Categories
Mobile Technology

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge: Next is Now or is it?

Source: Samsung Mobile Facebook Page.
Source: Samsung Mobile Facebook Page.

By now I’m sure you have already seen ” The Next is Now ” ads from Samsung. The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge is the biggest change to the Galaxy S series.

Samsung made amazing feature-packed phones that were comfortable in the hand and very functional but always lacked in the aesthetics department according to critics and consumers alike.

New Premium Design

Now with the Galaxy S6 and the S6 edge, Samsung has geared to move away from the “cheap plasticy design” . The Galaxy S6 has been redesigned completely. Even the code name for the phone was “Project Zero”. The plastic is gone and it’s replaced with an all glass and metal design that honestly looks gorgeous and feels premium to the touch. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after using the Galaxy S6 edge for a week, I am beginning to love this phone. The premium design of this phone is everything.

Galaxy-S6-Edge-colorsThere are two version of the phone. Galaxy S6, which is the flat ‘vanilla’  phone that everyone is used to and Galaxy S6 edge which has a dual-curve display, the first of its kind.

The Galaxy S6 comes in four colours: White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, and Blue Topaz. The Galaxy S6 Edge will comes in four colours as well: White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, and Green Emerald. I personally find the Green Emerald the best looking out of all. My second best is Black Sapphire, which is what I have because the Green Emerald is not out in Canada yet – we might not even get it. Regardless of which one you get, they are all beautiful premium looking colours. I was thinking of getting the Note 4, but when I saw how beautifully the S6 edge was designed and how elegantly it reflected light, I knew I had to get it.

This is the first time I have picked look and feel over practicality.

It is mesmerizing to watch the light bounce off from the phone’s back and front(top and bottom). But the beautiful glass and metal design comes with some drawbacks. It feels smooth in the hand but it also feels a bit delicate. I have heard people say that they’re always afraid of dropping it. Even imagining the all glass phone slip and fall from the hand is a very scary. It is also very sleek and slides off even with the slightest incline on any surfaces. I have dropped my phone 3 times in the past 1 week already – not from my hand, but from the edge of a sofa, table and chair. I have to mention that the Gold Platinum colour is a fingerprint magnet.

The edge

Side by side comparison of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. Source: Mashable.com
Side by side comparison of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.
Source: Mashable.com

The S6 edge and S6 are identical in terms of specs and almost identical in terms of software. The edge’s screen curves on both sides. It also costs a $100 more than the S6. At first I thought I am not going to spend a $100 on something I have no use for and even now it is true; the edge has no practical use. It is purely for aesthetics. There are some features specific to the edge but they’re superficial and gimmicks at most. The edge can display the time and news updates when you rub your finger against it and it can also act as a night clock – none of which I have any use for. You can pick 5 of your favourite contacts which you can swipe from the edge to call, email or text. I have found this useful, but it is definitely something I can live without.

So why did I buy the S6 edge and not the S6? The edge despite having no practical use, is just simply gorgeous to look at. It feels very different and novel in my hand. It’s unlike anything I have experienced with a phone. Sliding your fingers or thumb  to swipe right or left has that unique  hard to describe wow factor and is a joy both to the sense of touch and sight. The way objects on screen curve in from the edge or disappear into it is something that once you get a taste of, you will never want to go back to the plan flat screen – who wants that now? Not me. Videos also look better on the edge. It almost seems like videos are hovering slightly above the phone. It’s one of those things you have to actually experience it to know.

So is the extra $100 worth it? YES! I’ll be keeping my phone for at least 2 to 3 years and although I want functionality, I also want something that I will enjoy.

No removable battery, No mirco SD card slot – A no go for some

20150512_223133Before the Galaxy S6, Samsung had always boasted having in their phones removable battery and expandable memory with a micro SD card slot. But this meant that their phones had to be made of plastic so that people could easily remove the back which a lot of people found to be too cheap looking. I owned a Galaxy S3 and I thought the plastic back was fine and I say that it did look beautiful. I cannot say the same for the Galaxy S4 or Galaxy S5.

Samsung ads in the past even made fun of people who owned other phones without a removable battery calling them “Wall Huggers”, so the move to not having the option to remove the battery was a surprising one but it was something that Samsung had to do to make the S6 a ‘premium’ designed phone.

Even I was a bit disappointed and almost bought a Note 4 instead of an S6. What changed my mind was the new beautiful design, fast charging, better finger print scanner, awesome camera and built-in wireless charging.

The S6 and S6 edge comes in 3 sizes, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. I had 32GB on my S3 and never carried a micro SD card so I bought the 64GB because of bigger files for the 4K video and larger photo file size.

Battery life isn’t that great, I have heard from other people and I have experienced it myself, but the fast charging compensates for it…sort of. There is a Galaxy S6 battery pack too, although I haven’t seen it in any stores yet. I might find this useful as I always carried a spare battery with me.

