HP Live Photo
Send a postcard with an embedded video using this app—you can print a photograph that comes alive when someone holds their smartphone over it. To do this, you need an iPhone, a video and the HP Live Photo app, and an Airprint-enabled HP printer. Choose the video and then pick a frame to print, using the app. The app prints it with a marker, so that when the image is scanned by another iPhone with the app, the video will play.
Free, iPhone only.

BallStrike
Combining fitness with AR, BallStrike makes you kick and punch virtual balls, keeping you fit. Once the app is installed, stand in front of your device’s front camera and you’ll show up on screen, along with your surroundings. Just make sure the room’s well lit, there’s enough space for free movement, and you stand at a distance from the device.
The screen will fill with colourful balls, and you have to hit them—each hit is worth points, but you have to avoid obstacles like bombs, so you’re going to have to twist, turn and jump to hit every ball. The app detects motion using the camera, and uses that to calculate the calories burnt after each of the 12 rounds. It can also take pictures of the game that you can share online later.
Free, on iOS; Android and Windows Phone 8 versions are coming soon.

Reading Lens
Reading Lens is a simple AR app that helps people who need reading glasses. If you’ve forgotten your glasses at home just pull out your phone and point it at the text you want to read—the app will automatically enlarge the text, and can even use the phone’s flashlight as a lamp in case the lighting is poor.
$0.99 (around Rs.55), on Windows Phone 8.

Nasa’s Spacecraft 3D
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa’s) Spacecraft 3D is amazing. First it lets us see live images sent by the Curiosity rover on Mars. Now, it takes AR a step further, letting you imagine you are the captain of one of the spacecraft Nasa operates across the solar system. Choose from Curiosity on Mars, Grail on the Moon, Cassini on Saturn, Juno cruising to Jupiter, Dawn cruising to Ceres, or Voyager, which plans to leave the solar system. Once you have decided which one, print an image of Nasa’s AR Target on a piece of paper and point your device camera at the target.
On your screen, the paper will turn into a spacecraft that you can control. See the robotic explorers, raise and lower one of their robotic arms, manoeuvre the high-gain antenna, and do other fun stuff. To add to the fun, the app has an option where you can take your photograph with the spacecraft by putting yourself in the picture.
Free, on Android and iOS.

Ingress
A game created by Google, Ingress is about a war between two factions, the Enlightened and the Resistance. You have to choose your side at the beginning of the game. Once you have, your immediate environment and space (you could be anywhere in the world) becomes your gameplay. You have to physically reach a public space which is designated as a portal. The portal could be held by you or your enemy. If it’s an enemy spot, you hack into the portal and make it yours. As you play, your phone directs you to the portals through GPS and leads the way with pointers and maps.
The objective is to collect objects around you, tap sources of energy or capture enemy territory. As a player you can send photos of locations to Google to be included as a portal, but there’s no guarantee that it will be, so you might not have many currently in your city to start playing. But it’s an exciting new game nonetheless. Ingress is in closed beta right now. You can request an invite at Ingress.com. It will be available for free on Google Play soon.
Free (limited availability for now), on Android.

Read the complete article in HT Mint.

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Live-browse your world
Most of the existing AR apps have fun uses, or are very helpful in highly specific scenarios, but they don’t change your day-to-day life. Apps like Wikitude and Layar, which can change your life, are being developed, but not too many people know about them yet.
If you are in a new neighbourhood or exploring a new city, instead of using Google to find something to do, look through an AR browser and you will find restaurants, monuments, hotels and other places of interest. Apps like Wikitude, Layar, Junaio and Nokia City Lens throw live information on your device’s screen. All you need to do is to point your camera in a certain direction and everything, from a coffee shop to an ATM, will pop up on your screen.

Read the complete article in HT Mint.

When Ramesh Kumar V. moved his start-up from Salem, Tamil Nadu, to Bangalore, he chose to work from Jaaga rather than renting an exclusive office. “I want to expand, find more clients and build a network for myself,” he says. “What better place for me than a space that works as a start-up ecosystem and has a ready community of people who are doing new and interesting things?”

Jaaga is a co-working hub which rents out space and infrastructure to artistes, designers and activists.

Within six months of shifting, Kumar has expanded his team to four people, found clients and learnt how to run his business efficiently. “Two of my clients are start-ups working out of Jaaga. For one of them, I did a project in exchange for contacts,” he says. Now, he has found funding too for his enterprise thanks to the people he met at Jaaga. Even though it tends to get noisy and the Wi-Fi is slow on weekdays, he doesn’t mind.

Connect to chat

It’s networking with others like her that makes Summer Starr go back to Bombay Connect, a co-working space in Mumbai for NGOs and social enterprises. Starr worked out of Bombay Connect three years ago, when it was known as Bombay Hub. As the executive director of Reality Gives, an NGO that collaborates on projects for underprivileged communities, Starr now has her own office but has retained a membership to the co-working hub. “More than space, which I don’t really require now, I get to connect to other social organizations as part of the network,” she says.

Through various workshops and events, Starr has met social entrepreneurs in marketing, technology and finance. Over a few months, her NGO has also collaborated with two other social enterprises, thanks to the people she has met through Bombay Connect events. “You feel like you belong to this group, like they have the same problems as you do, and that they can help,” she says.

“This community-focused new model is working way better for us,” says Ricardo Goncalves, community engagement manager, Bombay Connect. The co-working space has a robust community of social entrepreneurs and NGOs. Even though the prices for membership per person per month are high (from Rs.999 for just attending events and being part of the online community to Rs.7,200 for unlimited access to events, the community, meeting rooms and a space), the place is full, with at least 50 members working from there at all times. All because of the community it attracts and the calendar that is chock-a-block with events and workshops through the year.

Increased productivity

Film-maker Ritu Bhardwaj says sharing an office has made her efficient. “Working alone is boring. You tend to procrastinate, get frustrated and a little too comfortable in your pyjamas,” she says. After a disastrous year of trying to work from home, Bhardwaj hired a workstation for Rs.4,500 a month at the BMS Business Centre, a shared office space in Connaught Place, Delhi. “Though all of us in the office are independent workers, I still have a sense of belonging,” she says. Since the space has a diverse set of people—from legal experts, to corporate trainers and start-ups, among others, the learning never stops. “We constantly give advice to each other, bounce off ideas, and talk about our experiences,” says the 27-year-old.

