for internet speeds
of 15-20 Mbps (at least).
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
BEFORE JUMPING ON THE AIRTEL 4G BAND-WAGON
Like any other internet connection, the 4G also
stops responding at times. It has happened to me twice. However, it has
resolved on its own within 5 minutes.
If you plan to buy a router and since this
service is SIM based, try keeping it next to a window. That area in your home
has the maximum signal strength.
The router costs ₹5000 whereas the dongle can be purchased for ₹2500. As far as Punjab/Chandigarh region is concerned, this service can
be availed only on a postpaid scheme and the detailed tariff plan is available here.
Airtel offers a lot of services for its users.
For example:
Pay
bills online.
Change
plan online.
Graphical
usage representation.
View
outstanding bills.
All the data regarding your connection is available online
All these features are available in the
application if you wish to use a dongle. To use these services for an Airtel
4G/LTE router, you can do so by clicking here.
If you require any further information or assistance, let me know in the comments and I'll be more than happy to help!
Samsung is all set to reveal the next generation of its flagship phone, the Galaxy S4. Since the beginning of 2013, the internet has been flooded with rumors on what Samsung will be bringing to the market for its customers with the S4.
The Galaxy S Smartphone series by Samsung has become the most sought after device running the Android OS by Google. There is not an iota of doubt that over the years this series of Smartphone has brought Samsung to the forefront of mobile technology and given a stiff competition to the iPhone, Apple’s 5 year old baby (well, almost 6 years now).
The Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone over the years
Each year, Samsung has made the Galaxy S bigger and better. This year also, the electronics industry giant plans to do the same. Here is a rumor roundup of all the features and specifications that the 4th generation of Galaxy S Smartphone, Galaxy S4, will most likely be having.
THE SCREEN
It is rumored that Samsung will be going with a 5” display, increasing the screen size by .2” over its predecessor, the S3.
The Galaxy S3 is using a 4.8” Super AMOLED display giving a pixel density of 306 ppi. However, if you strain your eyes, you can look at the pixels on the S3, due to the company opting for PenTile technology. The S4 is speculated to have a newer technology, known as the green-PHOLED. This helps in improving the efficiency of the screen by converting energy into light at the display level. It is being learnt that since this technology does not pertain to all the colors, this gives room for more energy efficient mobile screens in the future (maybe implemented for more colors on the Galaxy S5).
With an all new technology, the screen will supposedly have a mind blowing pixel density of 440 ppi, making it by far the highest pixel density in any mobile phone. However, incorporating such high density in a 5” screen will be a challenge for the South Korean tech giant. UPDATE – The S4 does in fact have a 440ppi Super AMOLED Display. Samsung did go crazy with this device’s screen.
THE BUILD
When it comes to the design and build quality of a Smartphone, nobody does it better than Apple. However, of late, the scuffgate for iPhone 5 has put a big question mark on the quality control department of Apple.
Samsung has somewhat lagged behind when it comes to the design aspect of their flagship devices. While the devices itself look perfectly mobile like, it’s the premium feel that they have always lacked. When Apple decided to use glass on the back panel for the 4th generation of their flagship mobile device, it instantly made for a gorgeous device that had killer looks and a premium feel.
While polycarbonate does help to keep the device light and prone to dents and scratches from accidents, it does no good to please the eyes. Aesthetically, polycarbonate makes the phone look like a toy. So, no matter what hardware the phone supports, if it’s anything short of gorgeous, it will make a negative impact on your sales.
With the S4, the company has hinted at retaining the plastic body and whether you like it or not, even the home button is going to stay. However, there has not been any solid evidence supporting the rumor.
Samsung revealed a photo of a device that is emerging from the shadows on its twitter account, suggesting that it was going to be the design of the S4. However, that seems unlikely as it does not have an earpiece, front facing camera or any of the standard sensors seen in the Smartphones these days.
The alleged picture of the S4 on Samsung's official Twitter Account
UPDATE –The design and build quality remains pretty similar to the predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3. Due to a larger screen, it is longer and slimmer than the S3 (copying Apple, Samsung?).
