Masti Point

With New Year around the corner and December approaching its end, let’s take a sweeping glance at the performance of the gadget industry this year. Admittedly, Tec gadget are becoming more approachable for people, owing to the somehow affordable prices and good marketing techniques. Let’s review some of the best cameras, smartphone, camcorders, tablets, gaming devices and other gadgets of the year 2011.

When it comes to cell phones people usually prefer certain brands but those who like to experiment go for a different one each time. Such adventurous people should definitely try the HTC Thunderbolt because it’s different and Verizon’s first attempt at a 4G phone with the download speed of 8 to 12 mbps on Verizon’s LTE network. Speaking of 3D, 2011 was undoubtedly the year of 3Ds! Their drawbacks aside, people still showed great deal of interest in 3D movies, and this is perhaps the reason why technologists experimented a lot in this area. Nintendo launched a handheld 3D games machine in 2011 in which you don’t need 3D glasses while playing!

Sony’s best invention of 2011 was Handy cam HDR-TD 10 because it is the first of its to sport two imaging sensors and two processors to match, and so the result is 1920-by-1080 resolution video in each channel for 1080p 3D video playback. Moreover, it has a preview screen that uses a parallax barrier to simulate depth with a really nice touch.

Is it possible to talk about gadgets and not talk about Apple? Let’s discussApple iPad2 – a device that reached the market before most of the competitors could even launch their first generation tablet! Apple products will always have haters but for 10-inch tablet seekers; the thinner, lighter and faster iPad2 leaves only very few reasons for any bad mouthing.

One of the unique inventions of 2011 was a Live scribe Echo smart pen 2GB. A lot of reviewers rave about the Live Scribe smart pens that use special papers to create digital backups of handwritten notes while recording audio. Synced to every stroke, these happen to be a bit pricey starting from $150 and up, and that without the paper. A new 2 GB model the Echo sells for $99 pushing Live scribe into impulse buy territory and a new service called Live scribe connect that allows the pen to send files to Facebook, Evernote, Google docs and other online sources.

Thanks to the blessings of Internet, distances of thousands of miles have simply vanished. Time and space do not seem to matter anymore.  I carry my office around in my BlackBerry, communicating all the time with colleagues, contributors and friends, sometimes even writing and editing articles using its tiny keyboard. It’s truly mindboggling how technology has changed our lives.    The World Wide Web has transformed the very human existence.  I can’t imagine how we lived and worked before the dawn of the Net, and am just not talking about my tribe.

I am no geek and my tech skills are at best rudimentary.  But given the Net’s transformative nature and new vistas of possibilities and opportunities it forever seems to unravel, I believe this is perhaps the most significant and groundbreaking invention since Man hit on the big idea of wheel. Or probably that distinction should go to computer, which gave birth to the Web, a network connecting computers across the globe. However you choose to interpret it, this has brought about a revolution that is unprecedented in human evolution.

Last year, the BBC celebrated the power of the Web with a season of riveting programmes across online, radio and television in all its language services, probing how the Internet today affects our lives and has become the catalyst for change around the world.  And in calling it SuperPower: The Extraordinary Power of the Internet, it couldn’t have come up with a more apt title for the series. Today, there are hundreds of millions of Internet users in the world and they are growing by the minute and hour.   And this is just the beginning.  For only a fifth of the world’s population is connected to the Net.

When the less advantaged come on board, it’s impossible to imagine what the future would look like.  What I really love about the Net is its democratising power. The wave of change sweeping the Middle East right now couldn’t have perhaps been so swift and overpowering without the Net and role social media have played.  The Net is a great leveller and is fast challenging the powers that be and bridging the divide between the haves and have-nots.

I have seen this happen back home in India. Tens of millions of homes and thousands of remote villages across the country that had for long years lived in total isolation and deprivation are getting on to the information superhighway. From the far-flung villages and towns to large urban centres, the IT revolution is not just making a difference in day-to-day living but empowering ordinary people in a way never imagined possible. They are more aware of their rights and privileges as citizens of the largest democracy on earth and how to assert them.  This knowledge is not just liberating them socially and politically but it is reflecting itself in education, health and development of their children and grandchildren.

If India is today viewed as one of the two next superpowers, some credit goes to the Internet revolution that it embraced early on. It’s the same story next door in China.  The comrades have masterfully used the power of technology and the Net to transform the economy. Real credit of course goes to years of hard work and enterprising spirit of the billion plus people.  Today, China has turned the tables on Uncle Sam sitting as it does on mountains of dollars in US government bonds.   
These lessons are being emulated around the world.

What are we doing in the Middle East? Despite being a young nation, the UAE has been the first country in the region to enthusiastically embrace the Web miracle. In fact, the country is perhaps the best example how technology can be harnessed to make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.

