VC’s Techie CockTail

At the time when I first started writing in my blog a budget phone in the price range of 125$, will have  a maximum specification of a basic color screen at 128 x 128 pixel (STN - basically dull), polyphonic ringtones and might be a VGA camera and Infrared.Nowadays this segment has seen a dramatic makeover with VFM phones emerging left, right & center from all the mobile phone manufacturers.

This time I came across a Nokia 3110 classic. Its a typical Nokia Series 40 candybar phone. But beneath its somewhat bland exteriors its feature packed for a phone costing around 4750/- rs (110$). Let me list out some of its notable features,

• First & foremost its reception and call quality are excellent making it a nice phone importantly
• The black plastic body weighing around 87 grams is nice to hold and quite sturdily built
• The 128 x 160 pixel 65,000 color TFT screen was nice & crisp to look at.
• A good phonebook system with multiple contacts, calendar, reminders, alarms make it a handy PIM
• A media player which supports mp3 / wma / aac / 3gp / mp4 playback with micro sd card slot to expand memory makes it a capable portable multimedia player
• A camera with 1.3 megapixel is quite a good one at the current price range and will be useful as a snapper in well lit conditions and when you don’t have a digital camera in your hand
• Connectivity department is well stocked up with GPRS,EDGE, USB, Infrared (one of the few phones to still have it), Bluetooth with A2DP
• With extras like FM, Java games and apps it will be a ideal companion on the road or in your free time
• Last but not the least the Nokia Series 40 UI is quite easy to work with and there are lots of ways to customize it.

Its quite a impressive phone , the only downer was the ringtone volume which I felt was not that audible (it might be that a louder mp3 file could have made it better). But at this time, I think its just a step ahead of its competitors like SE W200i, LG KG 195 & Samsung E250

written by Vignesh \\ tags: 3110 classic, Mobile Phone, Nokia, w200

Hello Techies !!! Hope July is off to a wonderful start for all

One of the problems in a town like mine is the dust, and for a gadget like laptop dust can be a major enemy to the laptop’s longevity and error free running. The worst time with my previous Acer Travel Mate was the TFT screen, a combination of small greasy spots, dust & finger smudges made it a mess. First of all I had a soft lint cloth, a new paint brush to wipe and brush all the dust from the laptop screen and keyboard area. Then I got this iKlear thru my friend in America…and cleaning with this made my screen better .

But as I changed to my Lenovo Y410, the first thing I did was to get a screen protector. So on my last trip to Chennai, I went to Landmark, Spencers Plaza and got me a ScratchGard screen protector for 999/- bucks (23$). The shopkeeper after a brief struggle did a good job of sticking it or people with a certain level of skill and patience can stick it by themselves. But now i dont dread about my laptop’s screen, its easy to clean and the screen maintains its brightness and clarity. So its been a worthwhile investment.

The next thing I thought of buying was a USB vacuum cleaner, but after a extensive research on the web and from people who used it I came to a conclusion that its actually doesnt serve the purpose of cleaning keyboards. But a decent alternative in the web was to use a hairdryer in cool mode to get the dirt out.

So my laptop maintenance kit now has a lint cloth, a paint brush and some laptop cleaning kits to do the job. If you have any more ideas please share your thoughts here ….

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Laptop