Apart from all the above mentioned hardware, it is also rumored that the S4 will have an eye tracking sensor. Yes, you heard it right. It still remains to be seen how the company plans to implement this in the device.
Samsung has been developing its own fancy camera function that will be supposedly included in the stock camera app of the S4. The function, called the Samsung Orb, is capable of taking 360 degree panoramic shots and comes with Facebook integration, allowing an easy share option on the social networking website.
UPDATE – Whatever we wished for, Samsung has done it. To be honest, if they hadn't they wouldn't have had anything in particular to boast about. Samsung has always been famous for making a notable difference from the previous models.
The S4 features an Exynos 5, 1.6 GHz OCTA core processor for certain regions (NOT for USA) and a 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 processor for USA. However, The OCTA core version will use only 4 cores at a time.
To add to the list of sensors, the device now features an IR Sensor that makes the S4 an universal remote.
As predicted, the S4 does have a 2,600 mAh battery.
THE SOFTWARE
It was earlier speculated that the S4 will bring with it, Android’s latest OS version, the Lime Pie Key, or simply, Android 5.0. However, with just one day away from the big launch, that seems highly unlikely.
Since Android 5.0 would not be possible as of now, the next obvious choice is Android 4.2, or Jelly Bean, slapped with Samsung’s Touch Wiz skin. The skin’s functionality still remains debatable (a personal opinion).
UPDATE – The big brother of the Galaxy S series, the Note features the S pen which can be used to get brief details about the things (Emails, pictures, etc) when you hover the stylus over that particular item. Instead, in the Galaxy S4, your finger becomes the stylus.
Eye tracking feature of the S4 is what everybody has been discussing vastly. How the eye tracking feature works is - when you’re watching a video and suddenly move your eyes away from the screen, the video will get paused automatically and play it again once you’re looking at the screen.
Air View – The Galaxy S4 features a Samsung proprietary called, the Air View, in which the user can perform certain hand gestures, without touching the screen and perform operations of the phone. For example, to answer an income call, you can wave at the phone. Scroll the web or change a track by using hand motions. Personally, I wouldn’t be doing all of this if I was in public. Would you?
The camera features a host of operations which include dual shoot mode, 100 photos per 4 seconds, and audio images amongst the other standard camera features.
THE LAUNCH
No rumors to this section of the post. Samsung has confirmed that the 4th generation of Samsung Galaxy S will see the light of day on March 14, 2013.
THE COST
USA - $579 (16GB)
UK - £529 (16GB Sim-free)
India - ₹41500 (EMI option available. Available on flipkart.com)
MODDING
UPDATE – For all the people who don’t like Samsung’s Touch Wiz and prefer ‘rooting’ it their phone, CyanogenMod has released an official press statement on their website stating that Team Hacksung, which has provided custom ROMs to the previous iterations of the Samsung Galaxy S series, has revealed that it won’t be supporting the Galaxy S4.
The justification states that nobody in their team plans to buy Samsung’s latest offering and the bugs present in the S3 would be there in the S4 as well. That is a big disappoint and may eventually end up denting the sales of the S4.
Will you buy the S4? Let me know in the comments!
The promotional poster image is a property of its respective owner(s). Image has been used only for illustrative purposes and I do not claim ownership of the content of the image.
Being an Indian, whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant, I order for a pair of chopsticks as well. Whenever I say the word, “chopsticks”, everybody around me (well mostly my friends) looks at me with amazement. This becomes worse when I start using the sticks to eat. In my defense, who likes someone staring at them when they are having their meals?
To be honest, I was getting tired of explaining everybody how to eat with chopsticks. Anybody who asks me how to use a pair of chopsticks is going to get a link to the blog (Yes, tactics to increase blog traffic).
I’ll be explaining 2 methods. The 1st one is for the patient ones who actually want to practice and master their skills of eating with chopsticks. The other one will require some craft skills but it will make eating with a pair of sticks much easier.
