Some key features in Windows 8

Yesterday I attended a seminar on Windows 8 Metro Style – Redefining perspective by Sapient Global market; I was really existed about new features of Windows 8 after the seminar. Though I had installed developer preview version on one of my tablet almost 5-6 months back but did not know many of new features of Windows 8 due to limitation in developer preview version. Here is a list of some key features in Windows 8 which will be loved by many of us -

1.       Tile based touch sensitive User Interface – We had first seen tile based user Interface almost 2 years back when Microsoft came out with Windows Phone 7, now Microsoft is bringing the same experience in Windows 8. Microsoft has replaced “Start” menu with Tiles. Tiles can host live information from Windows metro style application without opening the application, very much similar to Windows Phone 7. Tiles are touch sensitive but works equally great with keyboard and mouse.

2.       Support for x86 and ARM – This is the best feature from Windows 8. This operating system is designed to work seamlessly between x86 (Traditional PCs) and ARM (tablets, ultraportable PCs) processors. The biggest advantage of this will be to developers and they don’t need to develop two versions of the same application. Once they develop the app, it will work on both PCs and Tablets. ARM build will also have feature of “always on” that means tablet can remain in standby mode without disconnecting from internet.

3.       Refresh and Reset – The biggest problem with all previous windows versions was re-installation and installation of the operating system.  Microsoft has addressed this painful concern with features like Refresh and Reset. Refresh will keep all personal data, Metro Style apps and important settings before re-installing windows from image but on the other hand Reset will remove all personal data, apps, setting and re-install windows as if installing it first time. But how these two features are useful to end users, now users can just select “Refresh” to fix all the PC problems instead of installing the OS all over again.

4.       Windows in the pocket (Windows to Go) – Portable software is not a new concept and it exists from many years with Linux but what is surprising is Microsoft has brought portability of OS with Windows 8. Users will be able to carry complete Windows 8 image in the USB flash drive and can work from anywhere. One application I can think of, I can carry my corporate windows 8 image in the USB drive at home and can continue working from home in my personal PC. Is it not great?

5.       Full Screen – Windows 8 Metro Style apps and OS is full screen, you won’t see any header, minimize, close. Application will run full Screen.

6.       Charms – Charm Bar is available on the right side of the screen. You need to just swipe your finger towards right to bring up the Charm bar. Charm bar host “Search”, “Share”, “Settings” and more. You can share your current application data with other applications directly using “Share”, Search the system or the data within your application.

How to migrate Windows Phone Contacts to Android Phone

When I changed my phone from Windows (Dell Venue Pro) to Android (Galaxy S 3), the first challenging task was, how to transfer all the contacts from Windows Phone to Android? Here is the trick

• 1.       Since your windows phone synchronizes your contacts with your Hotmail/live account, all these contacts are available on cloud. Open your Hotmail/live account and go to Contacts.
• 2.       Select Manage and “Export”.
• 3.       It will export all your contacts to .csv file.
• 4.       Now go and open your Gmail account.
• 5.       Select Contacts, More and “Import”.
• 6.       Import the .csv file as windows comma separated file.
• 7.       Once Import is finished, Go back to your new Android phone and synchronizes Google Contacts.

All your contacts will be on your new phone now. Enjoy.

Samsung Galaxy S 3 Apps Review 

It has been over a week, I got my Galaxy S 3 and happy with S 3 performance. There are plenty of web resources which can provide you Galaxy S 3 reviews, but here I am not reviewing the hardware, I’m providing my experience on the software. There are many applications come bundled with S 3

S Memo – One of the most beautifully designed application. Writing from finger is pretty smooth.

S Calendar – I liked the interface of Calendar on S 3, Transitioning from HTC Legend, it was a big relief to me to keep checking my schedule in Calendar. I could easily see my schedule by day/week/month or by upcoming appointments and events. Adding a new event is very easy and Quick add button make is much simpler.

Email – Email application is also carefully designed and it try to replicate the experience of outlook by providing category, sorting by day, flag and multi select for batch operations.

Audio/Video Player – Perhaps S 3 is the first phone with natively support playing FLAC, MP4, and acc files which is great.  Sound quality is decent and video play back is smooth. It’s super AMOLED screen makes video watching experience superb on such a small screen. I was never a fan of watching videos on such a small screen but it seems S 3 is going to change my mind.

Contacts – Contact application is decent and most of the features for contacts and phone are available with one or two taps. I likes the join feature of Contact, if you have same contact in Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and Google, it provide you an option to join them and only one contact will be visible in Contact list after join. First I had seen this feature with Windows Phone, and I feel this is great feature as in today’s world our same contacts are scattered on multiple sites.

Gallery/Camera – S 3 camera is pretty fast, like my earlier camera phones, it does not take time to focus and I was able to take photos very quickly. Photo and Video quality is excellent for a camera phone. UI for Camera app is also user intuitive and all features are just a tap away. And there are tons of Camera features to choose from burst mode, panorama, HDR, smile detection etc and you can shoot a video concurrently while taking a snap, which is great.

Phone – Phone application is great and easy to use but it seems there is problem with the mice. Most of my friends complain I am not too clear or they can’t hear me clearly sometimes. There are two mice on this phone but one (on top) works only when phone app is in Speaker Mode. And not to forget the Direct Call feature of S 3 (My favorite), this is a unique feature of S 3. This works like – If you are viewing a contact but all of a sudden you decide to call this person, just bring the phone to near your ear and it will automatically dial in the contact, is it not great?

S Voice – The concept of this application is great but I could not make it work even once, it always mis-interpreted my voice commands that’s because perhaps I don’t have British or American ascent J So this application is of no use to me but would love to use such application. Another, it is little slow to respond to voice commands.

