Blue Earth – The phone made from recycled water bottles

Have you heard of a phone made from recycled water bottles? That too, with all the features of the latest 3G phone sold in the market? Add a touch screen feature as well to it, if you will..  Well, Blue Earth is one such earth friendly mobile phone..

In an attempt to help consumers be more eco-friendly, Samsung has come up with the Samsung Blue Earth, a pebble-shaped, solar-powered touchscreen phone. The Blue Earth is free from harmful substances such as beryllium and phthalates, and is made out of recycled water bottles. On the back of the Samsung Blue Earth, you’ll find a solar panel designed to harness the sun’s energy and pump it into the phone’s battery. To add to the Samsung Blue Earth’s green credentials, there’s easy access to controls for screen brightness and backlight duration, as well as an energy-efficient Bluetooth mode, so that you can save power. It even features an ‘eco walk’ function that uses a built-in pedometer to show you by how much walking, instead of driving, reduces CO2 emissions. Samsung is also keen to point out that the Samsung Blue Earth’s packaging is made from recycled paper and the charger uses less than 0.03W in standby mode.

(Source: http://samsungblueearth.com/)

A few more pics:

 

Changeling

I watched this movie very recently and I was very impressed with it. The acting, direction and everything about this movie was perfect.

Summary: The film begins in 1928 Los Angeles and tells the true story of a woman who recognizes that the boy returned after her son’s disappearance is an impostor. After confronting the city authorities, she is vilified as an unfit mother and branded delusional. The events were related to the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, a kidnapping and murder case that was uncovered in 1928. Changeling explores themes such as disempowerment of women and corruption in political hierarchies.Changeling‘s limited release at the American box office saw it take $502,000, $33,441 per theater, in its opening two days. (Courtsey Wikipedia)

I was not that a big fan of Angelina Jolie so far, but this movie caught me head over heels. Seriously, she IS talented.. After watching this movie, I have decided to watch all of Clint Eastwood’s movies..

Conclusion line: If you haven’t watched it yet, watch it and watch it now… You wont regret the 141 minutes you spend…

Best(est) Mobile Phone the World has EVER Seen!

First things first… let’s see what this fuss is all about.. Shall We ??? 🙂 Here you go without much more of a suspense…

By the end of this post.. You will understand why the title is so…

Hmm .. So you are here to know why is Haptic2 the best mobile phone anyone could ever have ?? 🙂 Bought today, the Samsung Haptic2 (A Computer/Mobile Phone/Television/Video and Music Player that fits in your palm) is the best mobile phone(?) ever produced by ANY COMPANY (Yes including Apple’s iPhone, which should be history thanks to Haptic2, and supposed to be a revolution because of which it is used as a benchmark)..

You will ask why ??? Here goes the answer…

Green => This feature is better than (or absent in) iPhone

Red => This feature is better in Apple iPhone

Here comes an incomplete overview of the some of the wonderful features in this “small” package called Haptic2:

Cost: 30% Cheaper than Apple iPhone 8GB Model

Screen: 3.2 Inch (240 x 400 resolution) 262K Color TFT LCD Touchscreen Display. (Touchscreen: Use your hand or use a stylus, choice is up to you, Size: Slightly smaller that of IPhone which stands @ 3.5 inches)

Design: Slim and Sleek Design boasting levels of elegance never seen before (See for yourself with more pictures coming in my next post)

3G Enabled: Yes with HSDPA Support with 7.2 Mbps max. download speed (Refer Wiki for more Details 🙂 .. )

Wireless: Bluetooth 2.0, No WiFi (but supports internet via 3G.. I have been using it and its pretty good as well)

Camera: 5 Mega Pixel Auto-focus Camera with Flash and Image Stabilization

Memory: 4GB internal Memory in SCH-W550 and 16GB Flash memory in SCH-W555 model (Expandable by a maximum of 8 GB by a Micro SDHC Card by spending about another $25)

Mobile Telivision: T-DMB with TV recording (For the uninformed – This enables us to watch and record the regular TV channels on the phone)

Radio: FM Radio, DAB with recording (I fail to understand why Apple doesnt include such a trivial feature as FM, in their products)

Music: MP3 playback

Recording: Voice, Video and TV Recording

Video Support: Support for all major kinds of video formats.

