Received this surprise package from WOMWorld today…

What it contained was this bag… commonly known as "sac dipain” in Mauritius. :P

Cyan-red 3D glasses… ?

A t-shirt.

& this invitation to attend the virtual event for Nokia World 2010, starting tomorrow. 3d glasses… Hmmm, I bet it’s going to be streamed in 3D! Alas, at that time (12 pm, local), I will be probably sleeping in some lecture room…

Although the corporate situation isn’t quite right at Nokia right now, for Nokia World, I would expect the N8 to be fully demoed in its production version. Nokia will probably announce its NFC payment system – Swipe. & we’ll see the E7 (qwerty N8 with 8MP camera). Or a preview of the Meego-powered N9… ;)

It’s time again to visit our annual tech trade fair organised by the NCB – Infotech.

Orange Expo?

Before entering SVCC, one thing you’ll notice is this Great Wall being built.

Actually, it’s the Port Louis Ring Road.

At the entrance of the Conference Centre, there were two donation boxes to collect money for the Pakistan flood victims.

Going in, there’s the Career area on the right.

Avatar area on the left. :p

12 screens joined together at the reception.

Finally we enter the big bazaar. Here, the eShop stand & the huge Cash & Carry stand.

Cash & Carry

With every Infotech, Cash & Carry seizes the opportunity to offer discounts on a huge variety of gadgets, including laptops.

Taking a self-portrait. :)

More laptops & LCD monitors.

Nokia N97, X6, 5800… all class-B smartphones.

Nikon S8000, L21 & L22. No DSLRs. :D

Aha! 3D on a Samsung LED TV. After trying out the glasses (Rs 9k a pair), I’m still unconvinced. 3D lacks the depth of real-world objects. & when you focus on one point of the screen, the other areas lose the 3D effect. To conclude, it’s a marketing gimmick & a head-ache.

Coming to back to TVs, it seems Cash & Carry have pulled out all the stops to promote their HDTVs.

The public was definitely wooed.

Cash & Carry’s “iMax” lineup. :p

40” Samsung LED TV. These LED-backlit TVs provide better contrast, greater viewing angles & incredible thinness… at not-so-affordable price.

HM Rawat

At the Rawat stand, I saw this.

Magnification via a microscope of the internal circuit of a phone.

Galaxy

The Rs 80k Asus 3D laptop. Another gimmick.

The Rs 110k 46” Samsung LED TV. :)

eShop

More self-portraits… this time with a touchscreen MSI Wind Top.

Macbooks.

Magic Mouse, an ergonomic nightmare.

& the iPad, an over-sized iPod Touch. No hands-on, no demo. At least, it’s turned on, better than Courts’ Rs 40k "64MB" dead iPad.

….

Courts

The Super AMOLEDs Samsung Wave & Jet.

The Motorola Droid Milestone.

Canon EOS 450D, which has been succeeded by the 500D, which has been succeeded by the 550D. Oh well…

Nintendo Wii & XBOX 360. This reminds me that I’ve never played with a console… :|

MBC stand with Sam Amigan & co.

Radioplus stand with Guillaume.

Interactive Whiteboard

Basically, it’s a finger tracker which then allows interactivity with the OS – like a huge touchscreen.

Orange

This is the Tabbee, a crablet (short for crap tablet).

The Samsung Wave. The Super AMOLED screen is awesome, but Bada OS is a joke, a copycat.

Emtel

As always, Emtel have the most innovative stand. I wish their products were the same.

& the over-hyped Emtel girls…

To conclude, zero innovation, zero new technologies, gadgets that are 6 months (or years) old & very few product demos & hands-on. That said, if you are looking to buy something, Infotech might be the perfect place to get bargains (assuming that you haven’t already found it cheaper online). Otherwise, Infotech is just a place for window shopping. Duh!

Related:

• Yashvin’s 15-min review of Infotech 2010 – Infotech 2010
• Asheshr - Infotech 2010
• L'Express - Infotech : L’édition 2010 du salon a attiré une foule record de quelque 80 000 visiteurs

Mind-blowing

Both literally & figuratively.

