TechPluto » Gadgets

Breaking : JooJoo Pre-ordering Kickstarts ! Should you buy it ?

Prashant Sharma — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:38:54 +0000

Finally, the (controversial) JooJoo is here ! The much hyped CrunchPad(now JooJoo) tablet, so-called brainchild of TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, has opened its floodgates to start taking Pre-orders for their Internet Tablet device.

The company behind this internet tablet, Fusion Garage, is currently in a tussle with TechCrunch, a highly infuential technology blog that brought up the whole idea of an Internet Tablet, some 1.5 years back. TechCrunch named the internet tablet as CrunchPad, and kept updating the media on the progress of the CrunchPad with pictures of the prototypes built, every once in a while.

It was the last day of last month, when all of a sudden, CrunchPad collapsed. And soonafter JooJoo took a fresh lease of life.

The latest update over the entire controversy is that TechCrunch has filed a Federal lawsuit against Fusion Garage, with causes of legal action as Fraud and Deceit, Misappropriation of Business Ideas, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unfair Competitition and Violations of the Lanham Act.

As promised by Fusion Garage founder, the official website of JooJoo has started taking Pre-orders now. The pre-orders are currently limited to U.S. only. The cost of the device is $499 with additional $30(optional) for JooJoo Stand(the only accessory with JooJoo). According to the site, it will take 8-10 weeks for them to ship the JooJoo to your doorstep, once pre-ordered.

The device is undoubtedly cool and unique for plenty of reasons. The 12.1” capacitive touchscreen, 9 seconds boot time, staggering UI and HD Video experience are its main attractions.

Now comes the BIG question….Is it worth it ? Should you pre-order JooJoo ?

Honestly, its a BIG NO from us. We DO NOT recommend any of the crazy freaks out there to go pre-order JooJoo and there are several reasons for it. Here are three major reasons why NOT to buy a JooJoo !

1. As pointed out by TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington in his recent post, Fusion Garage is almost out of funds. They’ve exhausted whatever they had raised this far and they’re suffering from alarming level of debts right now. Now, TechCrunch is a trusted source, except few cases when it screwed up things too badly so there’re reasons to believe them, especially when it’s about their own brainchild, the CrunchPad (now JooJoo).

Now as you’re not getting the device right away(it’s a a pre-ordering) and Fusion Garage gets busted within coming weeks, your money is gone ! There’s no reason putting your hard earned money at such a risk.

2. JooJoo, the company behind it (Fusion Garage) and the founder (Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan) are all under huge controversies at the moment. Lawsuit has been filed against Fusion Garage and JooJoo is being ubiquitously criticized for plenty of reasons by tech fraternity. All of this makes JooJoo, a bad device for pre-ordering, atleast for now.

3. JooJoo is way too costly. We agree, its unique in many regards but that doesn’t justify its cost ($500) at all.

And if you’re still interested in exhausting your $500 for JooJoo, take one last suggestion of ours….Go right here and better donate $500 to Wikipedia. In return, expect some tax deduction and a whole peace of mind.

When Should You Choose Plasma Over LCD TVs…

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:53:15 +0000

In my last post, we talked about surging sales of smartphones and HDTVs and market behaviour

You like rich, warm colors and deep black levels.

You’ll be sitting off-axis when you watch TV or movies.

You don’t watch many TV shows or play video games with static images on the screen for more than a few hours at a time. The possibility of screen burn-in still exists for plasma TVs, though it’s unlikely to happen with current models.

You’re able to control the amount of light in your viewing room — plasma screens are more likely to reflect room lights, which can be distracting.

You watch a lot of TV shows or play lots of video games with static images on the screen for extended periods of time, multiple days a week.

You do a lot of daytime viewing in a room with windows lacking blinds, curtains or drapes — most LCD screens resist glare, although some high-performance models have screens that are nearly as reflective as plasmas.

Low power consumption is a priority — LCD TVs are usually more energy efficient than plasma models with the same screen size.

In our of our recent posts, we wrote about surging sales of consumer electronics, lead by dirt cheap smartphones and HDTVs. Now, we would dig more into HDTVs and talk in-depth about various available options that are up for grabs.

