Tech thrills - when technology works wonders.

We often say that technology is more a pain than it is worth, but yesterday I was pleasantly surprised, when it does work how it all comes together so well. I landed in Bangalore to attend my cousins wedding reception. I’ve never stepped foot in this city before. Yet when it came to finding the hotel where my relatives were holed up in, and my taxi driver was clueless, I managed to direct with aplomb and a little thing from apple – my trusty iPhone.

As we are speaking about iPhones, I have been trying out the new iOS4 which definitely has given some much needed features to the phone. The most used being the multi task, task bar and the inbuilt dictionary. But back to the point in hand. What is impressive is that even BTRAC bus stops are accurately marked on Google Maps. Things like a small church by the wayside were all marked on Google Maps. We have definitely come a long way since the initial days of cartography.

We have come to take Google Maps, like almost everything else from Google for granted but if we were to sit down and try to understand how the big picture, I am sure like everything else in life, it is highly complex. I mean, I could stand anywhere on the planet and get information in the palm of my hand accurate to a few feet. It is a safety line for a person who is infamous for having a bad sense of direction. What would be our life be like without Google in it. That’s a scary thought. The net would truly be a different place. Ironically it seems just yesterday that I sat in a certain cabin in the Motorola office and explored the internet for the first time, with my sister dolefully keeping me company as I was introduced to Yahoo on a Netscape browser. Yet today the net and my life has taken such leaps and bounds that those days could be another lifetime.

Before setting out on the trip my dad was contemplating taking his netbook, but mum convinced him otherwise. What is surprising is that when we landed at the SBI guest house we were surprised to find that it came fully equipped with an internet connection and nice LCD tv. The tech thrills of today. What more can a guy ask for. The computer was definitely something unexpected. I mean you don’t find a full fledged PC in most 3-star hotels, you are expected to carry your laptop to a 5-Star hotel. Truly, we are truly slaves to technology but I enjoy every minute of it.

One wonders if technology is making us try to make the best of every minute. Have we stopped just relaxing and taking it easy. Enjoying the ride for what it is and not worrying about getting to the destination. The joke is that though we seem so time poor, even by using these devices I don’t feel time rich. I guess its all about us at the end of the day. You know what they say about the grass after all.

Promoting products with augmented reality.

The last time I talked about Augmented reality I spoke about how information could be superimposed on real world places. So you could see a virtual sign post that gave you directions to the nearest metro in Paris or so on. I recently came across how marketers are using augmented reality to allow users to virtually touch and feel products right from the convenience of their desktop. Though it definitely is a gimmick, it is fun nonetheless.

Still I am sure it cannot replace actually going to a store and handling a product.  The example that I came across was for the Olympus Pen camera and I also came across something for Mini Cooper. How it works is you get a marker that is downloadable or available as promotional material. You hold it up to your webcam and presto, instead of a marker you see a virtual 3 D model, which you can interact with. Size doesn’t matter which is evident with the Mini Cooper which provides you a scale model of the car to have a close look at.

iShock

The first shocking thing about this post is how long it has taken for me to put it up.  I am shocked with myself ! It’s been lying half written for such a long time in my In-box. It began when I came across two shocking things in the paper recently both concerning Apple. The first one that I saw was that the iPad seems to be screwing up WiIFi networks. What was really interesting was that not only were some American universities like Princeton and George Washington University banning the thing, an entire country – Israel had done the same because it meddles with local WiFi. Israel is not letting tourists visiting the country carry an iPad. An interesting fact if you think that Israel portrayed the impression of being a high-tech country. So if you landed in Israel you found yourself forking out a hefty sum if you have to store your iPad for more than 48 hours. What was more hilarious was that as an alternative, Israeli customs allowed tourists to sell their iPad to people travelling abroad and had to produce their plane ticket as proof. 

Then there was that ruckus about how an Apple employee lost a next generation iPhone which was found and sold to Gizmodo which promptly tried to bisect it and put it up on its website for the world to see. Head over there if you want to have a look at where the iPhone is heading.  

More recently I came across an article that stated that Steam was finally released for the Apple. This is a harbinger that gaming is finally finding its way to the puritanical Mac. Which is not too bad a thing if you think of the renowned crystal clear clarity of the Apple displays?