Music Reloaded!

Music has an all new definition now. It’s now time to say goodbye to your bulky CD-players or the MP3 players as Sony Ericsson launches W810i into the market. Sony Ericsson has been an enigma into the world of cell phones over couple of years now. With the introduction of the third walkman phone, it surely has an edge over its competitors now.

While being similar to the W800, the W810i has benefited from several improvements. Most notably are the improved sound quality, the design which allows the phone to be used by either of the genders, EDGE support for faster wireless data transfers, a slightly enhanced display, and slightly improved battery life.

In addition, the 2 mega pixel camera takes excellent photos and if you need to catch some action, W810i has video too.

The key to Sony Ericsson's success with its Walkman range of music phones is the fact that they've been designed from the inside and out with music in mind.

On the outside, for example, you'll find integrated speakers on the back next to the camera, with a volume control located on the side together with a dedicated play/pause button that will stop the music no matter what the phone's doing.

There's also a D-pad beneath the screen that's specially marked for music features, while on the sides rest matching Walkman and Shortcut buttons for direct access to the W810i's music features.

Inside, there's an MP3 player with MP3 and AAC codec, and a dedicated Walkman application that lets you manage the tunes you're playing. Pressing the Walkman button on the front of the phone will take you straight to this application, where you're presented with the "Now Playing" screen. It's now that the D-Pad comes into play, letting you scroll through the list of tunes you have by pressing up and down or fast forward and rewind the current tune by pressing left and right.

The Walkman application lets you access your whole library of tunes either by track, artist, or playlist that you've created, and play around with the graphic equializer settings. One nice feature is the ability to send playliss and (unprotected) tunes to other users, either via Bluetooth or IR.

As a Walkman phone, the W810i's features are focused mostly on music. This is evident both on the outside of the phone, with dedicated music keys, and the inside, with easy to use playlists and tune down loading software. The sound quality of the W810i is also very high.
Sony has clearly spent time upgrading the W800i with a better build quality and a splash of extra style. It was a relief that the pervious garish orange colours used by Sony Ericsson had been toned down for this model and the cool black with silver accents and a tiny slash of orange is much more acceptable.

The screen is a 1.8 inch 176 x 220 pixel unit which is similar to that on the K750.

The screen does do a good job with bright and vibrant colours and clearly readable text which is about as much as you can ask for from a mid tier mobile, a nice touch is the inclusion of a light sensor that adjust the screen brightness according to the ambient light. This both lengthens battery life and ensures you can read the screen in all but direct sunlight. It’s use is proven when the backlight timer kicks in and switches it off which sees the screen go jet black, all very cool but there is no way to adjust the backlight timer duration! The keypad is well spaced even for larger fingers and nowhere near as cramped as some Sony phones of the past year, the tactile feedback has also been improved with good feel for the keys as they are slightly raised making it possible to text by feel rather than sight.

Round the back of the phone is the customary camera, this one is only a 2 mega pixel version but it provides sharp and useable images, plus it has a built in LED flash which is good for short range shots only. The camera lacks the inbuilt shutter, which other SE models now sport but this does help keep the package nice and thin, plus I think that users will select this more for its walkman features as opposed the camera.

The Sony Ericsson W810i offers improved music navigation in tandem with the same excellent music management capabilities and decent amount of bundled memory as its predecessor. Out-of-box audio quality is on par with the high standards we’ve come to except from the handset maker, while we’re slightly disappointed by the lack of stereo Bluetooth audio. These niggles aside, the W810i makes for a stellar music phone with side servings of a 2 Megapixel camera and EDGE.

Overall the Sony Ericsson W810i is a good mobile phone that packs some serious muscle when it comes to playing music. It’s not your usual corporate offering and most companies will stick to basic Nokia models or issue Blackberry's.

From Armstrong...To Landis...

Think of cycling and all we think is a Lance Armstrong sipping champagne after wining the most prestigious cycling event, Le Tour De France. Since past seven years, this road bicycle race has seen Armstrong emerging as the outright winner.