The two most prevalent options under High Definition Television(HDTV) are LCD TV and Plasma TV. Technically, there are notable differences between LCD and Plasma technologies but the visual output appears to be similar. Only if one goes into finer details, there appears differences that makes one option outweigh the other one.

The first among the two technologies, LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) is commercially more successful and cheaper compared to Plasma technology. As technology keeps evolving, it was pretty much expected that Plasma would offer more advancement over LCD but parallel advancement in LCD made things a little tougher for Plasma to completely outplay LCD.

To make it less technical and more judgmental, here’s what can expect if you opt for a Plasma TV over an LCD TV.

Rich, sharp colors and deep black levels
Relatively better performance with different viewing angles
Rarest possibility of screen burn-in, almost null possibility to happen with latest models.
Plasma screens are more likely to reflect room lights, hence perform excellent when viewed in dark room.
Ultra thin models
Meant to serve like a mini home theatre

If you’re interested in opting for Plasma TV then don’t forget to survey online about the latest offerings and Plasma models from major available manufacturers. Check out available Plasma TV Reviews and see if that fits your requirements or not. In festive season, you are sure to come across cost-effective Plasma TV offers so better grab the one that seems a Value for money deal.

Smartphones, HDTV sales shoot up as Prices go down

Prashant Sharma — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:50:23 +0000

Now is the time when the festive mood is taking over the recessive days and holiday shopping is just starting to begin. Online selling hotspots such as eBay are seeing sudden surge in sales and despite economic slowdown, the end customers are finally gaining back the spending capacity and leaving no chance to buy what they were eyeing for.

The bestsellers are most probable to remain consumer electronics as they allure folks from all ages and generally offer most lucrative and festive offers to their customers. Among consumer electronics, smartphones and HDTVs are expected to rule this season.

When we talk about smartphones, iPhone and most recently launched, Motorola Droid, will hopefully lead the way to massive sales but when it comes to LCD Televisions, the competition isn’t going to be so predictable. All major brand names such as LG, Sony, Samsung, Toshiba are making no mistake in offering customers, best deals on multiple variants of televisions such as LCD, Plasma and most recent, LED TVs.

To be fair, it’s quite a tough task for an end customer to figure out differences between LCD, Plasma and LED TVs. All these technologies have advanced to a stage where any of these variants don’t make a huge difference, specially when somebody is busy watching his favorite show on any of the Televisions. The factor that matters the most is the Pricing.

Before making any buying decision, one needs to look around and check out dedicated consumer electronics websites such as LCD TV reviews on web and choose the one that suits the pocket and also comes with the best feature set. Market competition is favoring customers so well that some of the LCD TV deals are actually being priced at surprisingly low cost.

So be it LCD TV, Plasma or LED TV, the price tag and the brand name will be one of the most important factors for any buyer before taking a decision of buying his dream television this fall. Anyways, it appears that the consumers as well as product manufacturing companies are about to get a new life after struggling all this year.

Business on the Go – Three Things To Take Along

Prashant Sharma — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:10:34 +0000

In today’s scenario, the most important thing for any businessman or entrepreneur is to stay connected and reachable, whenever and wherever. While on a business travel, your immediate need may arrive any moment, either from your colleague, your client or anyone else critical to your business.

As the business communication is also getting increasingly dependent on Internet, staying connected to Internet is nearly equivalent to staying connected to your business. And to serve this important business need, computing machines paired with high-speed internet accessibility are slowly becoming the pre-requisites of every tech-savvy businessmen.

While on the go, Mobile businessmen prefer a laptop or a Netbook for serving their computing and web based needs. People also prefer keeping a PDA or smartphone to get onto the web & e-mails lightening fast. 3G and WiMax service subscription is a default to these smartphones as they are specifically meant to facilitate Mobile Web.

We will talk about each one of the Mobile Businessmen pre-requisites in details below.

Laptops : The first and the most popular portable substitute for Desktop PCs has been Laptops. Laptops are powerful, efficient, portable and durable, a perfect way to carry out your business activities and computing work, anytime, anywhere. On the flip side, most laptops aren’t small-sized and light-weight, which makes it tough for them to be carried along just about anywhere (coffee shop ?). Laptops also cost you more than a desktop PC with similar hardware configuration.

