Notebook for $200. First Step towards future computing.

Hello All,

I purchased my HP laptop with nominal configuration for $1400 in April, 2007. I am sure, that configuration is no longer available and even if it is, it would not cost more than $500. The competitive market is definitely helping the consumers to get a lot value for less money. Laptops with 4GB RAM and latest processor would cost someone around $800 these days. But where is the future heading? Are we going to see the laptop prices going down every day? Are we going to see a laptop with everything (Operating System, Hard Disk Data, and Applications) in the cloud (Cloud Computing) and only has a keyboard and display on the piece in our hand?

I was looking at this video on one of the news letter I read recently and thought this would be the first step towards the future of computing. The smart phones we use today is no less to a computer, except for the fact that you cannot install every possible application on it and of course the processors are not very powerful to run a bigger application. But, if you want to use your laptop to browse internet, check emails and respond to them immediately, and keep yourself updated about the issues going on around the world, don’t you think the smart phones these days are capable enough of doing that? The Blackberry Curve, The Instinct from Sprint, I-Phone with AT&T, HTC Touch Pro, and the most awaited phone of the year The Palm Pre, all these phones are as good as a laptop for internet browsing and email access. Some of these phones have applications which provide even better internet browsing experience than a laptop. The only negative point for the experience on the phone would be the size of the monitor and the keyboard. This could make the experience tiring and stressful if you have to deal with continuous browsing or responding to emails.

This was the inspiration for the company Celio Corp to design an external peripheral to the Smartphone without any Operating System or even a CPU. This great innovation is called the Redfly System and it merely has anything but a graphics processor to provide the necessary graphical experience to the user and a Bluetooth link to connect to the Smart Phone. The complete demonstration of this system can be viewed in the video that I provided above. This is not a completely new concept as Palm introduced something similar to this almost a year back. It was called the Palm Foleo. Please check this video about Palm Foleo. This video actually explains the need for an external display and keyboard very clearly.

Considering that Palm has done this already, you might be wondering what’s the importance and difference in this new Redfly system compared to the one that Palm introduced last year. The prize of the new Redfly System ($200) is very low compared to the Palm Foleo ($499) and technically the Redfly system is less complex than the Foleo as the later had a processor, Linux OS and some other basic applications on it. Another major advantage with the Redfly system is that, its platform independent compared to the Palm Foleo which can only be used with the Palm Smart Phones.

This seems to be a very good idea and it certainly caught the eyes of many major vendors in the smart phones industry. Have to wait and see how this external display device would enter the market and create a wave in the market. The company is ready to launch a device compatible with the Blackberry by the end of this year according to the article I read on the Mobile Handset Design Line website.

References:

1. EE Times for the Video.

2. http://www.mobilehandsetdesignline.com/ – for the Article and release news.

3. http://www.youtube.com/ – For the Palm Foleo Video.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the post, or if you have any updates to the current information provided, please feel free to add comments in the comments section.

Thank you very much for reading my blog.

Sincerely,

Krishna C. Emani.

Why Sprint Nextel has more dropped calls than its competitors AT&T and Verizon?

Hello all,

Sprint Nextel is a company that has been on a revival for quite some time. The market has been responding positively to the radical steps taken by Sprint to create a niche for itself in the telecom market. The customer service has been improving over the past few months, a positive vibe is being created in the market about the improvements in the customer service and the network reception. Thanks to the new CEO Dan Hesse for re-vamping the company and prioritizing these major issues to be addressed. 

One major issue Sprint Customers always faced is the "Higher Dropped Calls Rate". 

Why does Sprint have more dropped calls than its competitors AT&T and Verizon?

This is the topic of my blog and I will be explaining the reasons for this higher dropped call percentage. 

First of all, let me tell you some facts about these three major wireless carriers. 

Verizon uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology and operates in the 800 MHzfrequency range. 

AT&T uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) technology and operates in the 800 MHzfrequency range.

Sprint uses CDMA technology and operates in the 1900 MHz frequency range.

Verizon and Sprint use the CDMA technology while AT&T uses the TDMA technology. Each of these technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages, and we are not going into the details of these technologies as they are not responsible for the drop calls, which is the topic of this blog. The next major observation you might have made is in the frequency range in which these carriers operate. Both AT&T and Verizon operate at 800 MHz frequency and Sprint operates at 1900 MHz frequency. Why am I discussing this point? Are you thinking this is the reason for the increased dropped calls on the Sprint Network? If you are thinking that way, you are right on target. Yes the frequency of operation is the major reason for the dropped calls. 

Let me explain in detail why this is a valid reason.

Any wireless signal propagating in the free space follows something called as free space path loss to determine the power of the signal at the receiver.