Spoiler warning: If you haven't watched Inception, don't read any further. ;)

The Plot

Inception's plot can be described as a Penrose staircase - no matter how much you keep climbing, you still end up at the same place.

Inception is a typical heist film, where the mind is the scene of crime. The PASIV (Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous) device is a machine which allows people to share their dreams in the Dream-Share while they are sedated with a substance called somnacin. Once the Extractor enters someone’s dream, he can extract any information from that person’s mind. The reverse is adding information, essentially planting an idea, i.e. inception.

The story starts in a dream, follows the assembly of the dream-infiltrators team, the planning of the job, then the multi-dimensional act of inception & ends with the wake-up. But does it really end? No one knows...
At the end of the film, all viewers ask themselves the same question - am I dreaming?

I couldn’t have imagined that Nolan could pull the same trick twice. A film more convoluted than Memento, Inception initially appears to be mind-boggling. It will require more than one viewing, but once you grasp the plot, you realise that Inception is a great film - an original story that really captivates your mind.

The Cast

Di Caprio finally has a film where he can be proud of his stand-out performance. After Blood Diamond, The Aviator & The Departed, & now Inception, one can safely say he will no longer be remembered only for his role in Titanic.
In fact, the entire cast of stars have brilliantly performed their roles - Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the Point Man, the beautiful Marion Cotillard as the Shade, the cute Ellen Page as the Architect, Tom Hardy as the Forger, Dileep Rao as the Chemist & Ken Watanabe as the Tourist. Not to forget Michael Caine in his usual Alfred role. :)

The Score

Although I resent that Mind Heist wasn't included in the film, Hans Zimmer masterfully crafts an extra-dimension to Inception with his compositions. Some subtle hints of TDK, & that spine-chilling trombone - an absolutely brilliant score. Definitely an Oscar-contender.

The Visuals

Imagine a world of dreams, where buildings & landscapes are created & manipulated by sheer thinking. That's the work of the Architect. Inception's dreams are similar to reality for a very specific reason – any manipulation of the laws of nature causes the projections of the subconscious to attack the intruder(s).

However that didn’t prevent Nolan from dreaming up of those fantastic action scenes, including the most impressive one with shifting gravity involving Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Awe-inspiring stuff.

Verdict

Rubbish.
That's what most other films I've seen in 2010 (excluding 3 Idiots) feel like after watching Inception.
Christopher Nolan has a knack for delivering the goods. Each of his films never fails to amaze, mystify & entertain the audience. With every non-Batman release, there is a trend that each is designed in such a way to reflect its plot & the title. Memento had a non-linear flashback. The Prestige kept its secret until the very end. Inception did not stray from this rule. Inception keeps you guessing even after the film has ended… so much that it can give you headaches.

When I first watched the film, I didn’t comprehend what I had just seen. It was like having a mental overload with all the possibilities devised by the film. A second viewing (in English) helped in clearing the mist & convinced me beyond doubt that this is a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus.

Rating – 9.5/10

PS. The non-batman one at least, because the final film in the Batman trilogy is coming in 2012. :)

• Wired - How Inception’s Astonishing Visuals Came to Life
• NewScientist - Inception: peering into the science of dreams
• Wired - The Neuroscience of Inception
• Inception Infographic
• The 5 Levels of Inception 
• INCEPTION: Wait.. What happened?
• Did Inception's costume designer just give away the secret of the movie's ending?
• Inception Music Comparison

You’ve seen the yellow & rose ones, the yellow & red ones… Now watch the yellow & orange ones.

I’ve seen white ones as well. :)

More Lantana camara, alias Vieille Fille.

This time, yellow.

& red.

Both of them actually.

Flowers-to-be.

Rising sun hidden by a jackfruit tree.

On the left, the L20 in the Sunset/Sunrise mode (optimized white balance) & on the right, the normal mode. It was quite challenging to shoot this because I’m using the zoom & I don’t have a tripod. Rotated & cropped in Photoshop. :)

Original pics:

A few of my experimentations with sunlight & plants. One of my recent post, Rays is one example.

The above photo is that of sunlight coming in through a porthole window in the garage.

Vine with flowers growing in the concrete wall… the light comes through only at midday.

A poisonous Dieffenbachia!

Taken down from a clearing in the bush.

Same bush, another day.

This one is from a castor bean plant which contains a toxin, ricin.

These ones are special because they're not from my camera, but from the E72. Impressive macro!

Fougères by E72. :)

That’s the processor that has been powering me since almost 7.5 years now. :)

& I nearly lost it…

Let’s start from the start. Today was my PC clean-up day.

I have to do it regularly (every few months) because the CPU fan is actually more effective than a vacuum cleaner.

It collects all the dust found in my house…

Literally sucks them in – that’s dust collected next to air vent holes.

Not even the floppy drive is spared.

But imagine my horrification when I opened up the CPU heatsink to find this…

& this… 

& …

I think horrified is still not a strong enough word to describe what I felt.

That’s called living life on the edge. A few more days/months & my processor would have melted down.

After cleaning up the “mud,” there was still the thermal paste stuck to the core.

Luckily, the processor seems unblemished on the pins.

Pentium 4 Northwood 3.06Ghz HT – you’re a legend! Few processors could last being run at 73ºC while its safe max temperature is 69ºC.

After added a semi-drop of thermal paste, I reassembled everything & now the PC is all fine. CPU temp is around 48ºC, with the max temp at 55ºC (20ºC drop!). Although it makes twice more noise than before!? o_O

PS. The better looking pics are from my camera, while the less better ones are from E72 (with the LED flash messing up the colour).

In the 1st part of this review series, I'll be taking a look at the E72's hardware.

Like all its Eseries counterparts, the E72 is primarily a business smartphone. Hence it has a design reminiscent of Blackberrys - rectangular screen with full Qwerty keyboard.

At the top, there's the power button & the 3.5mm audio out, which surprisingly doesn't support video out. As a business-oriented device, it could have been a killer feature during presentations...

At the bottom left, the 2mm charging port & the strap slot.

On the left, protected by attached plastic covers, there's the micro USB port (with USB charging) & the microSD card slot.

One complaint I have is that the slot is far too recessed & each time, I have to use a tool to push the card in & out. :|
The E72 comes with a 4GB microSD card, which is barely enough to store all the photos, music library, apps & videos. Given that it has no internal flash memory, 8GB should have been the minimum.

The right side of the E72 has the volume keys & a 3rd key which is not a camera shutter key, but a voice command key. I wonder if people really use voice command that much?

At the back, you have this stunning engraved stainless steel battery cover. But so flimsy that it came off twice while the phone was in my pocket. & because, it's only the cover that holds the battery in place, you can imagine the consequence of it coming out...

I would have preferred a plastic cover with a proper grip to this more expensive but functionally worthless cover.

The E72 is so thin that the 5MP camera & single LED flash make a rather large bump on the back. More on that in the forthcoming reviews…

The mono speakers are located to the left of the camera, which means the sound is played away from you. A better position would have been on the sides, like on the N97. Thanks to the bump, placing the E72 on its back doesn't hide the speakers.
For mono speakers, the volume is actually quite loud & you will hardly notice the difference between this & stereo speakers.

Just on top of the camera, there's a second microphone, used by the E72 for active noise cancellation during calls.

Underneath the cover, you have the absolutely phenomenal 1500mAh BP-4L. No really, I've never come across a device that has such an incredible battery life.

It takes 2 days of heavy usage to drain the battery down to a single bar. On normal usage, it can easily last for a week! Just take a look at the battery stats:

• GSM Talk Time - 9.2 hours
• WCDMA Talk Time - 6 hours
• VoIP Talk Time -13.6 hours
• GSM Standby Time - 33 days
• WCDMA Standby Time - 36 days
• WLAN Standby Time - 4.6 days
• Video Playback Time - 13 hours
• Video Recording Time - 6.4 hours
• Video Call Time - 4 hours
• Music Playback Time - 41 hours

Removing the battery gives access to the SIM card slot.