In absence of the top five finishers from the last edition of Tour De France, the race this year was spilt wide open for the cyclists. So, how exciting was the Tour without Armstrong and other top riders across the world?
To be fair enough, the 2006 Le Tour De France was closely contested. Until the penultimate day even the cycling pundits found it difficult to predict the winner of 2006 Tour De France.
However, when Armstrong bid adieu from the world of cycling, the whole world was excited to see who would succeed the American.
And of course, it had to be an American! Floyd Landis, the 30-year old American won the Tour, in the closest three-way finish in the race's history.
Landis was among the favorites to win the Tour, after some top riders were suspended following doping charges. However, Landis’ bid to succeed fellow American Lance Armstrong looked a bit shaky when the rider lost his leaders yellow jersey to Spain’s Oscar Periero in an epic eight minute loss of performance in Stage 16.
It appeared he had lost all hope to finish on the podium, much less win.
But the following day, during Stage 17, Landis set such a high pace on the first climb of the day that no one chose to follow. He caught a breakaway group that had escaped earlier, passed them, and continued to the finish line, making up almost all of his deficit, ending up 30 seconds behind yellow jersey wearer Oscar Pereiro, which he made up with an extra minute in the final Stage 19 time trial.
With Landis’ win, the USA continued its dominance in the world of cycling with Landis being the third America to win this prestigious race. Moreover, with Armstrong himself giving Landis a pat on his back, the pressure is now on the 30-year old American to defend his crown. But the question remains, will he be able to do it?

But, what exactly is Tour De France?

Le Tour de France is the most famous and prestigious road bicycle race in the world. It is a long-distance stage race competition for professional cycling teams, travelling through France and its nearby countries over the course of three weeks each July, spread across 20 stages.
The winner is the individual rider who finishes the course of the race in the least accumulated time. Tour De France for cycling is what Football world cup is for its global popularity.
Apart from the overall competition of winning the Tour, each edition of the race has two further classifications: the points and the mountain competitions. Tallied at the end of each stage, the current leaders of the three competitions are required to wear a corresponding, distinctly coloured, jersey during the next stage.

Ø Yellow Jersey—the overall race leader wears it

Ø Green Jersey—the rider with maximum spirnt points wears it

Ø White or the Polska Jersey—to the rider who is first to climb the mountain

Postcard From Europe (p.s. not my creation)

Liked this article by Vir Sanghvi, so thought that will put it on the blog and see what you think ...

ON THE grounds that you will probably have heard more than you need about Rahul Mahajan/ cocaine, about petrol prices and about who-did-Murli Deora-really-clear-the-hike-with, I’m going to spare you a column on current political events.
Besides — and it is time to come clean — I’ve been travelling so much over the last few weeks that I’m not sure if I am plugged in enough into the Indian political scene to offer you any insights that are worth reading.