P_r = P_t G_t G_r ( λ / 4πd )² 

This is the equation which gives the power of the received signal at the receiver, where Pt is the transmitted power. For more detailed explanation please refer to this page.

As you can see the received power at the receiver is directly proportional to the square of the wavelength of the transmitted signal carrier. As frequency is inversely proportional to the wavelength, lower the frequencies => higher the wavelength and therefore, higher received power. You can clearly observe the decrease in the receiving power as the frequency increases in the table given in the following page. So as the frequency of the signal increases the coverage area of the transmitting antenna reduces. This is exactly the problem faced by Sprint. As you can observe the frequency at which Sprint operates (1900 MHz) is higher than the frequency at which both AT&T and Verizon operate (800 MHz) and as the transmission power of a cell tower is restricted by the FCC regulations, the coverage area of Sprint tower would be lesser than the coverage area of AT&T or Verizon tower. So in order to cover the same area, Sprint needs more transmitting antennas at higher operating frequencies than its competitors operating at lower frequencies.

Easiest thing for us to say is, “why doesn’t Sprint install additional antennas to compensate for the higher frequency range and lower coverage area?” Well Sprint did deploy additional towers everywhere throughout the nation and took extra care to make sure the customers have very less to no dropped calls but in spite of the effort, the network is failing to deliver the results as the higher frequencies are more vulnerable to the surroundings than the lower frequencies. Trees around the cell phone might make the signal weak, black paint can make the signal weak, and there are many other factors that can impact the power of the signal. This creates a lot of holes in the network. This is the reason for increased dropped calls when you are travelling from one location to another.

Another phenomenon called diffraction helps the wireless signal to bend around an obstacle’s edge and reach the receiver. Sprint’s higher frequencies fail to impress in this phenomenon too, as the performance of signal undergoing diffraction is better at lower frequencies than at higher frequencies. The signal bends around the edge of the obstacle better at lower frequencies than at higher frequencies.

Penetration is another phenomenon by which the signal reaches the receiver (cell phone) when you are indoors. Even in the phenomenon, Sprint’s higher frequencies perform badly than its competitors. As the signal penetrates through various obstacles it is attenuated (amplitude reduces as it passes through the walls) and as the frequency increases the rate of attenuation increases, thereby making the signal weak indoors. For additional clarification or explanation of the process please refer to the following white paper.

Finally, these are the reasons for Sprint’s higher drop call rate and lack of signal indoors. You might be wondering, why Sprint chose these higher frequencies when there are so many disadvantages associated with the frequency range? Well that’s a valid question and there is a substantial reason for this selection. I would be discussing the reasons and advantages of selecting this higher frequency range in my later blogs.

Currently Sprint is making an intriguing effort to fill the holes in the network and provide spotless network to its customers by using various technologies like using a broadcaster at home to pull the signals and re-broadcast them in the house, using these repeaters in places of reported signal lose etc. Will it be successful in changing the image that the customers currently have? We have to wait and see.

Thanks a lot for reading my blog. Feel free to leave comments on this discussion or also feel free to email me any questions you might have on the following discussions.

References:

1. http://www.crouse-hinds.com/wirelessIO/PDF/White%20Paper/white_paper_frequencies.pdf

2. http://www.dsprelated.com/showarticle/62.php

3. http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/techtopics/techtopics17.html

Sincerely,

Krishna Chaitanya Emani.

What's the Secret Behind Apple's Success?

Hello all,

Each one of us create a brand for ourselves. When people hear your name they get an image in their mind, whether they like you or hate you, they still get the image accordingly. When you hear the name Microsoft you know its something related to computers, or operating systems, or some new entertainment gadgets like Zune Player and X-BOX. Imagine on a fine day you are going on a walk and you see the alphabet "i" somewhere on the street or even in a book while you are reading. First thing that strikes you is "Apple". They stole the alphabet "i" from the list of 26 alphabets and created a brand out of it. 

Today whether its youngsters or elderly people, if they are planning to buy an MP3 player, it has to be an iPOD. How is this brand image created? What could be the reason for this tremendous success of this company? 

It is very easy for us to say Steve Jobs was the reason for the turn around and success. Well I agree! Steve Jobs is definitely a key factor in the success, but what did he do for the success is what I would like to discuss in this blog. 

Disclaimer: This is what I have understood from the discussions I had with various friends of mine and read in various places. This is just an opinion and observation but not intended to hurt anyone in any way.

According to me, the iPOD Nano's, the iPOD Touch, the iPhone and everything thats a huge hit today is an excellent combination of hardware and software integration. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of any product from APPLE has set a bench mark which only an APPLE product can break in the future. Their easy to use interface and great applications that can be used on their products needs no mention or special appreciation again.

