Hands on with the next generation of Apple iPods

Apple press conferences are always the coolest and when it comes to dropping jaws, they deliver left, right and center. But the one in India left me stifling yawns. Add to the fact that the whole place was draped in black, didn’t help with keeping my eyes open either. And this little, 20yr old baby enjoys his afternoon siestas, so when Apple calls a press conference at 3 PM, I am bound to yawn.

Some other things that didn’t help were the emcee who was also the Asia Pacific head, was a bit too enthusiastic with the proceedings and said “Cool, isn’t it?” around 457 million times. He also expected people to know things like how many million songs were sold from the iTunes store and how many applications the App Store sold. Christ save them. And people actually knew. Christ better save them.

Plus, the gadgets were kept under a black cloth which totally looked like a machine gun was kept below it. It gave me the feeling that I was attending some Jihadi press conference where the AK-447i with Mary Jane compartment was to be unveiled. I waited patiently till the whole presentation got over and when that happened; I had greater respect for my own levels of tolerance. If there is one thing that you learn from engineering, its tolerance.

I finally got my hands on the super slim iPod Nano and was completely miffed at its thickness. Its unbelievably thin and makes you question the laws of physics when you consider that it has a battery that ploughs on for a full day. It also has a whole host of features which actually had legitimate “Cool, isn’t it?” questions to it.

The more important ones would be, integrated Nike+ (to calculate workout data), accelerometer (to change screen orientation from portrait to landscape when held accordingly), a complete range of colours, a brighter screen, voice memo recording (there ain’t no internal mic. Its built in to the earphones) , Genius play list creation (a play list created by an algorithm which selects songs that’d go best with one particular song) and all that faff.

I also tested the new in-earphones that Apple put out. According to them, it had 2 drivers to keep the audiophiles happy. It was decent but frankly when you consider the 4200 buck price, the one normally bundled with iPods sounded better. Go get a Sennheiser CX 400, life will be much better.

Moving on to the new iPod Touch, Apple have given it a comprehensive nip and tuck. They’ve slimmed it down (but holding it isn’t exactly confidence inspiring). That’s thanks largely to the stupid chrome finish at the back. When will they start offering a matte finish option? I don’t want something I will need to wipe every 42 seconds.

All the features mentioned in the Nano are here and there is an external volume button which makes you praise the Lord for all the small mercies in life. Controlling volume on the earlier iPod Touch was such a pain. There is also a tinny speaker, enough for listening to music in a quiet environ or for games. And oh yeah, the games are killer. All of them make use of the Accelerometer and you can tilt your Pod to glory. You can download them from the App Store which can thankfully be accessed by us ‘3rd world’ Indians.

The iPod Shuffle and iPod classic have been untouched. Apple calls this lineup the best ever. Oh well, they do that all the bloody time. Do stay tuned, I shall give you comprehensive reviews of iPod Nano and iPod Touch as soon as Apple gives me test units.

Pricing

Apple iPod Nano 4G

• 8GB 9700/- in India or $149 from Amazon
• 16GB 12500/- in India or $199 from Amazon

Apple iPod Touch 2G

• 8GB 15,100/ in India- or $229 from Amazon
• 16GB 19,100/ in India- or $299 from Amazon
• 32GB 25,000/ in India - or $399 from Amazon

6 ways to secure your PC for free

Photo courtesy J.D.H.

Security is a boring topic to talk about. But you don’t need a luckless under grad like me to tell you that it is as important as chicken in a chicken burger. I tell you how to secure your PC for free and be miles away from the bad guys.

Anti-spyware

Spyware is bad, m’kay. Because spyware spies on you and can steal your information, m’kay (yes, Southpark fan in here!). I recommend Spybot and Ad-aware. Both are equally effective.

Firewall

A firewall acts as a filter for all connections leaving and entering your computer. Yes, Windows XP (As far as my circle is concerned, only 1 in 50 people run Vista) does have a firewall, but it inspects only incoming traffic, not outgoing. So get something like Zone Alarm or Comodo (suggested by reader Sean) and be sure that nothing inside the PC is trying to contact extra-terrestrial life forms.

Update PC regularly

This keeps you ahead of the trouble makers. Most software prompt you when it is time for updating, but in case yours don’t, use the Filehippo.com utility which checks for the same. Plus, schedule Windows Update to check once a week.

Good Anti-virus

If you’re asking me, anti-virii like McAfee and Norton not only burn a hole in the pocket, but also one in the ozone layer. They take up so much of processing power that they end up consuming more electricity in the long run. Use something light and free like AVG or Avast. Save the earth.

Be careful online

If you want to infect your PC for fun, just head to all the nasty websites on the planet. Also install every greeting, screen saver and everything that comes your way, to have a blissfully infested PC. More often than not, they are packaged with some or the other Trojan. So try not to be a curious twat when it comes to the web.

Clean your registry from time to time

The registry is a place where all the settings of your hardware and software are stored. And you don’t want this to be messed up. Use CCleaner to keep your PC as well as your registry clean.

After all this, check your PC’s defenses at http://secunia.com/software_inspector/

25 of the finest Google holiday logos!

In celebration of Google’s 10th anniversary, here’s a list of the finest special Google logos. (The year mentioned in the brackets indicates when the logo was displayed on Google. And the list follows no particular order)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday -May 22, 2006

Leonardo Da Vinci’s birth anniversary

Louis Braille’s Birthday - January 4, 2006

Dilbert! May 20, 2002

(This was a whole series of logos from Monday to Friday. Click on the image to see the complete series by Dilbert creator Scott Adams)

50th Anniversary of Understanding DNA - April 25, 2003

Edvard Munch’s Birthday - December 12, 2006

Doodle for Google competition winner

Earth Day - April 22, 2007 & 2008

Albert Einstein’s birthday - March 14, 2003

Michelangelo’s birth anniversary - March 6, 2003

100th Anniversary of Flight - December 17, 2003

MC Escher’s birthday - June 16, 2003

Father’s Day - June 18, 2006

Halloween - October 31, 2002

25th anniversary of TCP/IP - January 1, 2008

Alexander Graham Bell’s Birthday - March 3, 2008

Invention of the First LASER - May 16, 2008

Martin Luther King Jr. Day - January 16, 2006

Spirit on Mars - January 15, 2004

50th anniversary of the LEGO brick - January 28, 2008

250th Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - January 27, 2006

2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - August 8, 2008

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