Brijesh Bharadwaj, co-founder of Web start-up Tune Patrol (that sells indie music online), agrees with Ritu Bhardwaj. Bharadwaj has been working out of Jaaga with two colleagues since January. “There’s an energy in the space. All of us are young, have ambition and great ideas. We see other start-ups working hard and try and work harder than them,” he says. The little bit of competition and comparing notes keeps Bharadwaj on his toes at all times.

Extra zing

Shalini Singh runs the public relations (PR) company, Galvanise PR, which has offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad—both are shared with other start-ups. “I could have rented an exclusive apartment as an office for the same money, but I prefer to share offices,” she says.

Singh says sharing space with people of a similar age but from different professions boosts team morale and keeps the space lively and energetic. It also helps her team of four—most of whom are in their first jobs—learn new things. For example, no one in her team is technically inclined, but since they sit with technology start-ups, they have learnt how to solve laptop issues and work their way through a presentation. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. “My team interacts and learns from different kinds of people doing things other than PR, and I don’t have the headache of running office infrastructure,” she explains.

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WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Don’t sign up blindly. Go through this checklist before you say yes to a co-working space.

Take a trial run: Try the space to see if it’s a good fit for you. Most co-working places have options to work for a day or a week. Make use of that.

Check the noise level: Some spaces are quiet, some have loud music and constant chatter. If you cannot work in noisy places or vice versa, you will not be a good fit.

Look at other members: Co-working is meant for networking. Are the people near you in age, do they belong to your industry or are they at the same level in life (say, start-up)? If yes, you have found your soulmate space. If you aim to network through co-working, see what kind of activities, events and workshops the place holds….

Read the complete story on HT Mint website.

Earlier this year, Shitij Malhotra, who runs a small children’s education firm in Delhi, converted his office to The Studio, a co-working space where people from different professions can gather and work from.

“I have only four people in my firm right now and it got quite lonely,” says Malhotra. “With others coming to work here, there’s more energy, more people to bounce off ideas with, and a chance to increase your network,” he adds.

The concept of co-working, or the idea of people from different professions working out of a common office, has been building up for the last two years, with places like Moonlighting in Delhi, Bombay Connect in Mumbai and Jaaga in Bangalore, but it seems to have gained critical momentum in the last few months.

91springboard and The Studio in Delhi, The Playce in Mumbai, CoworkInGoa in Goa, Coworking Chennai in Chennai, Bangalore Alpha Lab in Bangalore—all these spaces have come up in the last six months. Malhotra says these spaces do more than just share office facilities, which is something that large business centres like the international chain Regus, BMS Business Centre in Delhi, Golden Square in Bangalore and others already offer. For an individual, both shared offices and co-working spaces cost a similar amount to rent—anywhere between Rs.2,500-8,000 per desk per month, depending on the city, the area and the type of space. What makes a difference is the space itself. “Shared offices are about paying for a desk, getting Internet, a receptionist and an address,” says Malhotra, “whereas a co-working space offers a feeling of a community. It’s an informal place for people who are just starting out, who are doing their own thing but also want to network and help each other out.”

Gargi Shah and Shekhar Gurav, founders of The Playce in Mumbai. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint.

Gargi Shah, co-founder of The Playce in Mumbai, thinks the trend is the outcome of an exponential increase in the number of entrepreneurs, freelancers and people who work on independent projects, and who are looking both for a cheaper place to work from and a sense of community. Shah herself co-founded The Playce when she was looking for an office to meet her students. She bumped into the other co-founder of The Playce, Shekhar Gurav, who wanted an office for his small enterprise in online education. Together, they convinced the owner of a 5,500 sq. ft space in Mumbai, got him to join as a co-founder, and launched The Playce in November.

“We have started this space for people like us who end up working out of coffee shops and bedrooms,” says Shah. She feels that other than becoming more efficient and disciplined because you are going to an “office” space every day, a co-working space also helps you to meet others like you, generate new ideas, and explore different perspectives. “When you bounce off new ideas with someone else, it helps you figure out what you want to do more,” she explains.

Focused on the community

The key idea behind many of the co-working spaces is the need to create an interactive community, and a co-working space goes out of its way to encourage communication. 91springboard in Delhi, for example, has huge informal seating space in its 10,000 sq. ft office with a cafeteria, which has beanbags, games and many corners for a chat over coffee. The idea is not to just offer a desk and high-bandwidth Internet but also a community-focused collaborative environment to encourage the start-up ecosystem. “The entrepreneurial community in Delhi is pretty active but scattered, which is where our space comes in. We don’t only offer a desk, but a membership that will help you to work and interact with others on a business, creative and technical level,” says Anand Vemuri, partner, 91springboard.

This co-working space also offers in-house services that include executing a lease, registering a new company, executing agreements with clients, managing accounts, filing taxes, picking up and delivering invoices, public relations, etc. Other than that, it also offers funding, incubation and direction to select start-ups. “Rather than from co-working, our profits will come when we help some of the start-ups we have funded succeed through the incubation programme,” Vemuri explains.

Like 91springboard, Dutch designer Marlies Bloemendaal, who plans to open Ministry of New in Mumbai in the beginning of May, hopes to offer services like setting up a company, sourcing the right manufacturer, finances, image management, marketing and legal advice aimed at expats or foreigners who want to start shop in this country. “Since I get approached often by newcomers into the country, I thought why not use that to cover the huge rent of this beautiful space?”

It was the studio itself, a quiet, elegant space in the middle of Mumbai in Lalbaug, that made Bloemendaal think of co-working. At Rs.25,000 per month per person, her space doesn’t come cheap, but Bloemendaal is not aiming at freshers. Rather, her target is companies, entrepreneurs, designers, architects from India and abroad. “We are a bit of boutique,” says Bloemendaal. The high-end co-working space will have an open kitchen area, a bar, and Italian coffee. Though she’s yet to open, a line of possible members, ranging from a London start-up, a journalist from Barcelona, Spain, and two architects from New York, US, to graphic designers from Delhi and Pune, have already shown interest.

The next step after opening is to let out the space for small events like exhibitions, lectures, pop-up shops, unplugged music sessions, etc.

Events play an important part in bringing the community into the space and gathering co-workers. The Playce already does all kinds of events, ranging from an all-night hackathon, a music session, to a workshop on cognitive behavioural therapy, to attract different people. More than a focused approach on the kind of community it wants to build, the three co-founders are more or less letting the people who come visiting decide what kind of crowd should be invited in.