So, instead, here is an entirely subjective take on the view of India that I have encountered on my travels abroad over the last month. As with the column I wrote a few months ago on the opinions I heard during my travels within India, all the usual disclaimers apply: my travels were restricted in scope (to Europe, mainly), so I can’t claim that I met a representative sample of global opinion; even within this limited area, I tended to meet people who were already interested in world affairs (rather than the man on the street); and, in my experience, polite foreigners tend not to be too scathing in their criticisms so perhaps I got a low-calorie version of their real views.
But, for what it is worth, here’s what I found. The Economy: I was abroad in the weeks after the Sensex crashed and travelling again during the second global crash (set off by the rise in US interest rates). The papers told us that the Indian market had lost something like 26 per cent of its value over the last year. So I waited for the usual questions: Is the India story over? Has the bubble burst? Was India no more the flavour of the year?
Oddly enough, most people I spoke to — and keep in mind that I tend to hang out very little with stockbrokers and investment bankers — were not downbeat about the Indian economy at all. The fall in the Sensex was seen as a reflection of a global trend and the overall optimism about India had endured.
The questions I was asked (and which I was singularly illequipped to answer) were these: Could the economy grow above 8 per cent? Is 10 per cent growth feasible? How strong is the Left’s influence on policy-making?
People with no great interest in economics still spoke admiringly of India as an IT success story and enviously of our outsourcing boom. Nobody mentioned manufacturing (though our growth rate in that sector vastly exceeds the 8 per cent overall growth in GDP), but they all spoke highly of what they saw as India’s young, well-educated, English-speaking, super-intelligent workforce.
Listening to them, I wondered if IT and the BPO boom could serve as India’s Wine Syndrome.
Wine Syndrome?
Well, some market researchers believe that the image of a country as a brand depends on many intangibles. One of them is the ability to make such luxury goods as wine for the international market. Countries that export wine (the US, France, Germany, Italy etc) tend to be regarded as capable of delivering quality. Relatively new entrants on the global wine scene such as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and, now, even Chile, have also gained: because people buy their wine, they regard them as worthy of respect. (Isn’t ‘Made in South Africa’ more attractive a label than, say, ‘Made in Zimbabwe’?) As much as I respect Grover Vineyards, I don’t think our Cabernet Sauvignon is going to transform India’s image. But IT and outsourcing might just do it. My guess is that global respect for our IT skills and for the intelligence of our BPO operators will turn ‘Made in India’ into a label to respect — after so many decades during which it was regarded as a euphemism for shoddy quality and missed delivery dates. So, the influence of IT may extend beyond the technology sector and to Brand India as a whole. China/Pakistan: For me, this was the real surprise. For nearly all of the last decade, all discussions of India have resulted in either China being mentioned (in the economic context) or Pakistan being referred to (in a threat-ofnuclear-war sort of way). This time around, neither came up.
There seems now to be an increasing acknowledgement that while quantitatively, China has huge advantages over us (faster rates of growth, much more foreign investment, centralised rapid decision-making etc), India has certain qualitative advantages.
We are seen as being more stable (because of democracy), more subject to the rule of law and better at processes that require skill, intelligence or education. This is not to suggest that India will overtake China in the affections of investors (we won’t) but that people are less willing to speak of the two countries in the same breath. China may be a great success but India has it own story.
So it is with Pakistan. For years, it has always struck me that the only reason why anybody anywhere in the world bothers to mention Pakistan is because of conflicts with its neighbours (India and Afghanistan). Otherwise, it could occupy roughly the same space in the global consciousness as Bangladesh.
But this time, nobody mentioned Pakistan. Nobody seemed too bothered about the Kashmir problem. And the threat of nuclear war never came up.
Why should this be so?
Partly, it is because relations between India and Pakistan have been relatively event-free for the last couple of years. But I suspect that it also has something to do with the international community’s tendency to look at South Asia through the prism of Washington.
If America thinks India’s nuclear programme is not a problem (and the Indo-US deal on this issue helps suggest that), then the Western world is not worried. And ever since Pakistan became a client state of America and General Musharraf was appointed George Bush’s viceroy, the West has treated Islamabad as no more than a slightly troublesome pet which will nevertheless jump through the hoop when the State Department blows the whistle.
Despite India’s anger at what we see as Washington’s indulgence of Islamabad, the truth is that America’s political colonisation of Pakistan has actually made South Asia seem like a safer place — and India has benefited.
Minorities: My most recent trip was to Vienna for the India-EU Roundtable. One of the subjects on the agenda was how liberal societies should treat minorities. Nearly everywhere I have gone over the last three months, India’s experience has been top of the mind.
For decades now, I have heard Europeans give vent to ignorant rubbish about how ‘Hindu India’ handles its Muslim minority. And I have to say that, after Gujarat, it became extremely embarrassing to participate in any such discussion because while the Europeans may have been ill-informed, there was no doubt that we had much to be ashamed of.
At the Roundtable, I listened with awe as Professor Zoya Hassan delivered a 15-minute masterly summary of India’s experience that was so exhaustive in its scope that it took my breath away.
While the EU has had to struggle unsuccessfully with religious protests (over the Danish cartoons, for instance) and with plain old racism (the French attitude to LN Mittal’s bid for Arcelor), India has coped much better with the problems inherent in a multi-linguistic, multi-religious and multi-ethnic society.
The EU side had little to say when Zoya Hassan explained why so few Indian Muslims were attracted to al-Qaeda. It wasn’t just that we had democracy, she said, it was because we were an inclusive society.
Sujata Mehta of the PMO, an ex-officio member of the Roundtable, explained that while we had our problems, our greatest strength was that our minorities rarely questioned their identity as Indians. Contrast this with democratic Britain, for instance, where so many UK-born Muslims of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin will sign up for the global jihad. For all of the UK’s politically-correct multiculturalism (which, by the way, I think has now gone too far — but that’s a different column), racial minorities still feel alienated enough from the mainstream to search for global (such as pan-Islamic) identities.
It pleased me to note the respect with which Sujata and Zoya were listened to. Now that they have minority problems of their own, Europeans are suddenly taking India’s experience more seriously. I was especially pleased when Zoya made a point that took them all by surprise: as disgraceful, horrifying and indefensible the massacres in Gujarat were, what was encouraging was that the outrage they provoked cut across all communities in India. The worst critics of the Gujarat government were not Muslims, but were Hindus. It is a point that needs to be made again and again. And finally: The alert reader will have noticed that nearly all of the news I received was good. Obviously, some of this had to do with the desire of my European hosts not to give offence. But I have to say that there was a very real sense in which nearly everybody I met treated India with interest, respect and — at the very least — informed curiosity. Clearly, this is a good time to be an Indian.
Now, all we have to do is make sure that we don’t screw it up, as we usually manage to do.

It Was Much More Than Just Another "World Cup"...

