Apple decides how you should hold your iPhone4!!!

The internet is full of posts, videos and discussions about the iPhone4 antenna issues. I just could not pass this opportunity without giving my 2 cents. Every antenna designer knows this for a fact that touching an antenna will cause signal attenuation. When Apple decided to tout the antenna as feature in its release presentation of the iPhone4 people were talking about Apple having the answer for AT&T's issue of signal and coverage. Instead of spending time and money on such important aspect of the iPhone Apple decided it would be more fruitful to invest the same on breaking down Jason Chen's door. Apple's response to this issue is that you are holding the phone incorrectly or get yourself an Apple bumper paying $29. I have a feeling Apple decided to make this antenna issue a feature so that they can sell more bumpers (I know this sounds far fetched, but I will not be surprised if it is true).

Renewing your Indian passport!!!

Everyone has always expressed nightmarish experience when renewing their Indian passport. I am going to share my experience of renewing my passport, surprisingly it was a pleasant experience. I had gone to apply for the passport in person; if you apply in person you have to collect it in person too. I am not going to go in detail about the documents required as I believe that all required documents are clearly mentioned on the website. Take copies and original of all required documents. One thing to keep in mind is that the consular section is not located along with the Indian embassy. It is located at a different address, mentioned on the website as the mailing address for application of passport by mail.

One and only rule that you need to adhere to is to get to the consular office as early as you can. The doors of the consular office open at 9:30am but the counters do not open until 10:00am. I would suggest getting to the consular office by 9:00am. If you plan on driving, like I did, you will have to park on the street parking available on one of the side roads. Majority of the street parking are 2 hour limit, plan accordingly. Read the signs on the road regarding parking twice before actually leaving the car, signs can be confusing at times.

Once the consular office doors open you need to go in and get yourself a ticket from the ticket dispenser at the center of the room. You will be served only if you have a ticket, do not believe in the appointment time given on the website. When your ticket number is called go up to the counter, there is a middle aged Indian lady who will check you application and give you receipt. If you need you passport under the "tatkal" scheme you will have an interview with the passport officer. I will not go into the details about the "tatkal" scheme as it is quite confusing and it is best left to the lady at the counter. Be nice when you talk to the lady, she is just doing her job and it is pointless to behave like an idiot. Aggravating her does not help your case in anyway nor does it help the others who are waiting in line after you.

I applied for the passport under the tatkal scheme. The lady noted my name down and called me once the passport officer had come between 11:00 - 11:30am. The passport officer checked my application and asked me the reason for applying for the passport under the "tatkal" scheme. I wrote a letter stating my reason for applying and once he double checks everything you go back to the counter and hand in the application form and the fee and collect your receipt. The passports under "tatkal" scheme are given the same day at around 4:30PM.

I hope that this does help you if you are applying for an Indian passport, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I am not an authority on it but will help you to the best of my knowledge. Please note this experience is accurate as of June 1st 2010, when I renewed my passport.

What is Jobs smoking???

Steve Jobs recently took a shot at Adobe with his Thoughts on Flash. After reading it, the first thought that came to my mind was --- "What was he smoking?". Lets take a look at some of the aspects that Jobs presented in it. I am not going to quote anything from what Jobs wrote, I am just going to write what my take is on each of the reasons as to why Apple doesnt want Adobe Flash on its devices.

Adobe Flash not being "Open". Probably what Steve Jobs doesnt know is that Adobe Flash is actually quite open, both SWF and FLV are in fact open standards. On the contrary the entire iTunes App store, iPhone and iPad are all as closed as the Great Chinese Firewall.

Jobs position on the "full web".  Adobes claim that Apple iPhone and iPad users are missing out on a lot of web content is in fact the brutal truth. There are tons of Adobe flash based games which would ideal for these devices. Why would Apple not want Adobe Flash is so that they can in reality make iPhone and iPad users depend solely on the iTunes App store and thus they can drive the sales up and with iAd generate revenue from placing advertisement inside the Apps.

Reliability, security and performance. Jobs claims that Adobe Flash is responsible for majority of Macs crash and the reason why they dont want it on iPhone and iPad, fair enough. Just before that he states that according to Symantec Flash has the worst security record in 2009. All software's have security bugs always, doesn't OS X and and other Apple technology not have security bugs. Have people noticed the size of security updates that come out from Apple each time. So should we stop running Apple software on Apple devices because of this.

Then there was touch. Probably Jobs doesnt keep himself updated about features of Adobe Flash or he is just a big fat liar, I would put my money on the latter. Adobe Flash 10.1 does support multi touch.

The most important reason to top it off. In reality Apple wants to complete control on what you can do with its technologies. It doesn't want you to use cross platform compilers as then developer can reuse code and companies can reduce costs. In essence Apple wants developers to develop only for Apple products, an indirect way to keep you from other devices. Oh yeah Adobe has just adopted famed Cocoa now after 10 years but iTunes still hasn't. Probably Apple should be worried about its backyard before it starts pointing fingers at others.

To conclude, in my opinion Steve Jobs is a big fat liar and Apple is the devil in disguise. I am no Adobe evangelist, I am just a guy next door.

Apple's "love" for developers

My friend Jon sent me this link (I borrowed the image from) which gives you a very good perspective on how much Apple "loves" developers. In my opinion it is not just the developers who get so much love, but also its users. Apple believes that it can decide on how you can use its devices. For example lets consider the keyboard extension cable that comes along with your Mac Pros. Its nothing but a simple USB extension cable with a notch in it to prevent you from using it with any USB device except the Apple's crappy aluminum keyboard, which are a disaster ergonomically.

Apple's evil eyes fall on ARM

Talking about take overs, seems like Apple is interested in taking over ARM. The question that comes to mind is what is motivating Apple to make this move. Apple does use the ARM processor in its iPhone and iPod touch. When it comes to the iPad uses its own A4 processor which is based on the ARM architecture. One would think the reason why Apple wants to acquire ARM would be so that it can have a better control on the processor it uses a lot and take the design in house like the A4. My take on this is that it is actually to have a better on control on who uses ARM processor. Off late HTC is giving Apple a run for its money and the Android based devices that HTC makes use the ARM processor. I believe the only reason Apple is wants to takeover ARM is so that it will be able to control HTC's use of the ARM processor. This is just another way of Apple to take out its competitor, people who believe Apple can do no evil should rethink if its true. In fact, Apple is as evil if not more than Microsoft.

Whats all this ranting about?

I am an opinionated person and love to express my opinion. Many times I am extremely vocal about the opinions I hold. The people who have been enduring this all this while have been mostly my friends and co-workers. After a conversation with my friend Memo, I felt why should they be the only people who have to endure my wrath. Starting with this post today I will express some of my opinions in a public forum. Let the rants begin.