Come August 22 and the Indian mobile phone market will never be the same again. The much-hyped Apple i-phone will finally arrive! We all were eagerly waiting for it. After all, it’s an Apple product. So much is the hype that other mobile phone companies are already running for cover. New mobiles are being launched by Nokia, HTC, Samsung et al with the pseudo-name ‘i-phone killer’. Meetings are being called, strategies are being discussed and even the smallest glitch in the I-phone is being magnified to humongous proportions. Â

Apple Inc. has a huge reputation in the consumer electronics market. Its products have aesthetic designs and are objects of desire to most of us. Apple added a new dimension to the portable media players with the launch of i-pod. It created a new industry for i-pod accessories. But are the products of Apple Inc. over-hyped? If you ask me, my answer would be a YES!Â

Without going into the features of the phone, here are a bunch of reasons why we need to look over all the gaga for the i-phone. Firstly at 31,000 INR for 8GB model it is overpriced. Apple is known for post-launch price changes. When launched in US, the price was slashed by $200 just two months after the release. Secondly, downloads from Apple’s I-tunes music stores will not be available on the I-phone. Thirdly, as 3-G network is not available in India, many features of the phone will not work. Fourthly, it’s the iTunes monopoly. When I bought my i-pod 2 years back, I did not have a personal computer. Getting music/videos used to be a tedious task. And last but not the least, once you buy an i-phone, it needs to be activated. As a lot of sales are expected on the date of launch, I bet the i-Tunes servers would be overloaded. So you might have to wait for a day or two before you can actually start using the phone. Â

So there is no need to make a beeline to the electronic stores for the i-phone on August 22nd unless you really need to flaunt it!
Via rediff

Multitasking is the order of the day and burning bright on the Internet scene these days is “Cloud Computing”. Computing what? Well this is something we all do it these days without even being aware of it (however, the term will not surprise the techno-freaks.

Cloud computing is actually a computing paradigm wherein tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. It is this network of servers and connections, which is collectively called “the cloud”. And when we work with our Internet files, or other softwares outside our company on some access point like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop we cloud compute. Through this cloud we can access a vast ocean of resources as and when we need to. Some technophiles thus love to call cloud computing by the name of “on-demand computing” as well. For corporate sector the term is not new because of the frequent use of Blackberry phones in higher echelons of business world.

The latest piece of news regarding it is that the company which gave iPhone 3G to the world is now providing cloud computing as well. Yes, I’m referring to Apple, which has now announced its new MobileMe service (in a typically clumsy manner). The service available at $100 per year is an overhaul of Mac’s Internet features. MobileMe is a panacea for your organizational headaches! It is aimed at simplifying your cluttered life by keeping emails, calendars, address books, Web bookmarks etc. on all your Windows PC’s and laptops, Macs, iPod Touches and iPhones- well synchronized in real time. The beauty of MobileMe service is that it stores the master copy of all this cornucopia of information in ‘the cloud’ so that whenever you edit an address on your iPhone, MobileMe will update your Address Book (on your Mac) and Outlook (on your PC)! This service can be a boon for those families which are always on a run and hard-pressed for time to remember all the contacts, update the details and the likes. Apple’s tag line for MobileMe is “Exchange for the rest of us” (although, the company needs to clarify this to a target audience which probably is unaware about the Exchange as a matter of fact!)

The service takes a while to get started, as there are many instructions and stuff to be downloaded before you reap the fruits of MobileMe. But once set you can see the real-time magic in front of your eyes, once you set up your email program to recognize your new MobileMe e-mail address. The latter ends with a cute me.com! So, once you are done with the set up just change an appointment in iCal on your kitchen Mac and your traveling spouse will get to know it within seconds on his/her iPhone! What’s more? If you made a change simultaneously on two machines, you get to choose one version from both of them. And this is not all, at Me.com, Apple has built attractive, ad-free, online versions of your calendar, e-mail program, photo-organizing programs and your address book. You can enjoy a good deal of flexibility while using MobileMe on web but you need the latest version of Apple’s Safari Web browser / Firefox as you cannot exploit the complete range of features with IE. Besides synchronizing your vast amounts of info. MobileMe service also retains most of the features of the old .Mac service. So, upload pictures and movies, download your photo files at full resolution for printing and greet your visitors with stunning slide shows. All of it for $100 and with just one service at your end! Not a bad deal I must say especially when I know that with this MobileMe I can always backup my sync personalized information in an iDisk (hard drive) and forget about data theft. I’m sure this attractive nouveau service from Apple will quickly catch up despite a shabby start.

Via NYTimes

An apple a day, keeps the doctor away. We all have grown up hearing that one  from our mothers especially at the breakfast table. It’s still difficult for moms to persuade their kids to eat apples on any given day when there are plenty of unhealthy but tempting fruit flavored substitutes available in the supermarket. Here’s a piece of news that might create an interest in mothers. Scientists, in particular fruit geneticists in N.Y. have developed a new variety of apples that taste like berries! The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) in Geneva is the laboratory-locale where fantastically newly flavored apple varieties are being developed under the apple-breeding program. This program is more than a century year old and focuses on developing new kinds of apple trees that produce distinctly flavored fruit. Any apple on the tree usually contains a few numbers of seeds in it that bear qualities different from the parent tree.

These seeds when selectively planted grow into lush trees producing a fruit, which tastes different from the one on parent tree. In nature, newer varieties are produced by chance. However, in the apple breeding program, superior varieties are created and worked upon keeping in mind the tastes and moods of consumers. And this involves a lot of science esply. Plant genetics. Employing the tools of genetic engineering, a diverse variety of apples can be produced commercially. For this studies are conducted on gene families so that one can get a berry-tasting apple in one variety or an apple loaded with vit. C. There are genes that can be incorporated in to the gene pool of a yummy, crispy apple to make the apple fragrant like a rose! While the trial fruit (grown in the orchard–labs of the institute) seems promising, launching the product at a commercial scale could be tricky. Also, it can’t be said right now that the enlightened and health conscious consumers of today, will openly embrace such altered fruits. For the time being, the news is a promising one. And if these berry flavored apples are able to win the hearts and taste buds of kids then rest assured, moms would become worrywarts for their kids health!

Via