No skill can be learnt in a day, unless you’re Bruce Lee. Jokes apart, the 1st method involves a lot of understanding of the steps. So, for the ease of understanding, I have tried my best to illustrate the steps with a picture. So without further adieu, let’s get to it.
STEP 1: Balance one of the sticks on the tip of your ring finger and the webbing between your index finger and thumb, as shown in the following picture.
1st stick resting on the ring finger and
the webbing between the thumb and the index finger
STEP 2: Take the 2nd stick and hold it between your middle finger and index finger, just the way you would hold a cigarette.
Holding the 2nd stick like a cigarette
Make sure the bottom part of the 2nd stick should be in close proximity to the bottom part of the 1st stick.
STEP 3: To hold the sticks tightly, apply pressure on both the sticks with the help of your thumb. The base of your thumb should apply pressure on the 1st stick, and the tip of your thumb should apply pressure on the 2nd stick. Check the illustration for further clarification.
Applying pressure on the sticks with the thumb
STEP 4: Now comes the tricky part. Once you've held the chopsticks firmly, you have to move the sticks to grab the food. The following video explains this movement better.
The 1st stick remains stationery/fixed in its position whereas stick 2 does all the movement.
METHOD 2
This method requires a small initial setup before you can begin using the chopsticks. For this, you will need a rubber band and an eraser. Follow these steps and you’ll be using the sticks effortlessly.
STEP 1: Hold the sticks together and put the rubber band to the back end of both the sticks, as shown in the image below.
STEP 2: From the front, open the sticks and stick the eraser till the preferred width of the open front end of the chopsticks.
You are done.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Round chopsticks might not work for method 2. Square type chopsticks like the ones I've used work the best.
2. Use a small eraser. A big and wide eraser might make the front end of the sticks too wide for ideal use.
I apologize for the long delay in posting an article on the blog. I was busy changing to a new time zone and some personal work. I appreciate all the little support that I get from my amazing readers! Thank you so much.
If you have any difficulties understanding the steps in this post, let me know in the comments and I’ll be glad to help you out.
I've been active on Google+ for a couple of months now, and have been pleasantly surprised, to say the least. If you have a Gmail account, Google probably made your profile on Google+ and gave it a basic structure. Don’t worry, no personal information has been revealed.
In the 2 months that I have been active, I've more or less been able to figure out Google+; and when I ask people why they aren't active over there, I get these kind of replies – “What is Google+? Just another lab product by Google?”, or “It’s so complicated. I don’t understand one bit of it.”, or, their favorite, “Nobody uses Google+, all my friends and family members are on Facebook.”
Just to answer some of these questions – No, Google+ is not ‘just another lab product by Google’. It is a full fledged social networking website that was launched on 28th June, 2011 and is 19 months old now. In December 2012, just 18 months after it was launched, the website boasts of 235 Million active users.
FUN FACT – Google+ was launched pretty much like Gmail, i.e. on invite only basis. It was opened for the public on September 20, 2011.
Coming back, if you feel Google+ is complicated; this article will help you out. Before answering the next question, I would like to draw your attention to some stats and its interpretation that I worked out for you.
Although this data is from 2008 onward, we all know Facebook was launched in 2004. This means, it took Facebook 8 years to reach 1 Billion users; whereas Google+ has already reached 400 Million users in its 2nd year of operation. Please note that these stats are only a rough estimate of the number of users, NOT active users.
Clearly, quite a large population of people on the networking websites have either migrated completely or maintaining accounts on both the networking websites. The latter seems to be the general consensus.
HOW DOES GOOGLE+ WORK?
Google+ boasts of a number of features and I’ll be discussing each one of them in details. You might want to take a dump or pee before you start reading all of these because the list is quite long!
Before we get started, I’d just like to tell you how all these features work in contrast to Facebook. I believe it will be easier for all the readers who want to know everything about Google+.