Today, thanks to its e-governance system, you do not have to step out of your home to use or access any government or public services.  From banking and trading online to paying your traffic fines, everything is just a click away, literally.  Others are yet to realise the power and potential of Internet to change lives of their multitudes. Despite its rich human and natural resources, including the big Oil, the Middle East remains one of the most backward regions in terms of education, employment, health and political and economic empowerment. The Muslim countries – and disadvantaged people everywhere –have a powerful weapon and ally in Information Technology to fight the challenges facing their people.  By embracing the superpower of Internet and the watershed change it represents, the oppressed and the voiceless have an opportunity of taking charge of their destiny.

I know this is easier said than done in a region where even traditional media are still evolving and have to constantly look over their shoulders.  Governments view the Net and the freedom it offers with great suspicion. But we have to stop looking at the Net as an enemy because it’s not.  It can be a friend and ally of the powerless.  One example is the shifting global opinion on the Middle East. Thousands of bloggers or citizen journalists are not only challenging the power and narrative of mainstream media—many of them owned and controlled by pro-Israel lobbies—but are offering their own alternate reality and even setting the news agenda.

If the tide of world public opinion is turning and is forcing Western governments to reconsider their blind support to Israel, credit goes to this electronic Intifada. In the age of Internet, bloggers and Twitter and 24/7 satellite television, it’s no longer possible for rogue states to get away with murder. And Israel’s powerful friends with their deep pockets and clout are beginning to discover this. It makes sense to have this powerful force and voice on our side, not against us. Biggest losers are those who aren’t part of this revolution.

“The value you expect is always higher than the price paid and is also subjective, which is why the idea that using dollars to measure the “value” of search has in my opinion, ignored the elephant in the room.” – DGM atBrainchild

The Internet is one of the most impactful innovations in the recent past. The technology not only fulfils the desire for networking and information sharing but has also empowers people, while also strengthening democratic processes and systems. I feel the integration of the Internet with other communication technologies (such as mobile phones) has brought even more and different kinds, of value. We have already seen how the Internet has impacted people’s political movements in Yemen and other countries. I think the time has come for us deploy this technology in the service of larger problems like poverty and hunger. A lot has yet to be done to deploy this technology for the good of mankind.

At the same time, I think we should also take account of the hidden costs or company losses that search have created. With increased productivity there also comes the opportunity for increased personal searching, and the workplace time lost on social networks has clearly created some tough rules at organizations that are now banning such sites. Even further, I would say that too much choice is sometimes a bad thing. The early days of the Internet had a limited number of high-quality content sources. Although we have indeed moved to some sites with even higher-quality content, this has been countered to some extent by a deluge of low-quality, distracting sites that hamper effective, rapid search results. Sometimes I find it faster to search with images than words, as I can more quickly find interesting approaches to problems this way.

The quality of material returned by Internet search remains an issue. Not only does relevance rapidly fall off beyond page two or three, but the first-page results also raise quality issues for non-IT professional knowledge work, in terms of the information’s reliability: they should be concerned with the potential overreliance on external, unverified information. As the drive for greater efficiency and lower costs arguably reduces the ratio of experienced to inexperienced staff, and a new generation accustomed to “Googling” knowledge dominates the workplace, this problem will become acute. In many more traditional industries, I think there is also an imbalance between consumers of knowledge and producers of knowledge. Outside IT, many sectors are experiencing a shortfall in technical knowledge; yes, organizations can benefit hugely from search, but in more traditional industries I feel the content is lagging behind, in a potentially misleading way, and at the moment should be treated with caution.

The new third dimension has changed the image and popularity of modern blockbuster movies like Avatar and Harry potter and has greatly helped in boosting the box office income in an era of great financial uncertainty. But many people think they don’t get their money paid back while others complain of headache and dizziness after watching 3D movies. There are people who wonder why are they suppose to pay an almost double sum for the 3D movies when there is nothing that novel and exciting worth paying so much.

According to a study of 400 filmgoers by L Mark Carrier, of California State University, 3D movies do not allow viewers to experience intense emotional experiences, are no more immersive, and do not offer any advantage over their 2D counterparts in terms of enhancing the ability to recall a film’s details. Carrier’s study did, however, suggests that watching films in stereoscope increases threefold the risk of eyestrain, headache or trouble with vision “All other things being equal, I would say you’re increasing your chances of having some discomfort,” said Carrier
Transformers: Dark of the moon have failed to offer a 3D box-office boost in the US, and film-makers are beginning to turn against studios that authorize cheap post-production conversions in the hope of achieving a short-term financial return and the upcoming Steven Spielberg’s movie The adventure of TINTIN will decide the future of 3D movies in the world.

The poor response of audience in 3D movies is an alert for the filmmakers to adopt a new technology rather than using the same old and somehow antiquated 3D technology. In Pakistan, in the beginning of the 3D hype, people were very much interested in watching the third dimension movies especially the children because of their unmatched interest in cartoons and movies that even parents find hard to resist.
In my opinion 3D movies are just a headache, waste of money and time but what is your opinion about these third dimension movies will you watch them in the future as well or perhaps you’re waiting for another miracle in the world of technology?