Camera

Samsung phones have always had great cameras and the Galaxy S6 is no exception. In fact it has one of the best camera phones out there. It has a 16M rear facing camera with optical image stabilization,  f1.9 aperture for better low light results and a 5MP wide angle front facing camera which is great of group selfies. I have found the front facing camera to have a bit of distortion. The rear facing camera seems to have it too. You might not light it if you are too picky otherwise it can hardly be noticed.

Another great feature that hardly gets mentioned is double tapping the home button quickly launches the camera. It’s one of those things you don’t know you need until you have it.

Fingerprint Scanner

The S6 fingerprint scanner is ‘touch to authenticate’ and is a definite improvement from the Note 4’s awkward swipe method.

Wireless Charging

photograph by Kapil Bulsara.
photograph by Kapil Bulsara.

At first this was something I didn’t really care about until I started using it in conjunction with upload Camera roll to One Drive while charging.(check out my article on how One Drive can be useful “Home Media Server and Cloud – Plex and One Drive”  section.) Normally I prefer fast charging, but if I quickly want to upload my pictures to OneDrive, I just place it on the wireless charger and bam! I’m charing my phone and uploading photos at the same time.

Built-in wireless charging also means this phone is future proof. Check out my article on Current trends and possible future of wireless charging. 

Processor and Ram

The Galaxy S6 packs a Samsung Exynos 1.5GHz  octa-core and 3GB DDR4 RAM. That’s geek for “it’s insanely fast”!

Display

It’s a 5.1 inch 1440 x 2560 pixels (~577 ppi pixel density) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. That’s geek for “super awesome looking screen” and frankly it is super overkill too. I doubt that anyone can tell the difference between that many ppi vs Note 4 or Iphone 6. But do I like it? YES!

So that’s my take on the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. If you’re reading this, you might be wondering if you should upgrade or not. That’s a tricky question. I was always a function over form kind of person and this phone changed that. If you have an android phone that is older than a year or 2 years, I say yes, definitely upgrade. If you’re tied to the apple ecosystem and have an iPhone. This phone was designed to lure in iPhone users and I can confidently say most of you will be pleasantly surprised by the S6 edge. However, if you own a phone that’s less than a year old, my recommendation is to just wait at least a year. The new Iphone and Note 5 will be coming out this year. Finally if you are one of those people who need to get the latest and most cutting edge tech then yes definitely get the Galaxy S6 edge, it literally has an edge over every other phone,… in fact it has two!

Categories
Travel

Why I Love the Seasons in Canada

Most people who are not Canadians think that Canada is nothing more than a cold wintery land, but that is far from the truth. Yes there are parts of Canada which seem to receive more winter than there are days in a year, but most Canadians get to experience each of the 4 seasons. Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn.

Winter

nathan-philips-square-toronto_60487_600x450
Source: nationalgeographic.com

Winter is awesome. Do you know why? Because snow is awesome,  snow is beautiful. There cannot be a white christmas without snow and honestly a Christmas isn’t really Christmas until there is snow on the ground. I know because until the age of 17 the only time I saw a  snowy Christmas was in movies. It was not until I actually experienced a snowy Christmas that I knew there was no better way to experience this holiday.

Source: http://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/mcdonalds-fan-zone-opens-friday-at-2015-iihf-world-junior-championship-in-montreal-que
Source: http://www.hockeycanada.ca

Winter in Canada means winter sports – ice skating, hockey, ice fishing, skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, building snow angels, snow fights and so much more. Ice Hockey, or just Hockey as it is called in Canada is something that helped me get introduced to the Canadian culture when I first moved here. Not only that, Hockey is actually a very fun game to watch. It’s fast-paced with constant action and has committed die hard fans of the game. In fact one of my unforgettable moments of life is related to Hockey.  Whether it’s hockey or skating on a frozen lake, winter gives many bonding experiences for families.

Niagara Falls, Canada in Winter
photographed by Kapil Bulsara. kapilbulsara.com

It also helps that winter looks stunningly beautiful. Take a look at this picture of Niagara Falls in winter.

Another thing that I like about Winter is that it gives you an appreciation of all the other seasons. As much as all the fun things that happen in Winter, it is not an easy season. It can sometimes take a toll on people especially from getting bombarded by snow storms, or extremely cold wind chills. But that is also something that I like about winter – it gives you an appreciation of the other seasons. It gives you something to look forward to.

Spring

Cheery Blossom
Photograph by Kapil Bulsara. kapilbulsara.com

The frost melts, the snow turns to rain to give much needed source of life to the earth. The joy of casting away winter boots and winter jackets and winter tires and winter everything for the first time in months gives a bright new outlook to the coming months, the same way that the ground that was frozen for months turns green to mark the beginning of pleasant things to come and the lifeless branches of trees that seemed to have disappeared start to show signs of life, declaring the start of a new season with the first flowers in months.

Many Canadians start their gardening projects in spring, cyclists start riding again and you start to see more people on walking on walkways.

Summer

source: cbc.ca
source: cbc.ca
Kapil Bulsara kapilbulsara.com
Kapil Bulsara
kapilbulsara.com

The polar opposite of Winter, Summer is the season of BBQ, outdoor sports such as soccer baseball and volleyball, picnics in parks, tanning at beaches, cottage trips, swimming in lakes, running, jogging, cycling, and a whole lot more. T-Shirts, shorts, sundresses and skirts, flip-flops and sandals and hats and cool shades – what’s not to love about summer? Summer is another big season for families and friends to bond whether it is having drinks on a patio or sleeping in a tent under the stars on a summer camping trip.

There are also many festivals and events that take place in the summer. For 3 amazing months Canadians forget that they ever knew what winter was and soak in all the warmth of the season. Summer is a time for celebration for one more reason – Canada Day!

Autumn

Source: http://crazy-frankenstein.com/
Source: http://crazy-frankenstein.com/

Out of all the seasons in Canada, the most bright and colourful one is Autumn. You will find the symbolic Canadian maple tree displaying yellow, bright orange and red across the country. It marks the end of summer as the air starts to get chilly. Shorts and dresses fade to make way for warm hoodies and light jackets. The last few trips to the cottage to experience the beautiful colours displayed by nature and to indulge in the final s’more of the year while sitting gathered around family or friends around a campfire make this season worthwhile.

That’s my take on the beautiful seasons in Canada. Each seasons makes us Canadians appreciate all the other seasons and since each season will only last 3 months we know how to make it count.

 

Categories
Self Development

Unforgettable Moments that Subtly Change Your Life

There are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. No matter how long you live, and how well your ability to remember is, inevitably most days will be forgotten as we move forward in time and rightfully so. Our minds and hearts need to be focussed on the present most of the time with occasional drifts of thought and experience forward into the future or backward into past.

If you have lived long enough to be able to read this then you know what I am talking about and there can be no exceptions, unless you have Hyperthymesia( and even then I understand you will remember most days in your life)

Many days and many more moments will be forgotten but there will be some that will remain forever engraved into our memory for as long as we live. I can pick out a few of those moments which I will never forget.

The Spiritual Bridge

In 2001, I was in India with my family. We went to visit places in North India. Places like New Delhi, the capital of India and Agra, the home of the symbolic Taj Mahal were on the itinerary. One place which was not really on our itinerary, but which later become one of the place that we visited out of being a transit place en route to one of our main destinations was Rishikesh. I can’t remember where we were headed, but in order to be there at a particular time we had to depart from our starting point very early in the morning. We got onto a big open rickshaw at four in the morning with 6 or 5 other tourists. It was a dark and chilly ride to Risikesh. My family huddled together. No one including the other passengers uttered a word. All we could hear was the sound that the rickshaw engine made and the wind that blew on our faces. It was too early for chitchat, everyone was sleepy.

Rishikesh_-_Lakshman_Jhula
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshman_Jhula

It was still dark when we reached Rishikesh. We visited two very small temples and then were instructed to visit another temple before crossing the famous suspension bridge called the Lakshman Jhula. We were slowly making our way across the bridge when I started to notice something in the water of the Ganges below and the forest on the mountains behind us. At first I thought I was only imagining it, but then it became evident that it was really happening. The colour of the water started to change. It had been hidden by the darkness before and all that was evident was the sound of the water, but now it was displaying a dark shade of green. The trees behind us started to make themselves visible. The cables of the suspension bridge were becoming visibly clear. Then the water below us turned into a slightly brighter shade of green and the sky became brighter. I stopped and stood watching  the water below, the trees behind us and the sky. I then noticed the colour of the water changing. A certain sense of unprecedented awe took over me as I finally saw the sun peek ever so slightly and then I witnessed the colour of the water turn emerald. There were many little temples on the other side of the river which now glistened with gold as they were getting revealed by the sun’s rays.

But the time we were on the other side of the bridge, I knew there was something inside of me that  had just changed. I knew that that moment was going to be special and even today as I write this I am awestruck by its memory.

Standing in the Sky

 If you have never done sky diving or parasailing or paragliding, then you definitely need to do it at least once in your life time. Sky diving was one of the things on my “list”. If you don’t have a “list” I suggest you start building one. It was basically a list of things that you want to do, places that you want to go to, goals that you want to achieve in your life.

I am not going to lie. Sky diving is a scary experience. The fear was there and in huge doses, but I learned to live with the policy ” If you fear it, you must do it” and so I did it. Unlike most people, my real thrill was not jumping from a plane and it was not even falling 200 kms. Don’t get me wrong, those were part of an amazing experience, but for me the moment that I remember best is when the parachute opened and it felt like I had suddenly stopped falling. I looked down and I could see the trees, the runway for the plane from which I jumped from and the sky meeting the horizon. That moment, that sudden change in pace was the moment that I will never forget. It was as if after falling uncontrollably I had suddenly stopped and was standing mid air looking down at the world. It didn’t matter where I was, what had happened yesterday or what was going to happen tomorrow. I was in that moment and that moment only.