Apart from all this hardware and software excellence, there is something which many of us do not recognize as a major step for the success of the APPLE as a company. That is iTUNES. This is where the marketing brilliance and master mind of Steve Jobs comes into picture. His skills to contact every major audio company and come to agreements with them to sell any of their audio songs through iTunes was extraordinary. What this did what mass advertising for APPLE. Every audio CD or advertisment has a line which says, you can download your favorite track from iTUNES for as less as 99 cents per song. 

By doing this, APPLE has been the only company to provide any song to the customer for only 99c and there by allowing the customer to not buy the entire album just because he likes one or two songs in the album. To use iTunes to good effect and get the best out of the deal of buying your favourite song for 99c, the only option or let me say the best option available for the customers was to use an APPLE MP3 players which are so well designed to be compatible with iTUNES. 

I can definitely not single out and say, this is the sole reason for the success of APPLE as a brand. But this is a commendable display of advertising skills and needs appreciation from all of us. Most of us who are into technical stuff day in and day out forget to appreciate the minds that take the pain of presenting the technology to the people and making us stand in the market. This is a true example of how a company can turn around with proper coillation between the technology, management and marketing sectors of a company.

Please leave your comments about what you think on this and whether I was write in analyzing the marketing strategy. I am no guru or even a good student in marketing. I am a Rookie in the field of Marketing and I am just trying to analyze and understand some strategies. 

Thanks you all for looking at my blog.

Sincerely,

Krishna C. Emani 

Making a video using Windows Movie Maker

In this blog I am going to discuss the steps involved in making a movie using Windows Movie Maker.

1. Open Windows Movie Maker. Usually you dont find the icon on the desktop, so you have to search for it or open it from the start menu.

2. Select all the pictures, videos and the audio songs (for Background of the movie) which you want to involve in the movie. You can do this by dragging and dropping the items in the windows movie maker or Click on File -> Import Media Items.

3. Once you select all the pictures that you want to include in your movie, you are at the door step of creating your first movie.

4. The simplest way to create a movie is to click on the option "Auto Movie" on the top of the toolbar. This would arrage all the pictures and videos you imported into a movie and you can see a preview of the movie in the window to the right.

5. But if you want to make a sensible movie, by selecting an audio song matching the situation of the pics and videos you have, you need to spend a little more time. Well, infact quite some time. If you observe the windows movie maker screen, you will find a Video, Audio/Music and the Title Overlay options.

6. From the imported media, select the pictures you want to add to the video and drag them and drop them on the Video Bar.

7. Select the Song or Audio file you want to use as a background into the Audio Bar.

8. You can arrange the timing of each picture by dragging the length of the picture in the video bar. You can see the timing of each picture by looking at the timeline bar above the video bar. If you want to go to minute timing details, you can zoom into the timeline by clicking on the zoom option.

9. To add special effects to the pictures in your video e.g. Zoom In, Fade, Pixelate etc, right click on the picture in the video bar and click on the effects option. Select the effect you would like to use and click add. You will find all the effects in the window to the right and click OK. To get a preview of how your pic looks with the special effects, you can click on the play button on the right and view the pic.

10. Adding titles and credits. You can do this by clicking on Tools -> Titles and Credits. Then you can either add the titles at the beginning of the video on a blank screen or select the picture on which you want to add the titles. By doing this you can make your video more inteactive. You can do this to any picture and add the subtitles to make the video informative.

11. Transitions: You can manage how one picture disappears and the next picture appears in your video by using the transitions. Click on Tools -> Transitions. Select the transition style you would like to use and drag and drop that in the timeline where you want to use this transition.

12. Sometimes you might want to remove the audio of the video you recorded and just use the background music. When you add the video, you find an additional Audio bar added to the video bar. You can right click on that Audio and click the option mute.

13. Once you make all the arrangements of the pictures, transitions, audio, titles and credits, you have to save the movie. Click File -> Publish Movie -> This Computer -> Enter the Name of the Movie and select a place to save the video -> Select the Recommended option and click Publish.

This might take a few minutes but you are all done, and you have a mpg video saved on your computer.

You can play this on any computer now, you can write a CD or a DVD and play it on your TV or projector. You will love to see yourself on a huge screen dont you?

I tried to cover most of the points but of course not every detail. I am sure you will be able to figure out the other trivial parts of this process. If you got any questions, feel free to post them and I will reply to you personally or make a post addressing the issue.

Hope this post helps some of you create some simple videos. This is a sample video that I made picturizing the feelings of my undergrad friends, when we met 2 years after our graduation. Feel free to leave comments on the video too.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7102057580557078607&ei=SckFSp2SCZSkrQL2p4nFCw&q=auroreunion

Thanks,
Krishna Chaitanya Emani.