Input Specialities: Handwriting Recognition for SMS, MMS and Dictionary

Widget Support for customizable desktop about 50 widget applications supported (Can be seen in the video in my next post)

G Sensor (Gravity Sensor) – Senses the orientation of the phone. This feature is pretty useful, for example you want to browse through a list of pictures, instead of dragging, just ttil the phone in the desired direction and the pics will automatically scroll. Suppose you want to play a game of dice, Just shake the mobile phone, the dice get randomized (See examples in the videos below). The g-response is much better than iPhone (I have used both and tested them for this feature)

Personalized Vibration : Touch feedback makes the mobile phone user experience more sensory, intuitive, useful, and fun. With this feature, users feel exhilarating force feedback in mobile games, similar to that found in console games, unmistakable confirmation in response to touchscreen, keypad, and button presses, as well as unique caller IDs with distinct vibrations that reveal who is calling even when the sound is turned off.

From its “My own haptic” menu, Haptic 2 allows users to create personalized haptic effects through a graphical user interface based on the conventions of Immersion’s VibeTonz Studio authoring tool for developers. Users can touch and drag icons representing wave shape, duration, and intensity to create distinctive vibrational patterns. These creations allow them to personalize their phones with unique haptic experiences, such as assigning them as non-audible ring tones that signal incoming calls. (Quoted from: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Samsung-Haptic-2-Is-the-First-Phone-to-Use-VibeTonz-System-96336.shtml)

On-Demand Speak Out Translation: The mobile can speak for you when you go to other countries. Select the conversation you want to be translated from a huge list of possibilities, then select the target language and press a button.. The phone speaks for you .. It cant decode the reply yet.. Probably a firmware upgrade would fix that as well ..

Others: GSM/CDMA/3G (with USIM) equipped, Video Call, Multi-touch Touch Screen, Dictionary, 125g weight, VOD, MOD, Subway Map search (Really useful, finds out who to go between two points, where to transfer, shortest door to transfer, time taken for journey, cost … ), Mobile Banking, Mobile Printing, 3.5mm Headset Jack (Now on.. You can use your fav headset with this phone and not depend on the ridiculously expensive and flimsy ones that should be bought from the same company)

Now you know why .. I have tried to be as fair as possible in listing the features.. If you think any of the wonderful features of iPhone has not been included, then thats because I did not know it. Write it as a comment and I will include it appropriately…

I will post some pictures and videos with UI in the next post so that you could see Haptic2 in action .. 🙂

Signing off as the happiest man on earth … 🙂

Kiran

Taken

Hope you guys remember Liam Neeson.. Coincidentally.. He is the guy from back here.. I happened to see his latest 93 min short and sweet flick christened “Taken”.

First impression, it is one of the best action movies i have seen lately. Does it have “jet-li” style superhuman performances? Does it have the state of the art 3D graphics? Does it have the sexiest women starring in it? Is the plot really brain tingling like the matrix?

The answer to ALL the questions above is NO and that, i believe makes the movie so special. Its so simple and real life. It can happen to anyone and you cannot find many scenes in the movie that makes you go “oh!! how did he do it?”. All in all, i beleive that simplicity is what makes the movie so great and made it appealing to a general audience

Here is the poster for that movie:

Now an overview of the movie: Bryan, a former secret agent living in the US, is divorced; he is fond of his 17-year-old daughter Kim who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband. Kim wants to take a vacation in Europe with her friend Amanda, and together follow the Europe tour of U2. Kim’s mother allows this, but Kim also needs permission from Bryan. Since Kim fears that Bryan will not consent because of cautiousness, she pretends that they will only go to Paris. (Courtesy Wiki).

Finally bryan agrees and she visits Europe only to find that she is entangled in a slave trade market, away from home and leaving her dad no clue to trace them expect for a phone call while she was being kidnapped.

Bryan, clueless but with confidence leave Europe in search for his daughter and this movie slowly evolves into one of the most realistically beautiful action flick released in recent times.

I strongly suggest you to watch it, if you get a chance to, and that would 93 minutes well spent, entertained. period.