The Golden Goal

I have tried to describe this moment many times in the past, but I have yet to come up with the perfect words that really encapsulate this moment. All the times that I have talked about this moment has been around people who experienced it first hand and words don’t need to be used because they know what the moment was and how it felt and an uncontrollable smile of pure joy gets painted on their face.

2010_Winter_Olympics_logo.svgThe 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was a time when the entire country of Canada was united as one. I remember getting my picture taken with me holding the Olympic Torch when it came to Toronto – it was surreal. As the events progressed, the people who were not fully hooked by such an event an the Olympics started to get engulfed in the spirit of the games and in the spirit of Canada. There are many other memorable moments including the song “I Believe” which did as much as the games itself to bring the nation together.  But the moment that will go down in history is the golden goal of the golden game, the final event of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Men’s Ice Hockey Final between Canada and the USA. Hearts stopped when USA scored an equalizer 25 seconds away from a Canadian victory taking the game into overtime. Then 7 minutes 40 seconds into overtime magic happens and the whole nation all at once jump with arms in the air. If you’re a Canadian you should watch the video above.

Those were my top 3 unforgettable moments yet. What are yours? Please comment below and share if you like or if you have any suggestions.

Categories
Philosophy Psychology

The Art of Not Failing

Success is a very relative term. Everyone views success differently. The most acceptable measure of success is wealth. The wealthier you are the more success you are. However what success means to the individual is not necessarily dependent on the perception of their state to the outside world. A person who earns 10 million dollars in a year in personal income may be a success person  for most people, but to that person, they may feel like a failure because their state does not conform to their rules of success. For someone else who earns minimum wage, works hard for a living, has no car and comes home to an empty apartment may not be “succesful” in the eyes of the general public, but to that person they may be successful because their rules of success are different – may be success for them is knowing that they are alive for another day.

Knowing that success is a very relative term and it is dependent on the person judging whether someone or even they themselves are successful or not.

But what about failure? Is failure a relative term too? Is it not true that there can be 2 people in the same situation where  there was some sort of failure or loss. One person may see that as failure, the other might see it as an opportunity or simply a setback. If that is true, would it not mean that success and failure are merely states dependent on your rules and perception. Ask yourself whether you are truly successful or  truly a failure.

Success may not be guaranteed, failure can also be not guaranteed. But there is a sure way to not fail. If you never want to fail, the surest way to do it is to never try.

Never Try, Never Fail

This is the motto of zombies. These zombies walk around around in fear or failing and in doing so never try new things, never follow their dreams or worse don’t have any dreams, have nothing that they are passionate about, or if they are they hide it, burry it deep within them so the urge to purse it never comes and thus making sure that they never try and consequently never fail.

But is not failing, really succeeding? If not losing, really winning? Is it even living? The inability to fail is also the inability to succeed. This is stagnation.

So if you want to master the art of not failing, you must master the art of not trying.

 

Categories
Philosophy

The Story of My Life

You are in line at the bank and when finally your turn comes to get served, you find that the bank teller does not greet you with a smile, does not answer your question properly and you generally find their attitude very rude. You decide that that person is just a rude person and then carry on with your day.

While on the way home you pass a person, your eyes lock and they smile, you smile back. Momentarily you feel joy, maybe you think of that person as being nice, or you feel better about yourself thinking, “I must be looking good today” and then you simply let the thought fade away as quickly and quietly as it arrived and continue on your journey home.

You are  living in the story of your life experiencing events unfolding one moment at a time. Your path crosses with the paths of others. They make your life’s experience richer, give you love, joy, annoy you and sometimes even hurt you. You are experiencing intimately and with full attentiveness the story of your life. You live a complex, multidimensional life with emotions, situations, relationships with the people close to you and the relationship with your self. Every situation that you are in is unique, and sometimes people don’t understand you and sometimes they do. No matter what happens how it happens, only you will fully experience and understand the complexity of your life and everyone that you have ever met, heard, saw, or experienced their existence in any form or manner is merely an extra in the story of your life,… and so am I.

maxresdefaultWe all experience life in this way. In our experience we are at the centre of our Universe and everyone else is a distance star, a tiny specific woven into the fabric of our life. Other people that come into our life momentarily or for a longer duration from our telescopic perception live single dimensional and predictable lives, they have general personality traits – this person is a nice person, this one is mean or rude, this one is  a complete @$$ hole etc.. These extras in the story of your life serve a person, mostly a single purpose, and sometimes more than that, but they occupy a very tiny portion of your life.