Controversial Build Up To The World’s Most Pretigiuos Tournament
It was the first time that the World Cup took place in Asia. In fact, it was the first time the Cup was hosted outside of Europe and the Americas.
Initially, the two Asian countries, South Korea and Japan were competitors in the bidding process, but at the last minute before the vote, they agreed with FIFA to co-host the event. However, the competitive nature of the two host nations, partly because of the historical rivalry between them and the distance between them led to problems in organization and logistics. With Japan lobbying FIFA and Korea lobbying UEFA, the soccer world was split badly. Japan pushed its modern infrastructure, wealth, and technology as key points. Korea, which had a longer professional soccer tradition, believed it was more deserving.
After the tournament, FIFA has repeatedly said co-hosting will likely not happen again, and in 2004, FIFA stated that its statutes do not allow bids that involve co-hosting.
In the end, the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan was successfully co-hosted by the two countries.

A Cup, Full of Surprises and Upsets
The 2002 World Cup will surely be most memorable for the upsets... There were the astonishing early eliminations — favorites Argentina and reigning champions France headed home after the first round.
There were the shock victories, like Senegal's 1-0 win over the French in an opening match that set the tourney's roller-coaster tone. Although no underdog actually broke through, what fun it was to watch the Senegalese, with their ecstatic conga-line celebrations after their unexpected goals, and the U.S.'s 3-2 defeat of Portugal that helped the Americans advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1930.
And there were the Cinderella marches of host countries Japan and Korea, both of whom went further than anyone imagined. Maybe all these surprises seduced us briefly into believing in football's parallel universe. In what seemed to be the final hurdle for Koreans to clinch third place, it was the Turks, whose relentless perseverance eventually paid off when they secured a 3-2 victory over the untiring Koreans and won the battle for third place.

Ah! The Fans...
If a sport is only as strong as their passion, one of the legacies of World Cup 2002 must be how football found its way into the heart of folks in the most unexpected places — like the host countries, where soccer is hardly the prevailing pastime. In the first half of Japan's initial match against Belgium, which resulted in a draw, many of the 50 odd thousand-strong, blue-clad home crowd sat strangely mute.
However, when Takayuki Suzuki scored Japan's first goal of World Cup 2002, Saitama Stadium erupted in a frenzy of pride. And once the Japanese got the hang of it, they could not be stopped. The night their team defeated Russia, the Japanese celebrated like hell.
As for the Koreans, who could forget the sight of 40 odd thousand delirious fans jumping up and down in Daejeon Stadium the night their forward Ahn Jung Hwan grabbed a 117th minute Golden Goal to knock Italy out of the World Cup? Or the 100,000 Koreans who, in the spirit of hospitality, served as volunteer supporters for other nations?
People of both the countries served as true ambassadors, in which, football was the ultimate winner.

A New Star Was Born...
It was the 50th minute of the match. With scores tied at 1-1 in what was assumed a close encounter. And there it was! A magnificent free kick, taken by Ronaldinho, stunned thousands of English present in the stadium, millions of them watching at their home and most of all, England keeper David Seaman. Seaman and the entire English team were left stunned by a Ronaldinho special. With this goal, Ronaldinho marked his arrival on the big stage.

The Ultimate Samba…
After a deluge of upsets in the early stages of the cup, the World Cup 2002 was now into its most important stage—the final. And it was none other than the Brazilians, who overpowered Germany and lifted the trophy with a emphatic 2-0 victory. It was a time to celebrate for the South Americans, who won their fifth world cup.
The three R’s—Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, provided the world cup with some breath taking moments. It was a pleasure to watch these three play and torment the oppositions defense throughout the World Cup.

The 2002 World Cup will be remembered for a long time by the Japanese and the Koreans. It will be remembered for the upsets it had. The cup would be remembered for years, as Asia announced its arrival on global stage. Nonetheless, the 2002 World Cup will be remembered as one of the most exciting world cup ever played in the history of World Cup Football. The focus now shifts to Europe and to the country, rich with Football history, Germany to host a world cup and make it the most memorable one, not only for them, but also for the entire footballing world...

Will He or Won't He?

It is funny, how absence of one player can affect a team. All of a sudden, England's dream of winning the World Cup has taken a setback after Wayne Rooney's injury. England, who were considered as favourites to win the WC, are now labelled as the outsiders for the tournament. But without Rooney, are England actually as weak? Not really. The English team still have some quality strikers, and they certainly cannot be ruled out of the World Cup. We have a look at England side, without Rooney.

