Klipsch Reference ONE On-Ear Headphones

Recently I purchased an on-ear headset, and it turned out to be so good, I had to blog about it. 

I am 'not' an audiophile, so if you are like me, this review may be helpful.

Most of my listening has been limited to:1) Bose in ear headsets, that I have been in love with for the last few years, and2) My 2011 Mazda 3 stock 6-speaker system (not premium, but I love it as much as my Bose in-earphones).

This is my first ever on/over the ear headset.

The listening experience on these headphones, is way different compared to my Bose or my car system.

First try, the fit is perfect and there is a more than noticeable reduction in noise (I wasn't expecting that). The head-band sits very comfortably.

Initially, I felt most of the tracks I usually listen to (EDM, Dubstep, Electronic) seemed to have too much bass than what I am used to.

After a few mins of listening, I got the hang of it, and realized, it probably has the right amount of bass (to my liking), and I can listen to the music at much lower volume, without sacrificing the bass.

As of day one, these headphones have performed way beyond my expectations. Will update this review if I there's anything to be added later. Using it as a headset for my phone calls, ends up making me talk a lot louder than usual, thanks to the noise cancellation I am not yet used to. 

Mediocrity by the Mainstream Media in India

This photo comparing the tweets of the (pro) Congress "Mainstream Media" responses to speeches by Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, is going viral on facebook, and I wasn't sure if the screenshots of the tweets in those pics were authentic or not.

So I went ahead, searched all of twitter (thanks to google and twitter search) for these tweets, and wasn't surprised at the 'media'crity displayed by the senior journos of NDTV and CNN-IBN

Below are the embedded tweets, bashing Narendra Modi and Lauding Rahul Gandhi by Sagarika Ghose, Barkha Dutt and Pallavi Ghose:        (feel free to retweet and cite these tweets)

Confrimed: Nokia Exits Phone Manufacturing Business, Now Makes Videos Of Concepts

Gone are those days where you could expect phones like Nokia 3310 with which you could play foot ball, and still expect it to work.

Nokia has been pummeled by the iPhones and the Androids in the smart phone market quite some time back. And after losing the remaining market share in the developing countries to Micromax/Karbonn (in India) and to other low end cell phone makers, Nokia fired its engineers and has got down to the business of making some really awesome videos of concepts (and forget about manufacturing good phones).

Here are two of the latest Nokia concepts:

360 TeliportME - Worlds best Panorama app for Android!

If you an Android user, wanted to make/share some awesome panoramic images like this view of a mountain range, or like this awesome pano of the Grand Canyon, you can do it (for FREE), with the awesome Android app 360 TeliportME that runs on most devices running Android 2.2 or later!

This Fall, the iPod Touch will die

This is the boldest prediction I am making.

This fall, when the next generation iPhone (5 or 4S whatever) is announced, the iPod touch will die.

Why?

I am basing my prediction purely based on the "cheaper version of the iPhone" rumors and a change in the back to school offer for Apple products.

The usual back to school offer would include a free $199 worth of iPod touch with any mac purchase. With rumors of a cheaper iPhone to be announced this fall, it'd probably make sense to give away that $199 iPhone instead of iPod touch. This would ensure that the students get sucked into the walled garden (I love the garden even though its walled =) of Apple early on, cutting the growth of any iPhone competitor!

As with most of my iPredictions (which didn't come true), this is purely based on the iRumors I have heard!

Update (September 21, 2011)
Fast Company is thinking on the lines of this post! http://www.fastcompany.com/1781750/apple-should-kill-the-ipod

Are We Wired For Mobile Learning? [Infographic]

Via: Voxy Blog

iPhone user Vs Android user

Source: JoyOfTech

Features I want in iOS5 (hopefully these are announced @ this WWDC)

From an end user's perspective, these are the features I want:

1) Fixed notifications. This probably has been pending for a long long time

2) An easy way to shut all the background apps instead of the same old press+hold+delete routine

3) App organisation: I am not sure about other iOS users. But I have noticed that any app I place in a folder, I start using it lesser and I believe this is true for many other iOS users too.

Ideally, Apple should let the springboard of apps scroll up/down for each section (like games, news, utilities etc) and scroll sideways for switch between the sections/groups/folders.

4) Its been quite monotonous seeing the same springboard. Guess they should make the icons hexagonal instead of squares? (Alright, I just had to add that frivolous one just for the heck of it ;) )

Lets see what "magic" Steve Baba will talk about (in about 11 hrs from the time of posting this wishlist)

Thanks to the search engines from Ukraine and Russia

Thats the screenshot from my blog hits over time.

In April, I had the most hits on the blog, without any effort from me (in spamming other tech blogs with comments leading to my blogposts). I must say, thats mainly because of Yandex, the upcoming search engine (that stands for Yet ANother inDEX).

In May, the blog posts got a lot of hits from Ukraine, so I am guessing there are some Ukrainians who are coming up with another search engine of their own!