But in fact these extras don’t live such simple lives. They live a rich complex life filled with emotions, ambitions, disappointments, love, hate, regrets, situations that make them grow, or constraint them. They do good things, they do bad things, sometimes they do things they can’t explain, and sometimes they do things that they can and do explain.

Every person that crosses your path may be an extra in your life, but know that you are also merely an extra in theirs.

Categories
Uncategorized

Give your Mom the Gift of Technology This Mother’s Day

Mother’s day is around the corner and if you’re not sure what to get your mom or grandma then I have a solutions for you. If your mom or grandmother or mother-in-all has not been keeping in touch with technology and social media, now would probably be a good time to get her on board.

Now before I continue I have to add that my mother is on Facebook, uses Whatsapp, Viber and Skype and uses an android phone and manages just fine with most of her computing needs including working with excel sheets, accounting on quickbooks etc…so this won’t apply to her as much and mom’s in similar situations. However, my grandmother is someone who might find some of this very useful, she just doesn’t know it yet.

So, why is this better than just buying her something that she likes? Learning new things can be difficult for some people after a certain age, so for someone who has not been exposed to a lot of the new technology that is currently out there, suddenly tutoring them on doing something complex that involves more than 3 to 5 steps can be overwhelming. I’m merely stating some ideas which you can use, but then you will have to judge depending on the level of exposure to technology that your mother or grandmother has.

But if you expose them to just the right amount of technology the rewards can be very fulfilling; connecting to family members and long lost friends via social media, getting entertained or educated with Youtube and mobile games, staying in touch with family and friends with messaging apps and more.

Social Media

images (2)If your mom/grandma is not already on Facebook, my number one recommendation is to get her signed up this Mother’s day. We take it for granted but Facebook really is an amazing tool. She can connect with friends and family, search for long lost friends and maybe even make new ones. Viewing photos and update on what her family is doing, reading and watching news articles and videos and even sharing her own photos can be a surprisingly pleasant experience and one that she will be very thankful for. If she is already on Facebook you can give her some tips for making her experience even better. Maybe she has just “friended”  people and has no pages “liked”. You can show her that liking a page gives her updates from that page in her news feed to enrich her experience on Facebook.

Instagram_Logo_02pinerestIf your mom is the creative type and/or is into photography , you can introduce her to Instagram or Pinterest. If you or your mom is bold enough, you can get her introduced to twitter. Just make sure that you explain to her that anything and everything she posts on twitter will be visible to everyone. I heard of a story where a person was using twitter to keep personal notes. They thought that because they don’t follow anyone and no one follows them, their tweets will remain private – yeah… don’t let your mom be that person.

Gadgets

To make full use of social media perhaps the best way to get your mom started would be to get her a smart phone or a tablet if she does not already have one. As to which smart phone or tablet you should buy for her is totally up to you. If you have an android phone, you will probably lean towards Android and if you have an iPhone then you will lean towards an iPhone. Same goes for tablets – you cannot go wrong either way.

You can also get her a Fitness Tracker if you want to encourage your mom to stay fit. Check out my review of the Misfit Flash Fitness Tracker.

If you do end up getting her a phone or tablet be sure to give her a quick tutorial, get her started with some social media accounts and show her how to work her way around the camera.

Messengers

whatsappWhatsapp is my number one messenger app recommendation – it’s very simple to use, is reliable and almost everyone is on it. She can even form groups with family, friends or the neighbourhood book club. You can share pictures of her grandkids or just use it as simple a way to say a quick hi. There are other messenger apps like Viber and Facebook Messenger which you can introduce to her.

Video Chat

skype-logoFor video chat, I would recommend Skype and Hangouts. If she is on IOS then Facetime will work best for her.

Youtube

YouTube-logo-full_colorYoutube has to be a category on its own because that is how big of an impact it makes on our daily life. Youtube is the best entertainment education tool out there and of course I do not need to reiterate it here because you already know, but if your mom/grandma/mother-in-law isn’t already using Youtube, you really need to get her on it ASAP. From entertainment which includes comedy, films, funny videos, to news and educations, to DIY projects – just image the world of possibilities that she can have at her finger tips. If nothing at all she could be watching cats playing the piano.

Other General Knowledge

  • Google Search – Here are some Google Search tips that you can teach your mom. I bet you even you didn’t know about some of them.  
  • Flipboard  – Even if your mom is not into reading for pleasure, I bet she might just get into it because this app is just so beautifully designed that she would just want to use it only to admire it.
  • #Hastag – teach her how hastags work. 
  • Shortcuts – You will be surprised how many people don’t know about Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y and so on for Windows and Cmd instead of Ctrl for MacOSX. Here are keyboard shortcuts for Windows and keyboard shortcuts for Mac OSX.

So these are my recommendations, enjoy your weekend and A very Happy Mother’s day to all moms.