Seagate Freeagent Desktop

Its been long since i began contemplating on buying an external Hard Disk Drive (HDD). The demand for space has always been skyrocketing and I was considering many options before zeroing in on Seagate Freeagent Desktop.  I am really happy with my purchase, and I hope this post would give anyone who wants to own an external HDD, another strong contender to be on the lookout for.

Here is a picture of the Seagate Freeagent Desktop 500GB External Hard Disk Drive:

First things first, I was looking for a 500GB hard-disk with USB2.0 support and would be within my grasp (cost wise). After considering many options within other front runners like Maxtor and Samsung I decided to go for Seagate and now, after using the drive for about a month now, I am glad i did. I dont mean that the others were bad, but I am completely satisfied with the performance of Freeagent. For the record, the 500GB version of Seagate Freeagent Desktop costed me about $120.

Here is a review of the HDD in youtube:

There are a couple of  really impressive features in the HDD:

1. It makes NO SOUND what so ever. And i mean when its functioning 🙂 It runs like a cat with no sound what so ever. Many times I have had experiences with HDDs which creaks and screams while they are used. But with this baby, there is nothing that makes waves in the placidity around you

2. The long orange light strip is one of the visual add-ons made by seagate. It does look futuristic and is a pleasant break from that regular red/green LEDs on many of the External HDD availabe on the market. And the orange light on Freeagent doesnt go on and off as one would expect. It slowly dissolves into nothingness and then comes back to full brightness without much haste as well. A treat to the eyes! Check it out yourself when you get a chance to know what i am speaking of.

3. There is an auto backup feature that backs up specified data in the background automatically.

Seagate Freeagent Desktop has an elder sister Seagate Freeagent Pro. The latter supports Firewire 400 and e-SATA which are much faster than USB 2.0. But there is a significant cost difference of about $40 between the 500GB model sisters.

To conclude.. I must say that this is one great drive that would satisfy all your space requirement. Purring like a cute Kitten!!!

안녕 친구 – Annyong Chingu!!

Bought my dream camera… Yay!!! :)

Hey,

Yesterday, I bought the cam which i was planning planning and planning on buying for a long time now… Its a Digital Single Lens Reflex or D-SLR – Nikon D40x. Its a 10.1 Megapixel Camera powered by a CCD Sensor. Have been clicking some pics with that lately.. You can view them in three different albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/kirantnath/

Here is a pic of my cam from various angles…. Click on it for a larger view…

Thanksgiving starts tomorrow.. So all of seoul is gonna be idle.. With some of the co-Russian students here, planning to go to Building 63 which is a famous sky scrapper in Seoul. Its popular for the view it offers at the observatory deck at the 63rd floor (which is the topmost floor and hence its name).. Will take my D40x and and try capturing some night scenes of Seoul. Shall put them up in the picasa web album the dayafter tomorrow.. 🙂

You can find more about building 63 @ http://www.63city.co.kr/63cityhome/eng/jsp/tour/main.jsp

You can also find an image of the building itself @

And about the Ganesh Chaturthi Celebration.. I will quote from one of the key organizers Rohidas himself..

<start quotation>

The essence of Ganesh Festival tasted almost 450-500 people on Sunday 16th September. Effect of the taste of this India Indian Cultural Extravaganza was such delicious that not only Indians enjoyed that but Koreans, Nepali’s, Bangaldeshi, Americans, French also experience it along with the people from Morocco, China and various countries.

It was indeed the successful programme which delivered the “zalak” on Indian Touch to such a alien land.

I would like to thank to all devotees, attendees, organizers, to their support.

The result are here,

The Seoul Times article

http://www.nepaljapan.com/read.php?section=headlines&id=7046

The CNN-IBN Live

http://features.ibnlive.com/cj/photogallery/20-0.html#view_start

Korea.net (Dynamic Korea)

http://korea.net/community/album/comm_album_view.asp?gubun=0&search_txt=&page2=1&serial_no=95

All the photos and report can be found out on the web page of Ganesh Festival

http://ganeshkorea.googlepages.com/

<end quotation>

Thats it for now guys.. Gotta sleep now.. Past 1 here..

Annyongi Kheyseyo
Kiran