First, the efence line. Surely, Rooney's absence will not have a impact on England's defence. With players like Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, John Terry and many more, England's defence looks as good as any other top flight team. They have plenty of experience at the back and with Paul Robinson or David James present between the two poles, England look a difficult side to score against. Then comes mid-field... Boy! Don't they have quality players here... there is Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, Joe Cole, Jermaine Jenas, Shaun Wrigh Phillips, ... Man they have plenty of strenght in the mid field. The important thing here for England is they have experienced players like Becks, Gerrard, Lampard alongwith some promising youngsters in the form of Wright-Phillips, Jenas, etc. So, the things don't look bad here. But then comes the area of concern for them. The forward line. Without Rooney, the forward line looks a bit shaky. Of course, there is Owen, who is quite experienced and a deadly finisher, but who will partner Owen is a million dollar question. There is the tallest English player Peter Crouch, who will be looking to captalise on Rooney's absence. Then there is Michael Carrick, who is most likely to partner Owen after some spectacular performance for Tottenham. Even Jermaine De Foe and Darren Bent will be looking to make most of the opportunity.

Well, without Rooney, England team looks strong enough to challenge any other team in the WC. Its just that the senior players should take the responsibility on their shoulder and play out of their skins. And the group that England are placed in, qualification in the second round is not that difficult, and who know's by then Rooney might be fit! England are set to announce their squad on Monday, will Rooney feature in the squad??? Will Sven Goran Errickson gmble on Rooney??? Well, these quetions will remain unanswered till the squad is announced. Only thing we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope Rooney will be fit...

England's Group: Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden.

First Group Match: 10th June 2006.

Last Group Match: 20th June 2006. (if England go through to the next round, then the possibilities are high that Rooney will play, as it would be around 8-weeks rest for him, which is enough.)

England WC Probables to be annouced on Monday, May 8: (My Guess)

David Beckham

Frank Lampard

Steven Gerrard

Michael Owen

Gary Neville

Sol Campbell

Ashley Cole

John terry

Wayne Bridge

Wes Brown

Ledley King

Jamie Carragher

Jermaine Jenas

Joe Cole

Shaun Wright-Phillips

Peter Crouch

Michael Carrick

Darren Bent

Paul Robinson

David James

WAYNE ROONEY

The Best Evening of My Life...

ACTUALLY MET THIS GUY!!!

WITH HIS WIFE...

THEN IT WAS THE PRESS CONFERENCE...

SHE IS A BEAUTY... TO SAY THE LEAST...

HE IS A NICE GUY... SUFFERS FROM DIABETES...

HE TOO WAS THERE...

A STAR...

State Government Dances on HC Tunes...

So here I was standing outside Tarannum’s house waiting to get her quote on the High Court Order... Believe me her house is awesome. At least it appeared wonderful from outside. Unfortunately, my four-hour wait didn’t pay off as she refused to comment on the issue.
However, I got one thought going through my mind. I was constantly thinking about the HC order on the issue. Was it justified to lift the ban? Of course, it was, I thought to myself. After all this was the only source for earning their daily bread for these girls. You can’t take away their only source of living just because it was against the morality of the society... It was a nightmare for the bar owners after the state government issued the order to close all the dance bars on August 15, 2005 amending the Bombay Police act and exempting the three stars and above graded hotels from this ban. The decision by the HC is welcomed with open arms by the bar girls and the bar owners
Not only did they suffer huge losses but also the unemployment level in the state increased to 75,000, which just added fuel to fire considering that the unemployment level was already high. After the state governments order, most of the bar girls turned to prostitutes. It was very interesting when I spoke to one of the bar girls and she said it was easy for them to earn money at the dance bars rather than wait for the customers at the stations or the roads...
It is not fair to pass the law so easily and annihilate the lives of these workers. This is not Democracy. It was a clear violation of the right to freedom of right and freedom of expression for not only the Bar Girls but also the Bar Owners. They said that young girls are exploited at the bars and most of them working there are minors... Ok I agree with that, but with the dance bars closed, these girls are forced into prostitution, which is a much bigger crime. Undoubtedly, this is a wise decision taken by the government.
So what next for the Bar Girls? For the time being, the bars may have started but it is not being to be as easy as it looks. I am sure most of you know this. Getting the license renewed will be a cause of concern for the owners now. The state government will impose much more strict laws on the bar owners with the ban now lifted. In addition, if the residents of the area oppose the bar in that particular area the bar can be shut. Even the state government has appealed against this decision of the HC.
The Bar Owners may have won the first leg of this interesting fight, the most awaiting part of the story comes now as the Bar Owners and the Girls rehabilitate themselves along with the decision of the Supreme Court, which is indeed a later part of the story but a eagerly awaited one.