Eitherway, for the sake of bragging, I must say, May has been the month with the most hits on my blog :P

Is there anyone out there caring for the environment?

This is actually my comment for this TechCrunch post (I hate posting big comments :)

Not surprised to see why no one wants to talk about population reduction as a greener option! Everyone wants to use the least damaging source of electricity (nothing is green. Every energy generation unit leads to some carbon emissions).

Ideal green solution: Reduce world population. This directly affects every source of consumption, which leads to reduced carbon emissions at multiple sources.

If an extra baggage policy works wonders for the airline industry, a similar policy should work wonders in eradicating poverty, reducing emissions etc. It should at least be implemented in the top 3 populous countries (China, India and USA). Have first baby free. for the second baby pay $1000. third baby $5000.

Why this solution will never be implemented:

Awesome Extragram

Heard of Instagram? If you have an iPhone, there's a good chance that you have heard about it and also used it to post your awesome photos made even awesomer by the filters on the Instagram app on Instagram.

The only catch (until now) was that, Instagram has been, since day one, iPhone only. There was no web interface or apps on other platforms for you to enjoy your instagrams, or the instagrams shared by your contacts, or just view the popular photos.

Template for creating an Apple centric TechBlog

Ever wanted to come up with a tech blog of your own? When you read posts on TechCrunch, did you ever think that its extremely easy to churn out similar content? If yes, the following 14 points in the template will help you create your own TechCrunch type of a blog :) 


(If you are like me and the answer is no, enjoy the humor =)


Start from the day when an iDevice is released/launched:

How To Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible

Gmail gave this option long back,and then made it the default option for all gmail users after the Google Vs China incident.

Facebook is giving its users options to make their Facebook browsing more secure, but its not the default setting.

Here are the steps:

An Interesting Infographic about Cell Phone usage and market

Here's some interesting stats about the cell phone usage statistics.

Some Eye Popping Numbers:

200 Trillion SMSs are received every single day in US alone!

42% of teens can text blindfolded!

5 Billion app downloads a year!

2011: Year of Android/WinMo7/BlackberryOS6? How about making it an year of iOS?

The new set of rumors doing rounds in the tech journals/blogs yesterday got me to write this post (which I wanted to write before Jan1, so that I could title it as my predictions for 2011 :)

A lot has been written and spoken about The Rise of The Android OS, and to some extent about the Windows Mobile 7. The growth of all non-iOS platforms/devices had the luxury of being shielded by iPhone-AT&T exclusivity, which was good enough for people to forgo the iPhone for a better network (most often claimed to be Verizon).

Now, with the impending launch of the iPhone on the "best" American wireless carrier, I predict the tsunami of iOS devices, since there are millions of wireless consumers who have been satisfying their urge to have a smartphone by going in for the only options available on Verizon, which happened to be Androids!

Android is open (only to OEMs)

Could it be any worse for Android devices not manufactured (designed or OEMd) by Google?

Sony Ericcson says here "We believe the features included in the Android 2.1 phone are on par with, and in many cases better than, a vanilla installation of 2.2 #X10"

Which means, an Xperia owner is in Sony Ericcson's walled garden now!

Where are my creative blabbering juices!?!?!?

Its been a long time since I blogged, and each time I think of blogging about something, I'll have no access to the browser and when I have the access, I dont blog!

About Me

This post is nothing about me. its about about.me

If that sounds weird, then the effort I put in to come up with this post didn't go waste ;)

Well, I have been trying this new service called http://about.me which is so awesome, I had to blog it!

Its simple: you have a bunch of online identities/presence, and about.me helps you bring all this in one place, with an awesome splash page style profile, that lets user access/view all your online content from one point.

The Nostalgic Weekend (July 10, 11 - 2010)

Last 48 Hrs: Awesome drive on the NH-4 from Bangalore (a part of the Golden Quadrilateral), then on to the slightly potholed NH-13 from Chitradurga towards Sholapur, followed by an hour's drive on a well potholed road. Reached the village - Kottur, where I spent 5 awesome years of my childhood. Visiting the place almost after 8 years.

Visited the Guru Kottureshwara Temple (quite famous among the devout), sought blessings. Bought quite a lot of souvenirs.

Met (primary/secondary) school friends, ate the super awesome mirchi bhajji (7 green chillies, wondering if I was getting a little masochistic), had dinner at two of my school friends' places, and again at home. Slept overnight at the grandparents' 60+ year old house.

Started the morning with some before-after pics with brother (same locations, trying our best to give the same poses as given in the 20+ yr old photos).

