AlPhA KaPpA DeLtA PhI

Recently on few occasions many have noticed Aamir Khan did not taste even a single gulp of alcohol.  The reason behind is that Aamir has turned Mr. Perfectionist not only in films but also in real life too. According to the latest buzz  Aamir has  decided to give up smoking and drinking for the rest of his life.

Aamir said, “The next time I invite you home, I will treat you with beer, but I will drink nimbu paani.” When asked the bollywood maestro for  the  reason for quitting alcohol and smoking he says, “I just felt like doing it from within. There is no specific reason. Yaar I have put on 10 kilos in recent months. Also, sometimes, I tended to overdo the drinking bit. And I hate it when I feel unhealthy. Therefore, I just decided that I wanted to quit alcohol for life. As for electric cigarette, I was never a regular smoker. But I have decided to give it up too.”

However it is really a great news that celebrities like aamir has taken a good resolution which may in turn kindle some of his fans to follow the way as their inspirational leader does. Hats off Aamir

While I had not been invited to Apple’s preview event for its much-awaited tablet (as it was rumoured to be), I locked myself in a room that night waiting for the videos of the product preview to be available on the Internet. While the videos took some time to appear, a number of people kept updating the world (through Internet) by providing minute-by-minute update of how the iPad really looked and what one can do with it. By the time I hit the bed, I had a fairly good idea and a visual impression of what the device looked like.

I haven’t had the opportunity to play with the so called Symbol LS2208 gadget yet, but having formed a reasonably good idea of what it’s all about, I am taking a shot at what the future of it would look like; and especially, what would be the impact in the Indian marketplace.

At the risk of repetition, Apple’s iPad is a class-leading device simply because it’s a device which has created a class of its own rather than being just another addition to a popular category. Yet again, Apple has done what many other companies would not dare—create a product and concept that is completely out-of-the-box, extraordinarily innovative, daringly positioned and, this time, even aggressively priced. In Steve Jobs’ words, iPad sits somewhere between an iPhone (smartphone) and a laptop.

The iPad follows Apple’s philosophy of simplicity, innovation and intuitive operations.

Undoubtedly, iPad generates a high degree of enthusiasm and has the usual Apple ‘wow’ factor, but at the end of the day, it disappoints techies a bit because it seems like a bigger iPhone, but one that doesn’t have a phone.

Apple has unveiled a number of features of the product. Some of these include:

E-books: This is one of the key features and sets iPad apart from other electronic book reading devices like eBook Reader (eg Kindle), smartphones and laptops. Apple takes the e-book experience to the next level with iBook. The iPad’s full colour display and intuitive interface work well for rich content. In comparison, many other e-book readers use grayscale e-ink technology. The latter is known to be easy on the eyes and more suitable for long reads, but I would give huge credit to Apple for having created a great eBook reading application on a very user-friendly device (form factor) with excellent battery life. Moreover, unlike many eBook Readers, iPad uses an open ePub e-book format. Apple has also announced iBook online store. iPad users can connect and download e-books of their choice directly.

Video and music: The iPad makes up for a great video experience due to its large screen and high resolution. The WiFi and 3G connectivity can support live streaming content. iPad can also connect with external speakers over WiFi and provide rich multimedia experience. Again, iPad has done an excellent job of creating a good form factor and very convenient video viewing experience. iPad carries on the music playing legacy from iPod. You can use iTunes to manage the music collection. The iPad does not support USB/Flash drives. This limits the multimedia storage capabilities of the device.

Web surfing: The iPad’s sharp display and wide screen make for an engrossing Web surfing experience. The multitouch screen provides an intuitive interface. However, iPad does not handle multiple windows/tabs well. The text input is handled by an on-screen keyboard that works well for short lengths. As with the iPhone, the iPad does not support Adobe Flash. This implies that content from many websites may not be displayed in the same way, as one would enjoy on a laptop. In my view, it would be a great experience to surf websites where one has to read a lot of content (eg news sites), but for usual Web surfing wherein one hops across a number of sites in multi-windows/tabs, it may not be as good.

Gaming: With a bigger processor and large form factor, iPad is well suited for portable gaming. Most of the games designed for iPhone will work on the iPad. However, one must keep in mind that iPad may not be a great substitute for your usual gaming console, which has greater processing power, accelerated graphics rendering and specialised gaming input devices.

Productivity suite: Apple has released iWorks productivity suite on iPad. It has three components: Notes, Pages and Numbers (with similar features as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word & Excel). These have been redesigned to take advantage of iPad’s multi- touch capabilities. Initial previews of iWorks on iPad are very impressive. However, on-screen keyboard is not well suited for large word processing requirements. iPad can connect with external (physical) keyboard, but the manoeuvrability of the setup becomes limited.

Applications: As we learn, all the iPhone apps will work on the iPad. Developers are expected to start leveraging the more advanced features and computer power to develop a wider set of applications. Users can download new applications from the App store with minimal effort. However, iPad does not support multitasking, which would limit its use as a personal compute device.

The writer is an executive director with KPMG’s IT advisory practice. These are his personal views

Their seniors had to really sweat it out to get placed. But this year things look much brighter for IIT Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) students, according to the institute’s placement office.

“Out of a total batch strength of 1,340, more than 600 students have already got placed. The placement session will continue till April-May. So trend wise we are much better positioned this time than last year. We are confident that we will be able to place all our students  by the end of the placement session,” SK Srivastava, chairperson and professor-in-charge of placements, IIT-KGP, said here on Wednesday.

The previous batch was not so lucky. Around 90 percent of the 1,200 students had got placed because of the global meltdown and resultant downturn in the job market. In 2008, all the 1,400 students had been placed. While in 2008, 160 companies had turned up at IIT-KGP, close to 190 companies visited IIT-KGP campus for the batch of 2009.

Srivastava said that more than 100 companies from across sectors (core sector, manufacturing, marketing, IT, financial services and banking) have already recruited from IIT-KGP. The placement started in December. IIT-KGP expects around 200 companies to visit the campus this time.

Firms that have already hired  from IIT-KGP include Barclays, Yahoo, IBM, Infy, JP Morgan, Oracle, ITC, GE, Essar, NTPC, to mention a few, Srivastava said.

The highest salary offered so far for best resumes at IIT-KGP has already matched last two year’s highest offers, which was Rs 22 lakh. And there are quite a few offers more or less in the same range. The highest offer this time had come from Barclays, Singapore, Srivastava said.

With still four months to go, the highest offer would move up substantially, and so would the average the salary offer the institute hopes. Last year, the average salary package offer dropped to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 7.44 lakh in the previous year