“There aren’t many models around us to emulate, we are taking it as it goes,” says Shah. Since the third co-founder owns this space, they save on the rent cost. “We have around two years to experiment and see what it will become.” Meanwhile, word-of-mouth and community-driven events have given them 40 regular (day-wise or week-wise) co-workers in four months.

Evolving culture

The Studio in Delhi. Photo: Pradip Gaur/Mint.

According to Gunasekar Rajaratnam, who is set to launch a co-working space for friends in Chennai this week, sharing space and gossip is fast becoming an evolved work culture. “The idea is not only to share an office but to share your skills, pitch in support to each other when needed and collaborate,” he says. Right now he has one other co-worker and aims to bring in four-five regular co-workers through friends and word-of-mouth so that they can create a professional family to share infrastructure costs, skills, goodwill, time, social capital, a cup of filter coffee or a joke.

Bangalore-based software entrepreneur Ahimanikya Satapathy has opened up his small office to co-working for similar reasons. To help out technology start-ups, Satapathy has been running a meet-up group in Bangalore called Bootstrap Bangalore for about a year. Opening up an office to help out start-ups was the natural next step. In December, he opened Bangalore Alpha Lab, a co-working space, in his own office. “I see lots of people who want to start on their idea, but haven’t been able to and I want to help them,” says Satapathy.

His space is only open to start-ups and that too if he finds them comfortable to work with. “I have been offered more rent by travel agents, call centres and a lawyer, but I have refused. This is not a business for me. I just want to utilize the extra space in my office for something worthwhile,” he explains.

For most of the people who have opened up co-working spaces, it’s not about making a profit. The focus is more on meeting interesting people and creating a space where everyone can thrive. “You hope that you might break even eventually,” says Malhotra, “but at the end of it, running a co-working place doesn’t make much financial sense. Most of us are not doing it for money but to create an innovative space. You need to make sure the space is open at all hours, the infrastructure and supply needs never stop and you eventually end up spending more time and money on it than you get out of it. But you do it, well, because you want to.”

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CO-WORKING SPACES IN YOUR CITY

DELHI

91springboard

It has a 10,000 sq. ft place with an open layout that seats 150. High speed Wi-Fi and conference rooms are for members only. A huge cafeteria-cum-hangout space, with unlimited tea/coffee, is meant for networking or events. It’s open only to entrepreneurs and start-ups. Membership starts from Rs.3,999 for 12 days and goes on to Rs.6,999 for 30 days’ use per person. A day’s use costs Rs.499.

Visit: 91springboard.com

Moonlighting

This cooperative villa in south Delhi has a section for work and some rooms to stay. You get a desk, Internet, printing and scanning facilities, and a kitchenette. They also prepare lunch on request. Your résumé will be screened before they say yes. This comes with a fee of Rs.6,000 per month or Rs.950 for four days’ use.

Visit: Moonlighting.in

The Studio

It has a working hall with dedicated space as well as a casual set-up and small conference room. Designed for 15 people, The Studio already has around eight regulars. They are looking for individuals or start-ups to join in. The charge is Rs.5,500 a month per desk with Internet.

Visit: www.facebook.com/coworkingdelhi

MUMBAI

The Playce

With 5,500 sq. ft of space in Mumbai, The Playce already has 40 co-workers ranging from journalists to tech start-ups, social entrepreneurs and programmers. It can host 120 people at a time and provides work desks, cabins, conference rooms, a seminar hall and a game room. It also has a kitchen and a coffee machine…

Read the whole article on the HT Mint website

It made me feel giddy and all ‘holi’ writer-like on Holi yesterday when a Blue Dart courier arrived at my door with a colourful book. Called Celebrate! Holi, the book is an anthology of fiction, activities and legends about the colourful festival of Holi by Hachette India. I have written one of them.

When the editor contacted me in November last year on her plans to make this anthology, I warned her that I can write on Holi but it has to have a supernatural angle to it. After all, I am ‘self-claimed’ fantasy author and it wouldn’t be proper of me to write anything without my ghosts in it. The editor agreed and so the story Terror Strikes Back which is about spring and water balloons was written in the December cold of Delhi. The story is about this meticulous boy who is a self-acclaimed water balloon expert in his colony. That is till he is challenged to target the mysterious Pagla Miyan, an old man who is never seen in daylight and is rumoured to be a vampire who might also like eating kids. I had a blast building this story and laughing while I typed away in a winter balcony.  You can buy a copy of Celebrate! Holi on Flipkart or contact me if you are curious about the story. 

Whether it’s a computer-in-a-wristband, a fleece jacket with 23 pockets or a sound system that uses solar panels, these gadgets can add that extra zing

StormFly

This nifty device can work wonders for travellers who have to go without Internet’s cloud services and miss the computer back home. StormFly is a handy computer-in-a-wristband which comes with storage space and a bootable open-source OS based on Linux. All you need to do is find a system (most PCs and Macs should work) and plug in StormFly in its USB port. The device will show all your application programs and files. When you are finished using it, simply plug it off and shut down the computer. There will be no file leftovers in the computer you used. Since it’s encrypted, the stored data can’t be accessed by anyone else if you lose the bracelet—a beautiful orange-colour wristband. StormFly also offers cloud back-up of your wrist-computer. The product was successfully funded by crowdsourcing website Kickstarter recently and will start shipping in April.

$59* (around Rs.3,200) at Stormfly.nowcomputing.com.

CamelBak All Clear

This 750ml water bottle not only stores drinking water but also zaps all bacteria using UV technology, powered with a USB cable connected to your laptop. An extra pre-filter ($15) will make sure that all the flotsam and sediments are caught and trapped and you get clean, healthy drinking water on the go. The smart bottle will tell you when the water is ready to drink with an LCD display on the cap.

$99 at Camelbak.com.

Oakley Airwave

Track your descent analytics, incoming calls or text messages as you ski down a slope. The Oakley Airwave is a statistics-full ski-goggle with sensors, including an accelerometer, barometer, GPS, Bluetooth and gyro. As you slope it downwards, the goggle displays all kinds of statistics, including altitude and temperature, on the right-hand side corner of your vision, somewhat like the Terminator all those years back. If you don’t feel futuristic enough, get back online after your descent and see a detailed, second-by-second analysis of your course. The gadget visor comes with Oakley’s promise of moisture-wicking, anti-fog technology, triple-layer polar fleece foam for comfort and glasses that filter out the ultraviolet rays.

$599.95 at www.oakley.com.