Categories
Business Philosophy Self Development

The Car-free Life

A little over 6 months ago I was forced to let go of my car because I was involved in an accident and the car was a write off. Instead of getting a new car, I decided that I would not get a new car until I was certain I actually needed one. The car free life might not work for everyone, but it does work for a surprising number of people if they are willing to make some adjustments in their life.

In my case, it was a very easy decision to make and one that I do not regret at all. In fact my life probably has gotten better because of not having a car. But that can also be because my life is as such. I have deliberately designed my life in such a way that I do not have to commute to work, I choose my work hours, I choose whom to work with, what to work on and how much to work on it. Of course all that freedom can be the ultimate boon, but if not handled with care, it can also be a curse. After all with great power comes great responsibility, and in this case the power is total freedom. But what does all that have to do with living a car-free life?

Not having a car meant there were some constraints in my life. I could not travel when I wanted to, I could not be spontaneous with my travel plans, even grabbing a cup of coffee or breakfast became something that needed some planning. Of course there is also the status symbol to battle with, but thankfully I was not victimized by my mind in this respect because I almost always live by the saying

Those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.

Challenging The Status Symbol

source: www.cartoonstock.com
source: www.cartoonstock.com

If nothing at all, it has been a great social experiment. For example,  I was with a group of friends when the topic of cars came up and a particular car brand was mentioned(I can’t remember which car it was) but I casually said, “Nah, I don’t like that car”, to which my friend mockingly replied,

“That’s coz you can’t afford one” letting out a laugh and an insulting look on his face before realizing that his remarks may have come off as being insensitive, yet not enough to warrant a genuine apology. As I write this, I wonder how they would react if I drove my new Tesla S to their driveway. If there is any car that I actually want to own in the near future despite of my car free philosophy that I’m experimenting with, it as to be the Tesla S – you know because it’s an electric car and it’s good for the environment and all. ;-).

There are numerous other situations like these that tested my commitment to go car free for as long as I could. It has been 6 months now and things just keep getting better.

Increased Savings

Hand and money staircaseNot owning a car saves quite a bit of money and yes you might know this logically or mathematically but when you actually see how much you’re saving, it may just surprise you a little bit. You don’t have to pay for auto insurance and if you live in my city, you know that that can be a big deal! Cost of fuel and maintenance is another thing that is out of the list of bills. There will of course be times when you do need a car because public transportation might not cut it. In those situations you can take a taxi or rent a car, and even then, at least for me the savings are very visible. For that to work, I had to develop another skill.

More Organized, Better Time Management

TimeYou cannot keep hiring a taxi or renting a car every time you need to go somewhere. I scheduled my meetings in such a way that I could get away with renting one car for the day and getting all my work done on the same day. Out of necessity I had to get efficient at my work and get better at scheduling meetings. I was always accustomed to steering clients towards having phone or Skype meetings when possible, but with the added constraint of not owning a car, I became better at managing my time. Scheduling back to back meetings means you have to learn to squeeze your preparation time and doing it enough number of times means you can get very good at it.

Health Benefits

2014-04-25-Walking_JR_604When I owned a car, I would sometimes drive in the middle of the night around 3AM to Denny’s or McDonalds to have a big meal while working on some project. Things like these of course causes your health to deteriorate slowly over time if you do it frequently. But if you remove the flexibility of having a car, the temptation of driving to a fast food place is removed(at least partially).

I started walking as part of my exercise routine, I then increased my frequency of walking and the distance I travelled every time I went out of a walk. I can now confidently walk for an hour and  I use walking to get things done. Things like going to the bank, getting stationary or getting groceries are now tasks that I feel are quite easy  even without a car. Not only am I staying active, I’m also noticing a lot more of my surroundings than I would if I were to travel the same route by car. It’s an amazing experience every time.

241617539_1399307542Recently I took out my old bicycle from my garage. It had collected some dust and rust because of all the neglect of so many years. I cleaned it and applied some needed fixes and started cycling. Now sometimes instead of walking to my destination I cycle to it and it takes me half the time. Not only is cycling healthy, it is also a lot of fun. I was an avid cyclist when I was in high school but as time went by, I went from an avid cyclist to the guy who says “I had a bicycle once”. Cycling has brought back so much joy and fun that I had all forgotten about.

I also bought a Misfit Flash fitness tracker so that I can hit my daily activity goals. Please be sure to check out my thought on the Misfit Flash.

originalAll these are benefits to me, but living a car free life is not all a selfish act. I am helping the environment by doing my part in reducing greenhouse gas emission. Living a car-free life also means you’re doing your part in easing traffic congestion.

As you can see living a car free life is a win-win for all. This is my take on living a car free life.

If you liked this article and want to read more like these in the future, please leave a comment below and please share!

