The Band

August 1st just went by and the whole world celebrated it with loads of fanfare as "Friendship Day". All I remember about it was that my Text messages were being charged and that is one thing I hate the most. I had friends wishing me from the previous day itself and it felt good to know certain good friends still remain in my life.

That very evening I went shopping with my folks to a mall and saw something that pricked me to an extent. I saw many youngsters,school kids,college kids at the mall and all with their mobiles in their hands and I managed to overhear a conversation between two girls. Here is a jist:

Girl 1: OMG you he sent me a message...i think he has written it himself..
Girl 2: what message?
G1: A friendship day message duh! He wants to be my best friend
G2: yea? that is awesome! But you know that xyz girl tied him a friendship band in class..
G1: whaaat?? that is so lame! so cheap! I mean who ties friendship bands now? You can as well gift your friend stuff or write it on facebook.

This small bit made me think all night....when we were school, the number of friends we had were measured by the number of friendship bands we had on our hands. Some girls had both their hands filled and I always had 1 or none. But tying these bands on the wrist's of the 'friends' we had always brought in a sense of excitement. We would start coaxing mom to give us money to buy those fancy friendship bands but then settle for ribbons or 'mom-made' ones. I remember clearly a scene from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai where SRK has these friendhship bands in his pocket and tying them on every girl's hand. And to see today,from what I overheard... the question that kept popping up was... "Are the Bands no more the 'In' thing?" I know friendship is never measured by all this but then what just happened that all of a sudden they were not used anymore?

In the mall amongst a crowd of 50,000, I could count the number of kids with a friendship band. It is a question I will always ask myself. Will you?

Art Of Chilling weekend

Finally I am out of my Chilled mode after I got tickets to watch 'Salt' in the F-row at Inox sponsored by Fosters.It took me a week to get back to normal after that chilling saturday evening with Fosters and Angelina Jolie *sigh*.

Cut to 8pm Sat eve....Tickets in hand all geared up and excited to watch Salt with two boxes of popcorn n cola I was prepared to enjoy the flick! But then there was another distraction before I could walk into the hall. The awesome foot massaging machine! I just couldnt resist it and jumped into it(quite literally) and enjoyed 10 mins of the best foot massage I have ever ever got till date! (That is precisely why I was still chilling :P) 8.15....It was showtime!

The movie as a package was a drab! Wasnt packaged well. Jolie looked frail n bad...story went haywire and we were put off. There was zero glam in it and all action. This wasnt expected from a movie that starred Angelina Jolie. But I would give full points for the action sequences. After Tomb Raider,I saw Jolie performing such stunts with great effort and they were the only good part.

The other good part was the cushions and the GOODIES we got from fosters! Loved the total experience of the F-row! Totally defined the 'Art of Chilling' :)

Phone Review- Samsung Wave

My Review of the new Samsung Wave

Samsung Wave – GT5800

OS: Bada

Samsung has launched the Wave GT5800 recently with an aim to dislodge its competitors in the same segment from their reigning position. In a certain way, it succeeds. But in many ways, more than one, it miserably fails too. All in all, it is a good handset that may appeal to many people out there but it may also be a resounding turn on off for many others too. Read on to know more in detail.

First its features that are hands down win.

1.       Graphic User Interface: Samsung has scored a six on the very first ball with its amazing GUI design. The menus and the TouchWiz™ 3.0 interface are a total win and similar phones in the same segment seem lacking for development. Simple intuitive features like swipe from left to right on a contact’s name to make a call or a swipe from right to left to send a message are innovative features that may in the future become a common thing of use.

2.       HD Video Recording: HD Recording is another feature that has been missing in this segment of handsets. There are very few handsets out in the market that support full HD recording and even the ones that are present are expensive. Samsung has scored another one here by providing HD Recording at an affordable price.

3.       Samsung App Store: Although an App store is not a novelty and many handset makers have implemented it as a successful working model, Samsung wins in this because it majorly pushes apps that are free and not a burden on the user’s pocket. Samsung is well aware that in this day and age of piracy where cracked or hacked software is not very difficult to procure; it is in the consumers’ best interests to have an app store which can provide to the consumers’ needs for free. This does not mean that the developers who have developed the apps are left in a no man’s land where they cannot charge for the efforts that they have put in. If one face of the coin reads heads, the other has to read tails. Samsung also has provided for those developers who want to charge for their effort and seek a price for their piece of software.

4.       Social Hub: Samsung has made all efforts to make this phone social networking centric; and they have been successful too. To a large extent by integrating and merging existing contacts and their social lives in one, Samsung has been able to successfully let a user know whether it actually is a good time to speak to anyone. It seamlessly pulls data not only from Facebook and Twitter but also now slowly getting obsolete Orkut.

5.       Super AMOLED Screen: Samsung has implemented Super AMOLED screen which is supposed to have improved touch support as well as improved clarity and better display of colors. While I am not too sure of the improved touch support, I definitely feel that the phone is able to display its colors better as well has a very good clarity.

While we see that the phone definitely has good features, like every handset in the market, the phone has its own Achilles’ heel too. Now for the drawbacks visible on the phone.

1.       Phone Length: The phone is very long and definitely catches a peek from the shirt’s pocket. The phone has all chances of slipping out and falling to the ground when you bend down to pick stuff up. The phone’s length also plays havoc when one wants to use it with just one hand. It becomes really difficult to reach the farthest end of the screen when one attempts to perform any one handed operation. Although it is not too much trouble when typing messages etc. it does become difficult when one wants to check the notifications or turn on services from the topmost battery menu.

2.       Camera quality: Although the phone supports HD recording as well as wide screen photo capture, it does not mean that the quality of images churned out are too good. At best, they may work well with just posting on a forum or for regular share but if one is under an impression that these may also be taken out for a print or two then it’s a very long thought! Adjusting the settings does not give too much of an improvement and till date since a week’s usage, I have not been able to find the time when the photo captures are at its ultimate best.

3.       Phone Profile Management: It is a well-known fact in today’s day and age that every person lives multiple lives. While one has a life at home, there is a different life out there in the office or with friends or while riding or while even listening to Music! At best, though Samsung has given multiple profiles for the user to use, it has failed to capitalize on it by giving it an appropriate way to use. The fastest way to use profiles would be from within the Settings Menu. This definitely is not very comfortable considering the fact that it often happens you forget to change the profile just as you leave work for home. Stopping by to quickly shift profiles at a signal while waiting for it to change is a remote thought.

4.       Screen Space Usage: Samsung although has implemented a very large screen, it has failed miserably in the number of lines it can display while in the landscape mode with the QWERTY keyboard mode on. And if you are planning to review the SMS and edit it before sending it out, then please take note that this is one herculean task!

5.       Physical Keys: Samsung has provided with three physical keys just below the touch sensitive screen which are supposed to be used off and again, the same are absolutely impossible to locate if you are unfamiliar with the layout of the phone. Welcome to a phone with absolutely no back lighting to highlight the physical keys. Of the three keys, one is used to pick up a call and another to reject/end a call; the third is the most important and is used to bring up the menu. The keys can be felt in the dark, but that’s just not what is expected.

Battery Life: During my usage of the phone, I found the battery life to vary very heavily. The phone lasted me a good two days and yet had not turned off after playing very little of Asphalt-5, GPRS usage and a few phone calls and messages. However, when the phone had a continuous play of Asphalt-5, it lasted me just one day.

Verdict: The phone is a good package and of the drawbacks can be ignored; it makes for a good buying decision and investment.

Package Contents:

1.       Handset

2.       Battery

3.       In-Ear Headphones

4.       Data Cable

5.       Travel Charger

6.       2GB Memory Card and Adapter

7.       2 x Samsung KIES CD

8.       Phone Manual

9.       Phone Leather Pouch