1. Google+ Dashboard
Once you’ve signed in your Google+ account, on the left side of your screen you will see a vertical menu consisting of Home, Profile, Explore, Events, etc. This is your dashboard from where you can navigate to any page within the website. You can go view all your communities, your profile, Hangouts, circles and a lot of other things which I shall discuss now.
2. Sharing
Unlike Facebook, your profile doesn’t have a ‘wall’ where your friends can scribble something. If you wish to share something, open plus.google.com and you’ll be in your home page where you can see all the feed, just like Facebook.
Click on the ‘Share what’s new…’ section and here you can share whatever you want, with whoever you want. If you want it to be a public post, choose public. If you want the post to be visible to a selected bunch of people, just select your friends from the list and you’re good to go. If you want to share something with a community, you can do the same.
As a good practice, Google+ gives you the option of what kind of material you want to share. Just below the text area, you will find 4 buttons, Add Photos, Add Video, Add Event and Add Link. If you click on any of the aforementioned tabs, you will be asked for the source of that particular media item (Photo or Video). The image below will help you understand the whole sharing process better.
Topics Trending on Google+ as of 26.02.2013
3. Exploring
On the left side of all your feed, you will find the Explore tab. Once opened, you can find all the trending topics on Google+, just like you would, on twitter (yes, those #tags). You will also find hot topics in this section. In layman terms, hot topics are the ones which have been able to gather a lot of eyeballs by the number of comments, +1’s (similar to a ‘like’ on Facebook) and shares that the post has received.
FUN FACT – On the main website, if you happen to scroll below to read all the posts in your feed and want to go back to the top in a single click, click anywhere near the main search bar (placed above the circles buttons) and it will automatically scroll to the top.
4. Circles
This is one of the coolest features of Google+. Just like you would create a friends list on Facebook to manage all your friends, circles in Google+ offers a similar functionality. It helps you to manage and organize your friends and at the same time, decide who to share your next posts with.
If you want to see updates from a particular group of friends in your feed, just select the button next to the home tab to solve the purpose.
5. Hangouts
If you want to make a video call to your friends or family members, you can easily sign into your Skype account and make a call. But what if you want to make a conference call with more than 1 person at the same time? You can either buy a premium account to get access to that feature of Skype, or you could use Google+ Hangouts for free! It’s a great feature which has a much better A/V quality as compared to Skype (personal opinion), and the best part, you don’t have to pay a single dime. As an added benefit, you can even record your video sessions for later viewing or for the purpose of webcasts.
FUN FACT – President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama did a Google + Hangout on 30th January, 2013 with a bunch of students from a High School in California.
6. Communities
Just like you would have pages and groups on Facebook, Google+ offers communities where you can join communities of your interest and meet new people.
7. Google Talk
Everybody knows that Google launched their instant messaging service, Google Talk in 2005. Just like the Facebook’s instant messaging service, the messenger has been integrated in Google+ and occupies the right side of the screen. Needless to say, the feature works brilliantly, without any hassles.
8. Google+ app for Smartphones
Being the world’s second most popular social networking website, it is only justified that it has its own dedicated app for the Smartphones.
Once you download the app, you will meet a clean and extremely user friendly interface. Just like the website, the app also has a clean and uncluttered interface. Moving around the app is extremely easy and all the features of the main website are available on it.
FUN FACT – When you scroll down in the app to view your feed, posts that contain images make a cool pan out (zoom out) effect for the images.
9. Games
The initial reason for Facebook’s success was its ability to integrate 3rd party games into its architecture. People would spend hours playing on Facebook which eventually died its slow inevitable death with time. Google has also implemented a games section to its social networking website.
Almost all the games that are available on the Chrome web browser can be played on the website, regardless of the browser you’re using.
10. Miscellaneous
One of the worst privacy settings are offered by Facebook. Their policy keeps changing and I can only hope that they are not using my personal information for the wrong reasons. Google+ has come up with a solution to the problem. I can manage all my settings which are explained in layman terms so that they can be understood by anyone who chooses to use the platform for networking.
Various options available on a particular post on in Google+
Mute Post – If you don’t wish to view any post in your feed or community, you can easily mute the post and it will no longer be visible.
Link Post – If you wish to share a particular post, you can easily obtain a link to that post and share it to your networking websites.
There are tons of other features that users can explore on Google+ that make it much more exciting than Facebook.
I can assure everyone skeptical of switching to Google+ from Facebook because it is complicated; it is much easier to understand the website in a day as compared to Facebook when they decide to change their user interface.
I hope this post helped you to overcome your hesitations and join me on the other side of awesomeness. I’d love to be your friend and show you around if you happen to take the leap.
Spoiler Alert: Parts of the story may be revealed.
PLOT – Pat (Bradley Cooper), a teacher by profession, is sent to a mental institution after he nearly beat a guy to death, who his wife is cheating with.
After an 8 month mandatory stint in the mental institute, he has lost his home, his job and his wife. He now lives with his parents, portrayed by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver, and finds it difficult to cope with this lifestyle. However, he is determined to get his act together and set his life back on track.
In between all these emotions, another story woven into the main script is about Pat’s relationship with his parents. Pat Sr. always yearns for some time with his son to catch a game of baseball as he is extremely superstitious and considers his son’s presence as his lucky charm whenever his favorite team is playing.
Seeking ways to get back with his wife Nikki (Brea Bee), he meets one of her friends – Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence, at a dinner hosted by Ronnie (John Ortiz), Pat’s neighborhood friend back in those days when everything was fine and Pat’s life was not in doldrums. Tiffany, who is recently widowed, and a recovering sex addict, starts falling for Pat. Predictably, he rejects her as he is married. Nikki and Tiffany are still friends, so she agrees to help Pat on a condition of returning the favor.
REVIEW – Just when you thought Bradley Cooper had carved a niche for himself in comic roles owing to his work in the Hangover series, here is another brilliant performance by 2012’s sexiest man alive, as per the people’s magazine; but this time in a serious role. Credit goes to Jennifer Lawrence as well for her brilliant acting and scintillating performance in certain scenes, which seem to bring her character to life. For example, the scene in which she challenges Pat Sr. as to who really is his lucky charm, when he bets on a baseball match against his friend. As for the legends Robert Di Niro and Jacki Weaver, they have given a class act, owing to their immense talent.
Director David O’Russell, from The Fighter (2010) fame, has done a brilliant job with the story and screenplay; and everything seems to fall in place just at the right moment. He has made Bradley Cooper come out of his comfort zone to deliver an ingenious performance as the lead role, accompanied by equally talented Jennifer Lawrence. A romantic comedy between a recovering sex addict and a guy suffering from Bi-polar disorder seems rather bizarre, but the director seems to have pulled it off exceptionally well.
One thing that seemed to be rather vague was how casually the restraining order on Pat, by his separated wife Nikki is taken. Breaking a restraining order by any means is quite a serious offence. However, little attention seems to be given to that aspect to maintain the realism in the film.
The story connects with its audience brilliantly and teaches them that they do not need to run after happiness. It is always around the corner, they just need to venture out a bit. The movie is predictable but at the same time, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, wishing for a happy ending.
Feel free to share your thoughts about this movie by leaving a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
DISCLAIMER: This review is ONLY a personal opinion about the movie. It is NOT a paid (cash or kind) review of the movie, OR endorsed by any person (living or dead) associated to the movie in any way.
The promotional poster image is a property of its respective owner(s). Image has been used only for illustrative purposes and I do not claim ownership of the content of the image.
Tonight (20.08.2013), Sony will be revealing its biggest flagship gaming console that has made all the members of various gaming communities and enthusiasts wait anxiously over their next sensation – PlayStation 4!
Here is all the information and the things you can expect from the next gen gaming console based on the rumors.
CONSOLE
Allegedly titled the ‘Orbis’, this console is packed with features you couldn’t even imagine in a gaming console 5 years ago. For starters, it has an unbelievable 8 core processor based on AMD’s Jaguar technology, 4GB of system memory and a Blu-Ray drive. It’s already giving me goosebumps. If rumors are to be believed, it will support a less expensive architecture as compared to the PlayStation 3. This new architecture is already being used by coders on in the high-end PC hardware. UPDATE – The console itself was not revealed by Sony last night (20.02.2013). However, another addition to the list of compatible devices with PlayStation 4 will be a 3D tracking camera, known as the 'PlayStation 4 eye’ for motion sensing games.
CONTROLLER
The rumored game controller of the PlayStation 4
Based on the leaked images that surfaced on the internet almost a week ago, it seems as if Sony has put in a lot of effort to rework the whole device. It looks like a controller for the futuristic spaceships. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating it a bit, but they seem to have made it from the ground up; well almost. It is rumored to support a multi-touch pad with mechanical click. The start and select buttons have gone and possibly that functionality has been given to the touch pad. Further dissections of the rumored controller suggest that it might have a dedicated ‘share’ button, allowing screen grabs and recording videos of gameplay. The controller also seems to have microphone and headphone compatibility. There have been speculations that the controller supports motion sensing which will come in handy for racing games.
SERVICES
Last year Sony bought a cloud gaming based company, Gaikai, for $380 Million. Based on this fact, it should be safe to assume that cloud services will be added to the PlayStation 4. However, it remains to be seen that how the company integrates this feature into the gaming console.
Cloud gaming provided by Gaikai will remain a key service feature for the PlayStation 4. UPDATE – Sony has revealed that it will build a PlayStation app for iOS and Android that will double up as a 2nd screen. This means, it adds the ability to ‘share’ your gameplay with your friends when the new feature of ‘screen compression’ set to ‘Always On’. With the app, you can also download the game of your choice to the console directly. Ironically, there was no mention of an app version for the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 OS.
PRICE
This section has always been the deal breaker for Sony. They have launched their premium console at ridiculous prices, only to slash them later to maintain their share in the gaming market. Rumors suggest that this time Sony has learnt its lesson and will be launching the device for a reasonable $400-$500 price tag.
I for one am excited to see Sony’s latest offering. Will it be a game changer for Sony and have they finally played all their cards right to give a stiff competition to Microsoft’s Xbox franchise? That remains to be seen.
USABILITY (UPDATE)
Sony Worldwide Studios President, Mr. Shuhei Yoshida, has confirmed that consumers will be able to reuse their games, which means that you can borrow games from your friends, or vice versa, and use them on separate consoles. This brings a huge sigh of relief to gamers worldwide and their pockets as well as they had to buy games separately for separate consoles before this feature was introduced.
PS4 is NOT natively backwards compatible with the PS3
Unfortunately, Sony has confirmed that for now, games will not be backwards compatible. Your stack of games compatible for the PlayStation 3 will not work on the PlayStation 4. However, the company has provided a ray of hope by saying that they are looking at ‘advanced technologies’ that can provide some sort of an emulator on the PlayStation 4 which will make it backwards compatible.
GAMES (UPDATE)
The intial games that have been confirmed for the PS4 platform include, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Deep Down, Watch dogs, Diablo III (for PS3 and PS4)and Destiny. Other than these mainstream games, another game which will make it to Sony’s latest gaming platform is Knack, developed by the company’s in-house gaming studio in Japan. For gamers who love racing games, PlayStation 4 will offer a team-based game called Drive Club. The game will have integration with the apps that are being developed for the Smartphones.
RELEASE DATE (UPDATE)
To be honest, this was bit of a disappointment. The company didn’t give a glimpse of the console and has revealed that it will be launched in the holiday season. Will Microsoft cash in the opportunity by launching its next gen gaming console early? We’ll have to wait and watch.
Let me know what you think of Sony’s PlayStation 4 in the comments below. I would love to read your views. All images are the properties of their respective owners. Images have been used only for illustrative purposes and I do not claim ownership of the content of the images.