Scottevest Fleece 7.0

The Fleece 7.0 is a warm, fashionable fleece jacket which comes with a whopping 23 different pockets for all kinds of electronic gadgets. There is the Quick Draw pocket, which allows you to access your smartphone on the go through a see-through fabric in the side pocket, so you don’t even need to take the phone out. Another trick addition is a hidden pocket for a tablet, a pocket for eyeglasses made of a soft cloth, and a zippered pocket for travel documents. Then there are pockets for a bottle, camera and pen. In case you forget what is where, there’s a map of every pocket. Aren’t you already wishing it was cold enough to wear this?

$160 at www.scottevest.com.

Contour+2

Taking the rage of live action cameras a step further, the Contour+2 is a cylindrical-shaped camera that lets you record up to 120FPS videos in four different modes, including 1080p HD. It comes with a handy on-record switch, a 270-degree rotating lens, a laser beam to show you the direction of the camera, a waterproof case and a huge variety of mounts. If that’s not enough, it ensures that you record all the statistics, whether you are rafting or in the sky, with a built-in Bluetooth and a GPS receiver which can track speed, elevation and distance. Connect it to a smartphone to adjust camera settings and to preview your shot. Since the audio jack is external, expect good voice quality too.

$399.99 at Contour.com.

BioLite CampStove

There’s nothing like hot soup on a camping night out. Replace the tiresome work of making your own campfire with a swanky orange-coloured BioLite CampStove. The stove comes with low fire output in less than a kilogram of weight and uses the twigs you collect, instead of gas or petroleum, to cook. While the food’s cooking, the stove can also recharge your phone, light and other USB-chargeable devices.

$129.95 at www.biolitestove.com.

Eton Rugged Rukus

Rukus is a Bluetooth sound system meant to be taken outdoors with you. It uses solar panels to power the speakers, and to charge a lithium battery so you can use it indoors too…

Read the complete article at Livemint.

You have a movie on your smartphone and want to stream it on your television and watch it with friends. Six months ago, the only option you had to do this wirelessly was to go with a branded ecosystem. And there too it was a handful of choices—you needed the right receiver and the right device to make it work. There were a few open-source technologies which tried it, like DLNA by Sony, but they didn’t really catch on in the phone-to-TV market.

But ever since late 2012, when international standards body Wi-Fi Alliance announced Miracast, an open standard to stream wirelessly to your TV, several new devices have been launched that allow wireless streaming. With even Intel adding Miracast to its WiDi technology, the choices for wireless streaming are fast becoming varied. If you’re an early adopter interested in getting your hands on this technology, here are some devices to start streaming your HD movie from your phone wirelessly, now.

Apple TV

Though Apple TV is much more than a device to stream wirelessly, its AirPlay capability is one of the main reasons for its success. The device attaches to your HDTV with an HDMI cable (not included in the pack). Once attached, you need to put both your smartphone and Apple TV on the same Wi-Fi network. Apple will automatically pair any other Apple devices it sees on the network. An icon for AirPlay appears automatically within the video app you are seeing the movie on. All you need to do is click that on your smartphone and the HD video will start showing on your TV.

Like: AirPlay, Apple’s display streaming system, works smoothly and is easy to set up.

Dislike: It works perfectly with Apple’s built-in apps, but many popular third-party apps don’t support it yet. This is changing, but for now you’re really constrained by your iTunes library.

Supports: iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch 2 or later, which are running iOS 5.

Cost: Rs.8,295 at Apple Premium Resellers across the country.

Actiontec ScreenBeam Universal

The device, one of the few open ones, lets you connect both with Miracast- and WiDi-enabled devices. Once paired, you see the screen of your smartphone reflected on the big one. The good part is that ScreenBeam creates a dedicated wireless display connection to your HDTV so it doesn’t require an existing wireless network or even line of sight, and you can use it without a router. The box comes with a receiver, an HDMI cable, a software CD and a user guide.

Like: Actiontec has included a USB transmitter for older laptops that are not Miracast-compatible. If you don’t have Miracast you can still use the device by downloading the software and installing it on your laptop.

Dislike: You need to update the device software to connect it to Miracast-enabled products. For that, you need to email their customer support and wait for them to send you the update. Not intuitive or easy at all.

Supports: Miracast-enabled smartphones.

Cost: $79.99 (around Rs.4,345) on Amazon.com. Shipping charges extra.

Netgear Push2TV PTV3000

Push2TV is a dedicated accessory for wirelessly streaming content from other media to your TV. The device is only slightly bigger than your phone and doesn’t need an extra power socket. It can be plugged into your TV’s spare USB port to power up. Once you connect the device with an HDMI cable to your TV and switch on your Wi-Fi, hold the side button for 3 seconds so that it can come into Miracast mode. Then reach out for your phone and change your Display settings on phone to switch on the Wireless Display. Now select Netgear and pair.

Like: The pocket-sized device comes both WiDi- and Miracast-ready, which lets you pair it with a wide range of devices.

Dislike: Since the technology (Miracast) is quite new, there are slight issues in connecting the box with your smartphone. Expect updates and tinkering before complete success.

Supports: Miracast-enabled smartphones, including Samsung Galaxy S3, Note II, Note 10.1, LG Optimus G, Google Nexus 4 and Sony Xperia’s various models above Android 4.0.4.

Cost: Rs. 5,632 on eBay.in

HTC Media Link HD

Media Link is an exclusive device from HTC to connect its smartphones to your TV. It supports full mirroring, which means you can see whatever’s on your phone displayed on the big screen. The set-up is easy and to connect all you need to do is make a three-finger swipe gesture on your smartphone. To stop sharing, do a downward three-finger swipe. It’s way cooler than a click. There’s a slight lag in what shows on the screen versus what’s on your phone, but that should be fixed in future updates, and doesn’t matter for movies anyway.

Like: It allows you to multitask and use your phone even while the movie you are streaming is on in the dual screen mode. It also doesn’t put much strain on the smartphone’s battery life.

Dislike: It works only with HTC devices and that too only high-end ones.

Supports: The HTC One series.

Cost: Rs. 4,215.99 on in.mobilefun.com

Read the complete story on Livemint website.

Right? Readers would assume so. For them, ebooks are just another medium but doesn’t exactly mean they own a book. Once you as a reader buy it, you cannot share it with someone or resell it if you don’t like it. In a way as this New York Times article states: You have only rent it from an Amazon or iTunes or Flipkart and your rights on the product are severely limited. You cannot resell and it’s gadget limiting and app-dependent. Logically, if the reader was just renting a book, the ebook’s price should have cost something like a library’s book rental cost – atleast half of the cost of a new book.