When are they best suited…

If you majorly work offline than online

When you’re travelling for longer periods

When you’re used to running multiple applications simultaneously on your work machine

Netbooks: The latest entrant in computing hardware industry, netbooks have been gaining instant popularity, majorly among the web-savvy crowd. As the name suggests, these machines are particularly designed for surfing internet and running light-weight desktop applications. It’s major advantage over laptops is Pocket portability. It might sound a little exaggerated that Netbooks can fit in your pockets but they are extremely light-weight and handy computing machines.

You can carry it without any bag and it will get you on the web within a minute or less after boot-up. The processor capability is relatively less but who really needs that extra efficiency when all what you’re doing is surfing web.

When are they best suited…

When you want to move around and desire a hassle-free way to get onto the web any moment.

When you’re supposed to do just web surfing, nothing much. That’s because Netbooks aren’t meant to facilitate heavy resource consumption (powered by cheaper, less powerful processors). More simultaneous applications mean poor Netbook performance.

When you want a cheaper alternative to laptops

Smartphones/PDA : We’re all used to Mobile handsets for more than a decade now and have been using it mainly for the purpose of voice communication. It’s only been a couple of years when hi-end feature-rich Mobile phones have actually started creating waves in cellphone industry worldwide. Almost all major handset manufacturers are now selling Hi-end mobile phones, aka smartphones across the globe and over the years, the unit cost has gone quite affordable, thanks to over-saturated cellphone industry that keeps putting pressure on the cellphone OEMs to cut cellphone costs for surviving the tough economic times.

Considering the capability and hardware configuration that smartphones are coming up with, one can certainly say that smartphones are no less than Mobile Computer. Most smartphones come with 3G, Wi-Fi support and big touchscreens for better web browsing experience.

When are they best suited…

When you don’t want to carry a netbook/laptop, just for checking emails on the go or twittering aside

When you’re about to dump your old cellphone and looking for a better and affordable handset

When you want another digital platform for keeping up with your web based work on the move

All these Hi-end gizmos have made it possible for the end users to live on the web, anytime, anywhere.

Here’re Some Security Gizmos For Those Conscious Folks (And Corporates)

Prashant Sharma — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:59:40 +0000

In Tech Industry, we have plenty of Gizmos that debue and follow-up with their upgrades to make our lives more cool and advanced. Another genre of gizmos aren’t so much fun to have, specially for an individual but do some serious stuff for anybody who buys them off. We are talking ‘Security’ folks ! Here, we have a Security Gadgets Manufacturer to take a look at…

ProSecuritys is a service that implements latest tech aids to bring you some of the best spy gadgets you could ever imagine.

It specialises in manufacturing Smart surveillance cameras for personal and corporate usage. Such range of Gadgets might help out those who want to monitor their in-house activities, while on the move.

Taking another perspective, such range of Gadgets might also help out those who want to monitor their in-house activities, while on the move.

Security Camera at home sounds a little unusual but it often helps serving issues that usually get compromised such as ‘Home security’.And Prosecuritys offers much more than just ‘Spycams’.

The best part that works in their favor is the fact that U.S. Government and Armed forces are using their services for getting the security and surveillance pre-requisites done.It’s actually kinda dedicated to assisting the public and government with their security, safety, protection, covert surveillance, and counter-surveillance needs.

So if you’re thinking of spying on somebody, you now know who’s on the Helpdesk !

Pocket Yoga:Lenovo’s Finished Pocket PC Concept

Prashant Sharma — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:46:54 +0000

The word “Yoga” is usually associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism but the most absurd(and interesting) usage of the term has been floating into the blogosphere & Techmeme right now and that is “Pocket Yoga“.

And “Pocket Yoga” isn’t a “Yoga in Pocket” sort of interpretation but actually a “Pocket PC” that was inspired by the practice of Yoga by one of Lenovo’s New Zealand-based designer.The prototype design that was developed by Lenovo’s team two years back, is grabbing some instant attention and it really deserves this buzz.

The “Pocket Yoga” prototype looks seriously awesome,specially that leather usage to pad up the sleek Netbook and the “belt” ,which isn’t a simple decoration, because when it is removed it starts functioning as a mouse.

This ‘Pocket Yoga’ holds ability to turn around 360 degrees and can function as a Tablet PC as well.But here’s a disappointment.