 

Categories
Technology

Wireless Charging Wizardry

Every single day I come across new technology that amazes me. Some seem futuristic or even alien-like. Even common technology that we have today, that we so often fail to appreciate amazes me. Smart phones and tablets and laptops and cloud storage, biometric security scanners, search algorithms that give you exactly what you want, cameras, electric cars, planes, heart rate monitors, MRIS and just a whole lot more. What we enjoy today and even take for granted are things that even Kings of olden days could neither afford nor imagine.

Nowadays everyone has a smartphone or some kind of phone, a laptop and probably a tablet and possibly a fitness tracker or a smart watch. They all have batteries that need to be charged with wires that need to be plugged into the device and into the electric outlet on a wall. These cords are annoying, get tangled easily and some eventually get damaged and become unusable. One technology that will save us from this annoyance is wireless charging or inductive charging, which uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy from one object to another.

android_logsCurrently the fastest area of growth of wireless charging is in the mobile phones industry. Phones like the Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820 launched in 2012, the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, Droid 3 and Droid 4, the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6edge all have builtin wireless charging.

WirelessCharging_tableThis is just the beginning. Growth in this area of technology is not only rapid, but is also a necessity . Almost everyone has a touchscreen smart phone and they consume a lot of energy. Most phones do not have removable batteries( and now not even Samsung’s flagship phones). It is not practical to be carrying around a charger with you in fear of having your phone battery die on you.

Some coffee shops and restaurants have already started to offer wireless charing. Customers can simple place their phones on the table and start charing their phones. Soon furniture makers will have built-in wireless chargers. Ikea has already started this.

beb7d3a331eab86ed5011cab0b4c61faPhones are not the only devices that will have wireless charing. Laptops and tables are the obvious devices to follow suit. Dining tables, coffee tables, arm chairs, bed frames with small shelfs on either sides are also good candidates for builtin wireless chargers. Kitchen counters will also have wireless charging as phones will not be the only devices that will need charging.

powermat-wireless-charge-pad-in-chevrolet-volt_100335682_mPlaces where wireless charging could become common are of course airports so passengers can charge their devices while having a quick bites before hopping onto their flight, gym lockers where customers can simple place their phones in their lockers, jump in the shower, freshen up and come back to a charged device. One of the places where I am most excited to get a wireless charger is my car. Cars will surely start to get wireless chargers buitin. It gets frustrating when you are driving, the music is playing from your phone and suddenly the battery dies and to make matters worse you realize you did not bring your charger with you. Wireless charging will solve this problem.

As for the devices that will have wireless charging, the list will be too long for this article. All mobile devices will have wireless charging – phones, laptops and tablets. Game controllers, watches, electric shavers, and small kitchen appliances  are some of the electronic devices that will have wireless charging.

What I am most excited about is cars equipped with wireless charging. Let’s face it: in the very near future almost all cars will be electric. When you come home from work and park your car in the garage, special panels under the body of your car and the floor of your garage will make wirelessly charging your car a reality.

I have had my first experience of wireless charing with the new bold Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. It’s like seeing magic happen.

This is my take on the future of wireless charging – what’s yours? Please leave a comment below, like and share this post if you like what you see here.

Categories
Business Mobile Technology

The Stylus is Making a Comeback

‘If you see a stylus, they BLEW it’

-Steve Jobs

7986400732_4d90b1c2d1_zIf anyone had asked me a week ago, “When was the last time you wrote something with your hand?”, it would have taken me a long time to think of a time when I was actually writing with my hands. I recently got into handwriting for a few minutes a day and I also started sketching designs on my whiteboard which I had not used in many years instead of doing it directly in Photoshop.  I have heard many times that the act of writing something with your hand connects different portions of your brain and in doing so you retain more information and are more likely to follow through on what you write about.

However, now I am beginning to fall in love with handwriting again. So much that I am actually contemplating on cancelling my order for the Galaxy S6 and getting myself a Note 4.

samsung-galaxy-note-4-9024As you may already know the Note 4 uses a stylus with many interesting and productivity boosting features. You can easily write a note with S memo. You can do cool things like smart select to select text freely with the Stylus. Write on a screenshot or existing picture and do some doodling. A stylus mostly is thinner and more precise than your fingers and that gives finer control over what kind of strokes are applied to the image or document that you are working on. It acts as a cursor on the screen so you can do things more accurately. Taking out the S pen from its docked state fire up the Air Command to allow you to quickly start doing some work with your pen.

surface-pro3-pen-2Microsoft Surface, the tablet/laptop hybrid also uses a stylus.

The Surface Stylus takes things up a notch with the ways in which you can use it. You can click the top button to open OneNote. Double-click to capture a screenshot. The right click button acts like the right-click button on a mouse. Click it once in apps like OneNote to open a menu, to choose pen color, thickness, and other options. Microsoft on Friday confirmed it bought the stylus and display interface technology for the Surface Pro 3 from the company that made it. This signifies a big win for the stylus.