Then let us look at what it costs to make an ebook. Most Indian publishers, even the ones who have MNC counterparts, outsource their typesetting work (What is typesetting) to a third-party where plates are made digitally and then a physical final converts into a physical book at the printing press. Since the work is outsourced, the final typeset plates might have been deleted from the printer’s computer or put into raddi . So even if the editors and authors exchange drafts of Word documents and emails, the final version of the book (the typeset one with spacing, font setting and other stuff, etc) is not there in the hand of a publisher, especially in the case of older books, which have already been published say five years ago.

Since most of Indian publishers, especially in non-English languages are still producing books in outsourced press, to convert those into ebooks, they have to incur costs on getting them converted from paperback to OCR (optical character recognition) and then have it professionally proofread for scanning errors. In case they don’t have display rights or digital rights, they might have to procure them. This is a huge roadblock for many smaller traditional Indian publishers.

Then there are new costs associated with producing ebooks. As a New Yorker article put it:

“E-books are cheaper to produce, by about twenty per cent per book, because they do away with the cost of paper, printing, shipping, and warehousing. They also eliminate returns of unsold books—a significant expense, since thirty to fifty per cent of books are returned. But they create additional costs: maintaining computer servers, monitoring piracy, digitizing old books. And publishers have to pay authors and editors, as well as rent and administrative overhead, not to mention the costs of printing, distributing, and warehousing bound books, which continue to account for the large majority of their sales.”

Another article in Huffington Post sums up the costs that it takes to produce an ebook from a publisher’s perspective.

1) Software to create an ebook – Adobe Indesign (One copy costs $699), Photoshop and other softwares to create and edit. Going digital in other words.

2) Cost of hosting the ebooks – maintaining servers themselves or paying rental for third-party hosting service

3) Paying hefty royalty to the new retail giants – “Amazon keeps a bit over 30 percent of every book, because it also charges a “delivery fee” above and beyond the percentage it makes. B&N keeps about 35 percent. Google kept 48 percent on my last report.”

4) More royalty to the author (somewhere between 15-25 percent).

Both New Yorker and Huffington Post’s articles are from old-style publisher point of view. When faced with ebooks, old publishers are panicking and even resorting to illegal measures. In the USA last year, book publishers S&S, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins were sued by the Justice department for colluding to raise ebook prices. Out of these three (S&S, Hachette and HC) coughed up money and gave them back to the US customers who had bought up ebooks from 2010-2012. The USA scene happened because publishers were afraid that ebooks will kill the traditional market practices. Some of the publishers were following the traditional market pricing as they simply were in deep sea—not knowing how to proceed in the ebook market. 

The Indian market is still nascent. Most Indian publishers shy away from ebook markets citing piracy fears and the fear of the unknown—technology. This fear converts itself into a new cost, a new way of thinking, a new business model. Copying what you were doing traditionally is not enough to keep you afloat. And they are being pushed by demand from readers who have tablets in their hands and want to see the book on various mediums —different ebook devices, audio, print. This generation likes to be served on individual plates. Their way or the highway.

How does one bridge the gap between the MRP that a publisher wants to put on an ebook vs what the reader is willing to pay for it? Maybe a traditional publisher will come up with a new business model which cuts costs. Or maybe we will see exclusive ebook-selling publishers sprouting around us. The Indian publishers need to drastically change their business models, figure out their costs and see the writing on the wall, that they have to change with this paperless times. Else perish.

As for authors, especially people like me who are just starting in the career of creative writing and storytelling, the more mediums I can get to my reader to read on, the merrier for me. Till readers are coming do I care how they read that particular story? I hope the publishers catch up to this reality soon.

We, the women,

we have suffered so

Since centuries, since decades,

Since years, since days.

Since minutes, since seconds.

In villages, in farms, in cities, in dark alleys

In buses, in call centre cars, in discotheques, in rallies.

We have suffered long enough.

And now we demand our share of blood.

We are angry, we are so angry

All we see is red, splashes of it, blots of it

Running down like tears, from irises to cheeks

Yes, we want blood. We crave it, we deserve it.

We want castration. We want death.

We want beheaded, naked bodies and heads.

We want to slay, like we have been slain.

For that’s the only answer.

Not love, not motherhood,

Not forbearance or brotherhood

No more will we turn the other cheek.

We will burn as we have been burnt.

For isn’t that the only answer?

Blood for blood

An eye for an eye

An ear for a ear

A leg for a leg

A penis for a fondled breast.

A blood drop for a tear.

© Shweta Taneja, March 2013

—-

I started to write a blog about it, but since my opinion on this is raw and emotional, this poem is what emerged. I am feeling sad about the rightful anger in a lot of men and women in the country about the violent death of Ram Singh, one of the Delhi rapists today. I am feeling sad that we can rejoice in violent deaths as a country, a community, a gender, a world. Don’t get me wrong. I am against gender inequality and gender violence in all forms that are embedded in our society. But is celebrating violence the solution? I hope that in craving the blood of someone who’s the monster, we don’t become monsters ourselves.

Photo courtesy kafila.org

When I read the back cover at Crosswords in Bangalore, I knew would read the series if only because it was set in Tudor times and had Cromwell in it. After all, as I realized during studying English literature in grad and post-grad, the most fascinating times of English history are the Tudors. That was the era when England was churning and building into a powerful empire from ‘that cold, icy island in north’ (Though you will find me cribbing most about the Victorians and their tiring nitpicking rules). The rulers, be it Henry VIII who remarried eight times, or his daughters Mary who killed off all newly turned protestants in the country or Queen Elizabeth—all of them are colourful, cruel and innovative characters. So I picked up both The Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies (you have to start from the beginning) and licked them up in a couple of weeks.

The Wolf Hall in the three book series (what is it with the number three anyway?) charts the rise of Thomas Cromwell as a minister in Henry VIII’s rule. The Machiavellian character who is not of royal blood comes into court mostly because the Catholic king wants a new wife and only Cromwell the astute lawyer can change the rules of the game. Bring up the Bodies is about Cromwell rewriting laws again to get rid of the king’s second wife (as per his wish) as well as running the kingdom. That’s the story in short and if you are the kind who craves constant twist and turns to turn pages, you might not find that here.

The books are meant more for the ones who want to delve into those times of English history when England was waking up from medieval times and an overbearing corrupt Church and tentatively inching into a world created by laws and rules of commerce. The latter is represented very well in Cromwell’s character. In the masterful author’s hand, Cromwell is built inch by inch, dialogue by dialogue into a mammoth refreshing parallel to the royal citizenry of Henry’s court. It’s flavourful and delightful like a piece of sandesh (love the Bengali mithai!).

As her protagonist, her language delights too. Mantel uses present tense which makes her sentences shorter and sharper, adding a sense of immediacy in a plot that ambles along like the chuggish Thames. It’s a difficult feat (I tried it in a short story and failed epically with a wrathful email from my editor) but Mantel seems to be at ease with both her language and world. There are many ‘ahh’ sentences and well as ‘aha’ moments, even though you might know the story more or less.

For me, The Wolf Hall was mostly ‘aha’ because of Cromwell’s character and the way it rebuilds the modern world around him and his estate, dealing with all challenges in a practical manner. By the time of Bring Up the Bodies however, I was feeling a bit tired of the style. Cromwell was older and wiser (and boring!) and it seemed to be the same book again. But I still finished the second book for two reasons – Mantel’s marvellous hold on language and I wanted to see how they do away with the second wife which was kind of anti-climatic. I will gladly pick up the third one too and read it, for no other reason than to see how the series ends, but that’s me.

Mantel’s books are not easy for its readers, especially those who don’t know much about English history. She doesn’t handhold you through the history or the character’s past but rather arrogantly roughly pushes you straight into the alleys of early 16^th century England, a world which comes with its own hangovers, allegiances and rules, much like any other fantasy world. There are a plethora of historical people who you have to know more, tree charts you have to consult, and incidents which you need to read up on Wikipedia to enjoy her books completely.

It’s much like homework given by the more intelligent teachers of your school where you just cannot copy-paste and be done with it. It’s hard work that needs patience and desire both. If you don’t have that, you might enjoy the language for a little while but then get impatient and give up, shelving the book with its bookmark intact. I guess Mantel does warn us by implying that she’s consciously trying to write ‘serious fiction’ instead of genre fiction which has whips, chains and boy wizards (Refering to the works of other top female authors in the UK, JK Rowling and EL James). She’s an intelligent, arrogant writer and demands an equally hardworking, patient and intelligent reader. That’s a lot to demand, even to someone like me who knows the world a bit. No wonder it appealed to the junta in the Booker committee. But if it will appeal to you as a reader, I am not too sure. And Mantel doesn’t seem to care really. She was recently in news because she compared England’s new Princess Kate Middleton to Anne in a speech and got egg on her face for the effort. Read more about that here, here and here. And lots of other places.

The trilogy revolves around two friends, Azim Khan and Karan Nehru and their friendship in the power corridors of Raisina hills. It maps their journey as they arrive with freshly minted ideals on the grimy scenes of politics and what happens to them in the process of becoming the most powerful leaders in this country. It’s a powerful and current premise to build a story in and Singh touches on all issues our democracy faces right now–be it corruption, media playing its tune, casteism, foreign policy, bouts with our neighbours or the babu behind the ministers.

The third is written really tight, but doesn’t have the fluidity of the first two books. It seems to jump or lag and go into some descriptive non-fiction style paragraphs, which I struggled with. Maybe it was edited with too tight a hand, or maybe Singh tried to put in too much of his vision of what India can become in a single book. But that doesn’t say that it’s not a rivetting book. Singh strength lies in building up a story around politicians who are real life-like characters. Who deal with India that is now. It’s the negotiations, relationships and respect that these worldly-wise politicians and babus deciding the fate of India go through every day, is what makes for riveting reading. When he’s using his strength—of characters and their relationships with each other, the writing completely shines and etches itself, much like June’s sun in Uttar Pradesh.

It’s his flawed, reality-etched characters that make the book and the series. Even the minor characters are beautifully fleshed out with their caste-oriented experiences and the past baggage they carry into their jobs. And as the first two books proved to me, Singh is a deft player with character and language in his world, something that I have rarely seen in an Indian author’s writing. Like the first two of the series, the third is equally delicious in its delicate, polite style of writing. He has the ability to take anyone from a murderer to a villainous character and write about him or her in a merciful, sympathetic tone. He’s forgiving to everything from malicious intensions to greed. For in the grimy world of politics, you cannot survive (or write about it) if you are not forgiving.

The trilogy made me do something I never thought will happen. It made me become more sympathetic to what out politicians have to go through with either because of their ideals, their belief systems or greed and ambitions. That’s Singh’s power as an author and a visionary and I bow to that. And it’s the vision Singh paints that remains with you. A vision of what India can become, only if it had leaders half the caliber as Khan or Nehru.  The books made me sigh with hope for this beautiful country of mine. It made me shrug the cynicism of years of listening to ‘is country ka kutch nahi hoga’ and led me to hope and dream and wait for such a leader to rise. The imagined world of Singh, so close to our real one, is like our National Anthem. It makes the hair on the back of my neck rise in pride. I would like to end the review with a quote from one of my email exchanges with Singh on his vision:

“I’m still positive about this country because India has been around for thousands of years and will be around for thousands more, and all kinds of incompetent rulers have come and gone, but the country keeps chugging along. We cling to hope and dream to be inspired one day by the call of a leader who will be worthy. Until then, we wait…and write fiction!”

Read the book for its story, read it for its vision and characters.

————–

KP Singh is currently writing short stories and a non-fiction. You can chase him on Twitter @RaisinaSeries 

These budget tablets actually deliver on performance as well.

From Google to Apple to Acer and our home-grown Micromax, Karbonn and Zync, every tech company is hell-bent on putting a touch screen in your hands. According to a report by the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (Mait), the country’s tablet PC market is expected to grow to 7.3 million units by 2015-16, up from 1.7 million units currently.

As if in anticipation, there are more than 30 new tablets in the market. The good news is that you have a tablet for every budget in the desi market today. The bad news? Most of them might not really work the way you anticipate. Don’t worry though. We’ve gone through the options to pick out the most useful ones.

Wammy Desire

There are many desirable things about this new product from a relatively new Indian brand, Wicked Leak. The Desire comes pre-loaded with Android 4.1 or Jelly Bean, which has a much better interface for tablets. High-memory apps on the platform promise to never lag with an ARM Cortex A9 dual core 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM. The 7-inch touch screen is Wi-Fi enabled, has an HDMI port and 8 GB internal memory, expandable up to 32 GB. The box comes pre-loaded with a screen guard, a capacitive pen and a micro USB to USB cable. Even with the 800×480 pixel size, which has now become a regular in 7-inch budget tablets, the screen is vibrant with colour and movement.

Price: Rs.6,499 (plus taxes)*

Available at: www.wickedleak.org

Videocon VT-71

A late entrant to the 7-inch tablet space, Videocon’s VT-71 is a decent budget tablet with one feature that makes it stand out. It comes with an HDMI cable, which means you can attach it to the biggest screen in your home, your telly. Feature-wise, VT-71 runs on Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich with a 1.2 GHz processor and has a 4 GB memory which is expandable to 32 GB. A mere 512 MB RAM is a bit of a disappointment but it more than makes up for this with connectivity and free HDMI and on-the-go USB cables in the pack.

Price: Rs.4,799

Available at: www.flipkart.com

UbiSlate 7C+

This budget tablet from the makers of the humdrum Aakash 2 is a good option in the price category. 7C+ is a lightweight, 7-inch tablet running on Android 4.0 and powered by a 1 Ghz processor with 512 MB RAM. You can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi and GPRS and it also has a SIM card slot available, but there’s no Bluetooth. The box is pre-loaded with a micro-USB-to-USB adaptor to access the Internet via a 3G dongle. It has 4 GB internal memory, with a microSD slot. Though the screen is not rich in colours, it performs smoothly.

Price: Rs.4,999

Available at: www.ubislate.com

Byond Mi-book Mi3

Pune-based company Byond Tech Electronics entered the market in October with a range of touch-screen products. Our favourite in the range, Mi3, comes with an 8 GB inbuilt memory which can be expanded to 32 GB with an SD card. The capacitive touch screen with kinetic scrolling is loaded with the usual Android 4.0, 1.2 GHz CPU, and 1 GB RAM. You can connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi or a 3G dongle. The tablet comes inbuilt with other Indian language apps as well as a back camera and a front camera (2 MP and 0.3 MP). The difference lies in the fact that it has 3D video and gaming support and is bundled with 3D goggles in the box. For addicts of 3D, there’s nothing cooler.

Price: Rs.6,119

Available at: You can find retailers in your city at http://byondmibook.com/ because it’s currently out of stock online.

Zync Z1000

Bigger is always better, especially when it comes to a touch screen. Indian company Zync has come up with a 9.7-inch Android tablet with resolution of 1,024×768 in a budget that won’t lead to yet another EMI. The 3G-capable tablet is loaded with…..

Read the complete story on Mint website here.

The blog is about the game. So we did manage to play this game, just the two of us, yesterday night. With much excitement, we opened the boardgame, read the rules, prepped the dice and chose our fast-driving cars. For those who have never played the game, Monopoly is all about buying plots and then building houses and hotels on your property. Finally, in true Khosla Ka Ghosla style, by luck, crook or hook, you turn into a landlord and keep on collecting rent from people who through the roll of the unlucky dice land on your property. You keep on going round and round the board, buying property, building houses and collecting rent till all others than you are bankrupt. You can only win the game when the rest all are bankrupt and not by making money. So your aim? Make sure the rest of them become kangaal. Force them to sell properties, force them to pay you high rents, force their money off the table.

If you haven’t guessed or don’t already know, there’s one massive silent player in this on the side. It’s called the Bank. According to the rule book, the Bank holds the title deeds of all properties, the houses and hotel before they are purchased and all the rest of the money in the game. This player is neutral. After we as players have been given a puny amount to start the game (1500 currency each, while the Banker keeps the rest), the Bank is the place where all players do their transactions. They buy property or plots, the Bank gets rich. They have to pay rent to another player and don’t have the money, they mortgage the plot, the bank gets 10 percent for mortgaging. The player pays tax, it goes to the bank. The player is in Jail, the bail is to the Bank. In all transactions as the players get greedy (and it is a game of greed), fight over rent, purchase, convince each other and haggle like crazy, this silent partner gets rich and rich and rich. The Bank you see, is always there, even if you opt out by declaring bankruptcy. The Banker is so important that his face pops up on all Monopoly boardgames as a male, top hat and suit wearing fella.

Not very different really from our social set up right now where the Banker plays a vital role in all our lives. The Bank keeps your salary, gives you puny interest but also taxes you on bills, spends, credit cards, debit cards and many other complex rules. Most of the couples I know around me, have bought houses and are duly paying mortgages to the Bank. They have car loans, personal loans, cellphone EMIs and have one chore related to the bank on their weekend list. Mostly, one of their salaries is completely going to the Bank. And as all of us who have had drawing room conversations on this already know. The Banker always wins. Not only in the boardgame, but in life. Always.

In the view of recent bankruptcy threats by a bank in the USA (remember the Lehman Brothers who are already onto a new big deal in real estate), which brought the whole world on its knees and gave money to crooks, I who is full of questions had a very important on to ask from Monopoly’s rule book. What happens to the game when the Bank declares bankruptcy? And here’s the answer in Monopoly’s official rule book page:

 What if the Bank runs out of money?

So you see, the Bank knows its deals. Even if it runs out of paper money, it will just print more money or do the deal on a sheet of white paper which is better than bankruptcy as a letter in Financial Times informs us. Yemen just did that. I think Parker Brothers who created the game in 1903 had it right all the way to their bank. In an economy which works on currency and a society which works on aspiration and greed, the banker always wins. And isn’t that human nature?

On another note, before we called it a night, my luck with money made me win over my poor husband who was bankrupted by paying rent over and over again. But I still feel I had less money than the Banker! So no, it wasn’t a win really, if winning (and not others losing) was the aim of it all.

Online dating ideas for couples stuck in different cities on Valentine’s Day

Harish Atharv Thakur, 26, is an entrepreneur based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His girlfriend, Anjali Suryavanshi, 23, works as a physiotherapist in Jabalpur in the same state. In the last few years, they have only been able to meet sporadically. “But we don’t really feel that we are away from each other, thanks to the Internet,” says Thakur.

The couple uses Viber and WhatsApp for free messages. “For special nights like birthdays or dates, we set up video-chatting on Skype, light a candle for each other and talk for hours,” says Thakur, who feels a long-distance relationship would have been impossible without the Internet, though he concedes that distance and doing the same old things virtually can become boring. “You can call on the phone, email, IM or even text, but you sometimes need something innovative to keep the zing going.”

So for couples who cannot be in the same city on Valentine’s Day, here are some ideas to light up your relationship…all you need is an Internet-enabled device.

A movie date

Watching a movie at the same time, seeing each other’s reactions, laughing at a scene together and hearing comments while the movie is playing is a memorable experience.

You need: A device with high-speed Internet, a video-camera and a tub of popcorn.

How: Log in to your Google Plus Hangout (plus.google.com/hangouts) on your laptop (or any other device enabled with a video camera and Internet). Click on the Start a Hangout button on the top right side of your screen. Install the Hangout plug-in (it will take 2 minutes). Make sure your mic and camera are working on both ends by looking at your video feed at the bottom of the page. Now invite your partner by entering his/her name in the Add Names section. Once that’s accepted, open another browser window and choose a movie to screen from YouTube (www.youtube.com/movies) offerings. Now click on the Screenshare button on the side of your screen on Hangouts. In the window that pops up, choose your browser with the YouTube movie playing and click on Share Selected Window. You can watch the movie along with a video box to see each other’s expressions and voices at the same time.

Post some smiles

If you and your partner are in different time zones and there’s no way you can even be online at the same time, then here’s something you can do: Record your day as it happens, the things you do and the moments when you miss your partner the most. When your Valentine wakes up later, he/she will have all these video messages waiting in their Tango app. All he/she needs to do is open an app and smile at your day’s antics.

You need: A webcam-enabled laptop or a smartphone.

How: Download the Tango (www.tango.me) app for desktops, iOS, Android or Windows Phone 7. Tango works like other IM chat apps like WhatsApp and Viber, except that you can send messages in video format. Once you have installed it in your phone, it automatically includes contacts from your Contact list. Choose your date’s contact and then click on Video Message. Record a message and tap Send.

Share your entire day

Sometimes a mere email or even a series of messages are not enough to convey your life to each other or what you have been going through. Sharing messages isn’t enough for some people and if you’re one of them, then Couple is a way to share every part of your life.

You need: Internet-enabled smartphones.

How: Couple (trycouple.com, free for iOS and Android) is a social network app for just the two of you. You can share photos, text, “miss you” moments, take pictures and post things you see and go by, video-chat, create to-do lists, put in special dates and even sketch together. You can even thumbkiss or match your thumbs on your phones’ screens and get a vibration. Other apps which are similar and act like a digital dropbox for all your memories are Between (appbetween.us, free for iOS and Android) and Avocado (avocado.io, free for iPhone and Android).

Play a board game

From Scrabble to Pictionary to Euro-style board games—almost all the popular games are available to play for free online. Pick something you both like, and start playing.

You need: A computer.

How: OMGPOP (omgpop.com) offers cute 3D games ranging from card games to Pictionary. It has about 30 games on its list. All you need to do is take your pick from the Games list on the top and press Play Now. That leads you into a “lobby” area where you can invite others to play with you. Click on the Invite link below the game, and you can send the link generated to your partner.

Go to a concert

Love attending music concerts together? With live streaming you can go to an online concert with your partner as a date.

You need: An Internet-connected device with external speakers (laptop or tablet speakers would not suffice for a good music show).

How: IRocke (irocke.com) is a collection of live-stream concerts from around the world. Most of their concerts are free and there are many choices in terms of timing, genre and artistes. Log on to the platform and filter the shows available by Genre or Rating.

Read the complete story on the HT Mint website

Digital cameras are doing more than ever before—from printing instantly to recording your life or a giving first-person view of sports

Smartphones are taking over the role of basic point-and-shoot digital cameras, but the camera industry is reinventing itself and a number of new devices really push the limits of what was possible for a compact camera. Basic point-and-shoot cameras are being replaced by smarter cameras that are able to record your life, tweet a picture right after clicking it, or even take a print to hand to the people you’re with. We take a look at some compact cameras that are changing digital photography.

GoPro Hero3

Like its predecessors, the Hero3 is meant to be worn and captures photos and videos from the perspective of the one wearing it, making it perfect for athletes. It is wearable, mountable and water-proof (up to 60m). It can capture ultra-wide HD videos at 1080p and 60 frames per second (fps) and 12 MP photos at 30 photos per second. To reduce recording distortion, the camera has a six-element aspherical lens and gives more perspective-capture options, apart from reducing wind noise in recording.

$399.99 (around Rs.22,130), plus shipping, at Amazon.com.

Lytro light-field camera

Turning camera technology on its head, Lytro lets you take pictures where you can adjust the focus even after saving the picture. You can shoot photos in 3D or reorient and shift the perspective of the photograph as well, using a special light-field technology. Though the Lytro is a basic device, it produces interactive, living pictures in a light-field picture (.lfp) file format which can be stored for free on Lytro’s website (Lytro.com) and viewed on any smart device.

$399 for 8 GB storage and $499 for 16 GB on www.lytro.com. Currently ships to the US, with distributors in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, so you have to organize shipping yourself.

Polaroid Z340E

Digital photography has made printed photos rarer, but this makes the new Polaroid really stand out. You can use it just as you would any other digital camera, but the 14 MP camera with a 2.7-inch LCD screen has one extra option–you can print the photo on instant paper, and the print is smudge-proof, water- and tear-resistant and also prints dry-to-touch.

$299.99 for the camera and $19.99 per pack of 30 prints/sheets of 3-inch x 4-inch ZINK Zero Ink Paper at Amazon.com.

Autographer

Power up this automatic wearable camera with a 136-degree eye-view lens, a GPS unit and five inbuilt sensors and you have a smart camera that gives you unusual photographs. Autographer weighs a mere 58g and is 37.4mm wide, 90mm long and 22.93mm thick. It has 8 GB memory and takes 5-MP-size photos. It doesn’t have a preset time for a click but chooses smartly according to its built-in sensors based on changes in light and colour, motion, direction and temperature. It might click when you start running suddenly, or move from a warm pub to a snowy street or turn to greet a friend.

Available for £399 on Autographer.com in the UK and select European countries, available worldwide in a couple of months.

Sony NEX-6

The NEX-6 pushes a compact camera into the DSLR category without compromising on its size. The feature that makes it stand apart from a myriad of premium point-and-shoots is that it gives full manual control on shutter, aperture, or ISO.

Finally I can talk about it This is the main cover for my upcoming 100 page graphic novel The Skull Rosary done by acclaimed artists Lalit Kumar Sharma and Jagdish Kumar with colours by Holy Cow Entertainment’s own Yogesh R Pugaonkar. The cover is going to be launched as a poster in the upcoming Delhi Comic Con. As I have repeatedly said: I just can’t wait to see this book in my hands!