Lenovo folks disappointed gadget lovers when they called “Pocket Yoga” as a “finished experiment” while showing off the above pics.With all the features that have been written about the so called “Pocket Yoga”,it could easily serve a BIG threat to “Sony Vaio P” if it were existing today.

Hope to see you “Pocket Yoga” !!

A ‘Must Have’ accessory for a ‘Digital Home’ : Fingerprint Lock

Prashant Sharma — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:24:47 +0000

We have gone so ‘Digital’ these days that ‘Digital Home‘,a term that used to represent ‘the future of living’ few years back has now started becoming a necessity for millions across the globe.

And talking about the primary elements that constitute a ‘Digital Home’,one always thinks of a different sort of security standards that are powered by newer technologies and add a stronger layer of security to the existing standards.

So here’s a gizmo/equipment that won a prestigious award for innovation at Consumer Electronics Show(CES) 2007 (Here’s our 2009′s CES coverage) and ready to be termed as ‘Next generation Digital security’……Fingerprint lock by Axxis Biometrics.

This digital security system lets you open the door lock with a finger touch.You can have multiple members of your family pre-programmed in the digital security system,allowing access to reliable and limited group of people.

What’s the buzz !

This is all the rage among homebuyers these days,specially those,who tend to forget their house keys here and there.You can always loose your key but you always have your finger with you.

And if there are children at home who’re little careless about house keys,such a system might prove a better option.

What’s unique about it

There’s a provision that you can program people(apart from regular ones) to allow them temporary access during specific time slots.This is a unique and a high utility feature that comes into action when you’re away and allowing access to specific people for a limited duration.This is a feature that’s missing out of many other fingerprint locks manufacturers.Overall,it’s something that a ‘Digital Home’ can’t do without.

As promised,here you have a Slimmer,Crisper,Faster ‘Kindle 2′ !

Prashant Sharma — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:48:17 +0000

As strongly rumored by some sources,Kindle 2 was to be introduced publicly on Monday and here we have the successor of ‘Kindle’,a smarter eReader named ‘Kindle 2′ by Amazon launched on Monday itself.

We were guessing some of the much needed fixes to the earlier Kindle and it seems Amazon has consciously listened to the feedbacks and fixed most of the issues that customers were facing(like accidental page turning).

The price is the same as rumored($359) and will start shipping from 24th Feb but you can pre-order it from now onwards.

Apart from the pending issues,Amazon has nicely worked on the upgradations on various parts such as storage capacity,usability,weight,thickness,navigation etc.Kindle 2 is better in most aspects than Kindle and is sure to take sales figures higher this year for Amazon.

So,let’s take a look at 6 killer features that make ‘Kindle 2′ an ‘must have’ gadget,specially for voracious readers.

1. New Slim and Sleek Design

Kindle 2 is far thinner than earlier model.With just 0.36 inches thick and weighing just over 10 ounces,Kindle 2 is pencil thin and lighter than a typical paperback.This is something that enhances usability to a great extent

2. New Crisper, Faster Display

Kindle brings you a 6-inch,600 x 800 electronic paper display and provides 16 shades of gray(compared to 4 shades available earlier)resulting in crisp text, and sharper images and photos.The page turning is also faster(claimed to be 20% faster).

3. New 2 GB Memory Holds Over 1,500 Books

‘Kindle 2′ has much higher storage(2 GB) capacity than its predecessor and hence gives a capacity of over 1500 books(earlier,the capacity was just 200 books).

4. 25% Longer Battery Life

The battery life has been enhanced by 25% making it feasible to keep it ON for 4-5 days(wireless ON) and nearly 2 weeks(wireless off).

5. Instant Dictionary Lookup(New!)

That’s something i personally loved.Kindle 2 comes with an integrated Oxford American Dictionary and its 250,000 word definitions and you get all the definitions displayed instantly at the bottom of the page you’re reading.

6. Experimental Read-To-Me Feature(New!)

This feature helps ‘text to speech’ conversion and comes with a bundle of customization for suitable listening.You can choose if you want a male narration or a female one.You can also manipulate the speed of narration to suit you.While Read-to-me is ON,pages turn by themselves and therefore you don’t need to manually turn the pages.You can Read-to-me anything,from books to newspapers to magazines,blogs & personal documents.

[Image : Engadget]