Performance of all these applications is superb due to its 1.4Ghz processor with 1GB of RAM. 

There are plenty many more applications bundled with the phone but all other are regular Apps and comes with ICS.

Conclusion - All the phones available in the market today, Galaxy S 3 clearly stand out from the Android crowed mobile market. The closest competitive phone is HTC One X and iPhone 4S but both of these phones have it's own limitations.

Chaotic Roads - Traffic in India

I am sure there are numerous posts on this subject by Indians but are we doing anything about traffic problem?

First time I had visited Delhi and NCR region in Mar 2004 and did not realize traffic problem but when I returned back to this city in Year 2010 after my US stay, I could see how Delhi and surrounding region has become traffic chaos. Perhaps Delhi and NCR region has the best infrastructure in India but the problem is still the worst. Traffic problem in NCR cannot be contributed alone to infrastructure but it is due to bad or no traffic law enforcement (Specially Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon region), bad traffic management and encroachment of public space. Here are my views on traffic situation in India.

Traffic jams and road accidents are very common News in India and any one hardly bother about minor accidents. You roam around in India and it will be hard to find even one car without a single scratch if it is a month old. Let’s understand what type of problems are seen in India due to high traffic

• Pollution, this is a huge problem, we should start thinking what we are leaving behind for next generation. All developed nations are working towards reducing pollution, are Indians doing sufficient contribution? 
• Loss of precious time – We lose our precious time in traffic, and every Indian is facing this problem. When we start driving from home to our destination, we add few extra hours considering we’ll find traffic jams. 100 Kms of distance is covered in 3 to 4 Hours.
• Loss of invaluable fuel – Many countries economy is dependent on fuel; Indian Government spends most of its money in importing fuels. Fuel is limited and we are losing it in daily traffic jams.
• Loss of money, when you lose time and fuel, you are losing your hard earned money
• Road rages – Due to high frustration of Indian road traffic system, road rages are common now a day. Especially in NCR region, you will find this News every other day.
• Loss of life – High unmanaged traffic leads to accidents and daily thousands of people die in road accidents. Sit back and think for a second, is there anything precious than your own life to be wasted in road accidents?
• Emergency Condition to reach Hospitals, Airport, Railway station etc.
• Loss of property – Road accident leads to loss of somebody’s property.

So what are the reasons we have huge traffic jams, highest road accidents in India. I’m listing down some of the reasons but this list can go on and on

• No or little law enforcement.
• Poor infrastructure
• Wrong side driving
• No lane driving.
• Aged Vehicles and Overloading of vehicles (Goods & Passenger)
• In some areas public transport is very poor
• No or non-functional traffic signals.
• Roadside encroachment. (I was surprised to see Monday market, Tuesday market etc. in Delhi roads. Each day you will find one or two roads are completely blocked by these markets in your neighborhood. To me it makes no sense to put a market and block the road completely)
• Drunk Driving
• Road side parking
• No proper driving license system. Many of the drivers don’t even bother to take driving license.
• Poor trafficking system with unequipped traffic officers.
• Road sharing by all speed vehicles (Bicycle, pedestrians, motor bike, cars, rickshaw) – all share the same road, which leads to chaos and attracts accidents.

What can be done to improve this situation?

-       

• Introduce driving rules as compulsory subject in schooling.
• Re-Issue all driving license in the country only after individual pass written driving rules exam. ( I know it is very big task but we need to start somewhere)
• Divide all traffic laws into 3 categories Fatal, Major and Minor and impose heavy fines in each of this category. E.g. A rule is “not to drive on wrong side” and if anyone breaks this rule impose heavy fine say 10000/- and provide a percentage of fine to duty officer. It will ensure both the parties are careful and alerted.
• India has huge pedestrian and cycle population so clear footpaths should be must.
• Ensure functional signaling system.
• Lanes should be divided into speed category. 10-30Km/Hr, 30-50 Km/Hr and 50-80Km/Hour and lane driving should be followed very strictly.
• No bus/auto stoppage on crossing roads. This creates a huge traffic jam problem when the bus is stopped and other side traffic is green.
• Roadside stoppage should be avoided.
• If vehicle is not in good condition and it breaks down in the middle of road, it should attract a huge fine along with towing charges.
• No repair work should start in the middle of road, rather it should be towed to the side and then look into the problem in vehicle.
• Overloading of vehicle should be punishable act and should attract huge fine. It put people in danger.
• Equipped traffic officers with latest technology to track and monitor traffic and vehicles.
• Introduce Multilevel parking system. (Not the one recently MCD opened in few New Delhi areas), these multilevel parking should be in good numbers and approachable from public transport system.
• Have a separate area for hawkers.
• It must be compulsory to allocate parking space (in good percentage) within the premises while building a new commercial property. Similarly it must be compulsory in housing societies. There are many housing society in Delhi and NCR which do not have car parking space and owners park their cars on streets. (This rule can be looked into area wise)

This list can grow exponentially; contact me if you have authority to improve traffic in India and interest to know how to improve traffic system in India. I’ve tons of ideas with minimum infrastructure cost.

Some traffic statistics

• India has the highest road accidents – In road accidents (2009), 14 people die every hour in India. Do simple calculation and you will note there are around 123K deaths per year. These many life could be saved. (http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,5519345,00.html)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
• According to International Road federation (IRF), every year India lose $20Bn dollars in Road accidents (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-19/india/31076588_1_road-accidents-national-road-safety-traffic-management-board-bill) – This is not small amount. It can build massive infrastructure in India.

We need to wake up and need a countrywide awareness program to implement improvement in Indian traffic system before it is too late. It will take years to change the driving culture and train Indian to drive in a civilized manner.