Should I mention the nostalgia of playing on the swingboard (a swing, with a big flat board, capable of seating two people, sitting next to each other) which is also 50+ yrs old? Did the customary touching the ceiling with my toes while swinging =). [I must admit I was a little scared knowing the age of that metal chain and the hooks that made up the swing]

Had breakfast at uncle's house, with fresh off the tava chapathis, eating a little more than stomach full, only to realize that mistake when visiting another family friend immediately after the breakfast. Had the second meal of the day at FF's place, half hour after the stomach full breakfast I had.

then visited a cousin, had Nth cup of tea and left for a neighbouring village - Ujjini, the temple of our house-god (MaruluSiddeshvara) is located. Today (Sunday, 11th July) being amavasya (new moon), the temple was choc a bloc with devotees, and yet, my grandparents braved the crowd, stood in the line, and all of us went in, with the temperature + humidity inside of the temple reaching quite close to that of the sauna, sought the blessings. After Ujjini, we were on our way back to B'Luru.

Once in B'luru, dropped grandparents' back home, went to  brother's in-laws place and had an awesome Andrha style dinner, cooked to perfection, with me hogging without thinking once about my poor stomach that took in everything I shoved in my mouth.

Came back home 30 mins past midnight, had to stay up to watch the world cup finals, to see Spain win the world cup.

And finishing up this blog about this nostalgic weekend at 2:45 am! Had to blog it!

IMF loan to Greece: unwarranted favour

Few Indians are interested in Greece’s fiscal crisis, or the proposed IMF loan of 15-25 billion as part of a European rescue package. But Indians should worry. IMF resources raised for low and middle income countries are being diverted to bestow a special favour on a rich European country. 

    Greece’s problem is European, and should be tackled by its rich European brethren. It should not dip into limited IMF funds raised for poorer countries. 

    The global financial system was paralyzed in September 2008. All trade credit to India vanished. So did foreign loans to Indian corporates. Foreign institutional investors, who earlier poured billions into India, pulled out $9 billion in 2008. The situation was worse in other developing countries. The IMF’s lending capacity of $250 billion proved pathetic when trillions in global finance vanished. 

    So, in 2009 the G-20 agreed to triple the lending resources of IMF. Many developing countries contributed, including India, knowing they might need this in the next crisis. None dreamed that the expanded facility would be used to bail out rich members of the eurozone like Greece, Portugal or Spain. 

    Yet it is now clear that in a worstcase scenario, these countries will require the mother of all bail-outs. A JP Morgan economist has calculated that $750 billion might be needed by Greece, Portugal and Spain. Greece alone might require $150 billion, and might go bust even after that. Bond markets fear that Greek bondholders may lose 30% of their money. 

    Next in the firing line is Portugal. Its fiscal deficit is much smaller than Greece’s but it has a very large private sector debt. Also in the firing line is Spain, a big country of 47 million people. More distant but nevertheless in the line of fire is Italy, one of the biggest economies in the world. 

    This is a European problem, not an IMF problem. Why not? Because the IMF was created to deal only with balance of payments problems. The eurozone countries have fiscal problems (high government deficits), but no balance of payments problems. Eurozone countries have given up their individual central banks and currencies, and instead created the European Central Bank, which issues euros in place of old domestic currencies. Banks of eurozone countries get euros without any hurdle from the European Central Bank. So, these countries have no balance of payments problems. 

    But many have fiscal problems. During the 2007-09 recession, all governments greatly expanded fiscal deficits as an anti-recession stimulus. But some European economies did not respond to the stimulus, and they now have huge fiscal deficits but no rapid growth that rebuilds government revenues. Once, government bonds of all eurozone countries were rated triple A. But Greece’s bonds have been downgraded to junk. Portuguese and Spanish bonds are under pressure, and even Italian bonds are exhibiting discomfort. 

    Now, the eurozone cannot afford to let Greece, Portugal or Spain go bust. The political and economic damage would be immense. European banks are the main holders of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish bonds, and a bond default by these countries would wreck the entire European financial system. So, European governments have agreed, reluctantly, to rescue Greece. 

    Why have they dragged the IMF into this European issue? First, rather than be tough on Greece themselves, rich Europeans find it convenient to leave the disciplining to the IMF. Second, they want the IMF to take up part of their financial burden. The IMF will lend at 3.5%, whereas the Europeans will lend to Greece at 5%, and this will provide the Europeans with an interest subsidy. 

    No such privilege would ever be extended to a developing country. Greece is getting a special deal because its fellow-Europeans dominate the IMF. 

    Poorer countries dare not stand up to Europe. But India can. It can raise a serious technical objection. The articles of association of IMF say it can lend only for balance of payment problems. And Greece has a fiscal problem, not a balance of payments one. Some economists say fiscal and balance of payments are related. True, but the distinction was nevertheless made when creating the IMF. 

    Absent the IMF, other eurozone countries will pick up the full rescue tab, out of sheer self-interest. They have more than enough financial muscle, and should not raid the limited coffers of the IMF. 

    If they need the IMF as a tough cop, let them use it as a technical consultant, not a lender. Tough cops have their uses the world over, but do not usually lend to those they are disciplining.


This article appeared on Times Of India - Bangalore edition dated 02-May-10, under the section Swaminomics, by  SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR