Technology
A Time Piece or Pieces that show Time?
Aug 17th
When I was a kid owning a wrist watch was a big thing and usually one got it as a gift to celebrate some form of achievement – largely academic. Today I forgot my wrist watch at home and through out the day I didn’t miss it. In the evening I realized that our house doesn’t have a wall clock or any other form of time piece. And the reason for that is that all the pieces around in our house show time. Our mobile phones have become personal time pieces, our microwave provides time for kitchen (and even dining room thanks to open kitchen), our home phone system for drawing room and bedrooms are fitted with iPod speakers that can show time. All our devices, gadgets, household goods show time. So this generation is growing up with time plastered all around them. Makes me wonder whether it will reduce demand for wrist watches and wall clocks.
Expanding user base through iPad
Aug 12th
A lot has been written about Apple and Steve Job’s brilliance in engaging youth and adults around the world. They keep jumping on every new product and actually queue up all night. Last weekend I observed two simple reactions that made me believe that Apple has a bright future beyond the current set of users.
I returned to Hong Kong after a month long business trip to India and finally got my much awaited iPad 3G 64G. Being a very Apple household both me and my wife were excited to get a new gadget. My in-laws are currently with us and they couldn’t understand our excitement for the iPad. But once we got it even my mom-in-law (who is not interested in tech) got super excited – she loved the feel – was thrilled to read a book and see all her favorite videos. She actually insisted that my father-in-law replaces his laptop with an iPad.
Later that day we visited a close friend. He just got an iPad as a birthday gift and unfortunately lost it to his daughter almost the very next day. His 6 years old already considers it as her own and refuses to share. It is providing her education and entertainment in a very user friendly manner.
These are extreme age groups that most consumer electronics and computing companies don’t really target. In my opinion they’ll make a huge difference because people similar to my in-laws have the money and very little responsibility. And kids below 10 have a lot of pester power to force their helpless parents.
For now I’m convinced iPad has caught fancy of both these age-groups and to me that suggests bringing in new users into the Apple brand franchise.
Google Sky Map & the fun of stargazing
Jul 31st
Google just released beta of Google Sky Map on the Android platform. The app uses the Android-powered device’s built-in compass, GPS, and clock to display an annotated Sky Map of the area it is facing. And since it is using technology to simulate stargazing you can actually see stars during day time. In my opinion this app will put planetarium in your hand. I loved the concept and wasted no time in tweeting about it.
Looking at different videos of this app made me very nostalgic about stargazing. When I was a kid my grandfather took me to our terrace almost every alternate night and taught me stargazing. He explained me about different stars, their positions, their relative distance to planet earth and their properties. He also used books to explain different phenomenas and answer all my stupid queries. He took me to planetariums and explained how the solar system works. Our home telescope fascinated me and he took great pains in showing a very large telescope at the university. Years passed – he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and I got busy with school – so our stargazing reduced but we did talk about it once in a while. And one day it all ended – he passed away. It did create a vacuum in my life for a short time but the education system and distractions of teenage made me move on. Stargazing disappeared from my life. And today exactly 20 years later I saw this app and all the memories of good times with my grandfather came back.
I suspect very few people engage in stargazing today as I have not heard anyone from my social circle talk about it. Add to that is a problem of pollution and skies over our cities in asia are not conducive to stargazing. Sometimes we can’t even see sun or moon properly. Also ambient light on our skylines in making it impossible for people to see stars at night. Very sad indeed but like every other problem in the world Google has a solution for this as well. Do stargazing on Android phones. I think it is high time we individually thought about losing sight of beautiful star patterns and do our bit to reduce pollution.
For me personally I’m going to go back to stargazing whenever I get a clear night.
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter