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At least in the short term, Apple fans will fall for the good looking, mean and, of course, thin horses from the Cupertino stables. But, of late their so called innovations have little to do with value for users; it is only about innovating to ramp up profits, which is very different from what late Steve Jobs did. Some of the early breakthrough innovations in design from Apple were about thin devices with better display through major breakthroughs. Beyond a point, excessively thin devices will be far too delicate for the rough-and-tumble of a busy day for many. If devices are too thin, then a way must be found to make them rugged and capable of a certain degree of tolerance to bending. This means the next level of innovation, as far as the hardware goes, must be about rugged thin devices, that can flex somewhat. Some cutting-edge innovation is called for. That will depend on radically different combination of materials for body, electronics and display. Apple, now, is not really givin...

Apple Pay - Apple’s digital wallet solution - waving the phone or scratching the watch - is little different from other NFC applications. Apple Pay uses an embedded chip to provide secure NFC. I have a fear that this is a step towards drawing Apple Pay users into a perpetual contract. Unlike a SIM card, an embedded chip cannot be moved to another device. The user will have to continue with Apple products. It will make it harder for an Apple user to switch out. This seems a sure, insidious way of enforcing loyalty. It is not obvious to the user in the beginning. Looks like Apple is leading its fans up the garden path through Apple Pay. Note on digital wallets, NFC, etc: Currently there are several digital wallet platforms. The radio-frequency identification (RFID) payment technology is now widely used in credit cards as a direct interface to the chip. It has also been integrated into smartphone retail payment solutions such as Google Wallet, several prepaid payment cards (e.g., Ge...

Well Said, President Barack Obama!   US President's address to US (10-Sep-2013)   No to gas chambers! World community mustn't allow the mass killings with chemicals! Valdimir Putin , the 70 billion dollar rogue dictator, surely, knows that Obama isn't bluffing! Finally, after stifling the UN, in face of certain consequences, Russia is trying to save its ally - the Syrian tyrant Assad. Russia and China, has not allowed UN to intervene effectively. In the face of clear evidence, they could have built a consensus in the UN to ensure that all chemical weapons in Syria are located and destroyed. That chemical weapons have been freely used is amply demonstrated by the horrific deaths of hundreds in more than one incident.  Russia, BTW, has the notorious distinction of using poison gas in a hostage crisis , when nearly 40-odd suspected armed Chechen rebels took 850 hostages in the Dubrovka Theater, Moscow on 23-Oct-2002. In the official use of poison gas, nearly 130 h...

Belated Reactions to the Poverty Debate Uncouth politicians apart, I am appalled by the misleading discussion by well-informed academics to score cheap brownie points and hog prime time TV limelight. Mihir Shah (The Hindu, 5-Aug-2013) benevolently laments: "There could not be a more ridiculous tragedy of errors on all sides." But this spectacle is surely neither comedy nor tragedy; it involves unethical and unprofessional populist posturing to the point of being utterly disgusting! In one debate (in one of the previous rounds) there was a well-known academic (don't recall the name) who came into the studio flaunting a pouch of the costliest available full-cream milk in Delhi so that the idiots in audience like me shouldn't miss her much laboured point. She dramatically waves that and thunders: How can a mother buy her hungry child a pouch of milk if her "income" is as "prescribed" by planning commission experts? What, indeed, can the poor BPL...

Tributes to Dr Amar Bose, founder Bose Corporation   (11-Feb-1929 -- 12-Jul-2013) Dr Amar Bose, 83, died on July 12,Wayland, Massachusetts. Bose Corp. is the maker of some of the best sound systems in the world. Perhaps, Dr Bose was to acoustic engineering and design, what Steve Jobs was to computing. Very different personality. But he brought in disruptive innovation. The presence of Bose Systems was felt by the sound, not through any visual flamboyance of the product. Some of the systems were totally hidden. Understated elegance with unparalleled sound quality. They were expensive, premium products meant for those who really cared a great deal about sound quality and were willing to pay for it. Bose Corporation is a privately held company, with majority shares given to MIT, by Dr Bose. The dividends support education and research. I finally became a proud owner of a Bose system only recently, when I managed to get a modestly priced product at a Bose store. On that day ther...

Answer ain't blowing in the wind How many puppies must a car run over Before it stops to shed a tear? How many sweet lies must float Before you see the tip of bitter truth? How many thefts Before one real thief is caught? How many encounters to go Before some light on one cold-blooded fake? The answer, my friend Sadly, ain't blowing in the wind! Wool, my friend, is all over your eyes It ain't what it seems But the din of lies Lies: colorful and white Tweeted, posted, printed and, liked Streamed, shared, re-shared, flashed And, doubly faked Richly cooked Optimized on search engines You'll never know But, answer, my friend, we got to find! [ With apologies to Bob Dylan ]

Need to look for specific and immediate actions Frustration, indignation and deep sense of injustice is pervasive – not only in Delhi, but all around. Suddenly, media has started a new page (often runs into more than one page) devoted to violence against women from all over the country. It is depressing and deeply troubling to know of so many cases from all over the country, reported daily. News bits that may have been scattered in different pages or not reported earlier in the media are now being consolidated in one place, almost like a section after the protests in Delhi.  One thing is clear – we need to go beyond the infirmities in laws to tackle the problem. There is pathetic failure in dealing with the culprits. In most cases, while the silent majority is agitated, the culprits (known to all) roam freely looking for the next victim with impunity. The trials (fast track or routine) proceed without proper witnesses. They end mostly without conviction. T...