Other tablets that use a stylus are the Lenovo ThinkPad 10, Asus VivoTab Note 8, Toshiba Encore 2 Write, Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2, HP Slate 7 Extreme.

Not only that, it is rumoured that Apple’s new iPad will also use a stylus. Steve Jobs was strongly against the use of a stylus and even said

“if you see a stylus they blew it.”

“Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em, put ’em away, you lose ’em. Yuch! Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus.” – Jobs said while introducing the iPhone

“God gave us 10 styluses. Let’s not invent another”  Jobs said about the stylus, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography.

So if the rumours of the iPad getting a stylus is true, it is definitely a big deal! The stylus is really making a come back!

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Philosophy Psychology Technology

5 Ways You Can Capture Moments In Your Life

Have you ever felt that your life is moving too fast? Or perhaps you are at the other side of the spectrum where you feel that life is moving too slow. Have you had those moments in life that you wish to remember over and over again? Are there moments in life that you could have forgotten, but you didn’t because there was a picture that captured that moment, or perhaps you wrote something on a piece of paper, kept a receipt or a souvenir that takes you back in time to experience some memorable part of that your life.

We live in a world of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, Four Squares and much more that allows us to share every moment and every aspect of your lives, not to mention Twitter’s new app called Periscope which allows you to live-streaming video directly from your phone.

But I’m not going to be talking about sharing your moments. I want to give you some tools to help your record moments in life, you may of course chose to share them.

Phone Camera

Samsung Galaxy S6 review (20)-970-80Virtually every phone has a camera. Some of them take pictures better than some DSLR of yesteryears. You have your phone with you at all times so if something happens that you would want to remember just take your phone out and take a snap or take a video. We’re in such a photo snapping epidemic that Samsung has put a quick launch feature in their latest smart phone the Galaxy S6 – All you need to do is double press the home button and bam!

I know I really shouldn’t even be talking about all this since it is such a basic way of life now. But remember you don’t need record moments only for the purpose of sharing. When you start recording videos and photos to capture moments in life for yourself you will start to deviate from fluff and random acts of “importance” to moments that mean something to you, and sometimes only to you.

Action Camera

Gopro-Hero-3+-Compared-to-PalmThe action camera market has seen an astonishing boom mainly thanks to the GoPro brand. These camera’s(GoPro, Sony’s Action Cam and others) are small, light weight, most of them are waterproof and with a wide angle lens. You can mount these cameras on your chest, on your bike, hand, car, your head and the possibilities are endless. You might be thinking that this is just another camera. How is this different phone a phone camera? Phone cameras are mostly classed as point and shoot cameras where as action cameras are mostly POV(point of view cameras).

Evernote

186tgj38eph2cjpgEvernote is a tool designed for note taking and archiving. A  “note” can be a piece of formatted text, full webpage or webpage excerpt, photograph, voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. You can organize those notes into sets of notes called notebooks and organize them in different categories called tags. Once a note is saved, it is synced to the Evernote cloud and from there it is synced to all other devices that have Evernote installed. There are other tools out there that let you record notes the way Evernote does, however Evernote’s ease of use and search functionality is something that is yet to be beaten. 

Voice Recorder

If you are one of those types that retain memory better with audio instead of visually or kinaesthetically then you can carry with you a voice recorder. I know that some of you may be wondering: “…but does my phone not have a voice recorder?” . Yes phones do have voice recorder apps, but none of them so far are as good as an actual portable voice recorder machines. Dedicated voice recorders are faster with better quality and you can easily play back your recorder voice.

Old School Notebook

7986400732_4d90b1c2d1_zSometimes all the high tech gizmos just does not quite cut it. Some may feel that all these gadgets lack the feeling of authenticity. If you are one of those, you can carry a small notebook and pen with you. The feeling of hand written notes sometimes says more than a picture which is believed to speak a 1000 words, especially now that hand written notes are simply considered archaic by most.

samsung-galaxy-note-4-9024If you are someone who cannot or don’t want to keep a physical notebook and want to avoid the use of paper, not to mention the finite number of pages a notebook has to offer, but at the same time want the joy of keeping hand written notes, then the Samsung Galaxy Note is for you. Note 4 is by far the bsst phone with a stylus. In fact as far as gadgets go the Galaxy Note is the best single device you will need to record almost every moment of your life. It has a camera, Evernote and a pen that is surprisingly accurate(on the Note 4 at the time of this writing) to jot down notes.

In spite of what I have said in this article, I leave you with something that left me in awe when I first heard it. There is a scene where Sean O-Connell who has been waiting patiently to capture a photograph of the illusive “ghost cat”, the snow leopard has a conversation with Walter MItty in a scene from the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Walter Mitty: When are you going to take it?
Sean O’Connell: Sometimes I don’t. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don’t like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.
Walter Mitty: Stay in it?
Sean O’Connell: Yeah. Right there. Right here.

— The Secret Life of Walter Mitty