The front of the E72... A chromed metal border running all around the device. Metal edges around the main keys. It’s a sheer beauty! :)

A 24 bit, 2.36 inch transflective screen with a resolution of 320x240.

It's bright enough for all light conditions & if it didn't have that glossy cover, it would have performed very well under direct sunlight. Indeed, it’s a fingerprint & dust magnet.

Above the screen, you have the earpiece, the ambient light sensor & the front VGA camera.

& now, to the most interesting part of the device, the Qwerty keyboard. In addition to the 2 selection keys, the Menu/Home key, the Call & End key, there's also 3 more shortcut keys, the One-touch keys - Calendar, Contacts & Messaging.
The even better feature is that you can customise these keys (short & long press) to point to any apps.

At the centre of the direction pad, there's the Optical Navi key - a touch sensitive key which you only need to flick/swipe through it to scroll around. An awesome alternative to the hard d-pad (no strain on your thumb). The only downside is that it's sensitive to anything. So accidental brushes will occur frequently & if you keep it in your pocket without locking the screen, it will navigate on its own!

The keyboard... At first, I hated it cos I found it to be too cramped for my fat fingers (it still is). After 1 week of usage, I’m liking it a lot. & that's without using the predictive text input which autocorrects all your wrong key presses. I avoid using that because it slows down the CPU & the typing.
The raised keys provide great feedback as you can always feel when a key is pressed. As soon as you get used to it, typing becomes a gratifying experience.

The Qwerty keyboard has its own set of little improvements that make typing even more enjoyable. First are the dedicated @, ?, ! & apostrophe keys. 
A function key (insert symbol on top of key), a Shift key (used for highlighting & change caps) & a Sym key (insert other symbols).
& finally a Ctrl key for what else but Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+A... Sadly, there's no Ctrl+Z. :(

Then there are the Home screen shortcuts - you can turn on/off Bluetooth, turn on/off the camera LED for use as a flashlight, & go into Silent profile. Why isn’t this standard on all device!?!

One-handed operation of the keyboard is possible but will require some practice if you're used to narrower phones (lots of slipping will occur).

The keyboard backlight is adjusted by the same LCD backlight setting. It's all white on black, but I would have preferred if the Call & End keys had their usual green & red.

The only thing missing on the E72 is a lock switch. I thought of including a camera shutter as well, but the Optical Navi key performs admirably as a shutter – touch to focus & then press to shoot. Also the Navi key doubles up as notification lights. When you receive a new message or email, it blinks for a set amount of time. & it’s also a standby light if you turn on the Breathing light settings. :D

At 114 x 58 x 10 mm, the E72 is a sleek & easily pocketable device. With the battery, it weighs only 128g, so it’s not that heavy as well. But more importantly (excluding the back cover), the build quality is outstanding. When you hold it in your hand, you get the feeling that - “Yes, this is meant to last.”

Coming to the internal hardware, I‘m glad that Nokia have been learning from their mistakes with the N97. It has a faster CPU - a 600Mhz ARM11. More internal memory - 250MB, with 175MB free (so you can install all updates & apps without running out of space). & as I mentioned earlier, there’s no internal flash memory.
Alas, it has only 128MB of RAM, which translates to roughly around 40MB free on startup. That’s barely enough for proper multitasking.

Bluetooth 2.0, Wifi b/g, A-GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, FM radio (with headset) – it’s all in there. Do take note that there’s no FM transmitter & no Infrared port.

Final thoughts on the hardware

The E72 was meant to succeed to the immensely popular & one of the best business smartphones of all time, the E71. Nokia have achieved exactly that, by upgrading every component (camera, CPU, network, etc.) while maintaining the same form factor & almost the same size.

Having said that, the E72 does have a few flaws. The build quality would have been perfect if it wasn’t for the wobbly back cover. The Qwerty keyboard being small requires a steep learning curve.  While the battery life is fabulous, the memory (or rather the lack of it) isn’t so.

Yet, I still like this phone, because there’s one area that overshadows everything else – the design. The E72 really is absolutely, unbelievably, mesmerisingly gorgeous!

Shot using the E72. It took a better photo than my camera! o_O