Google is the most popular search engine in the world. It also has to its credit other applications ranging from social media to file sharing and even web-advertising, so what’s new now!? Well it’s the Google TV, it’s not that Google suddenly decided to start manufacturing TVs, no they are continuing to do what they are best at, as android is for phones, Google TV is the new smart way of viewing television!

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

Ok so now just like using smart phones, you can use smart television that helps you browse the internet while watching your favorite show as well. Yup Google TV brings together channels and internet making it one powerful package of infotainment! So you can multitask without missing out on action either on your virtual facebook life or the cricket match you are watching. The more you know the more excited you shall be, you can download videos and watch them as well as making music playlists on your TV. Imagine how happening the next party at your home is going to be!

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

You can use what Google is most famous for, searching for info and also sync it with the programs you want to watch on TV by scheduling them. Think Google Chrome and you have a similar page showing your favorite programs making it easy to access.

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

So how do you go about owning a Google TV. Well for starters you do not require to buy a new TV, as long as you own a HDMI (high definition multimedia interface), you can instead just buy a Google TV set-top box. But the other option is to buy the Sony Google TV, where the software comes built-in. People in locations known for slow internet speed are not going to be happy however, as this TV requires an internet speed ranging between 2.5 Mbps and 10 Mbps.

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

The Google TV software uses multiple applications to make up for a great viewing experience and loads of applications will be made available on the market by developers. Google has tied up with big names such as Intel, Logitech and Sony for hardware support. The Logitech remote for Google TV remotely resembles what we normally use, why you ask? Well that’s because it uses wireless technology and has a built-in remote. So now users of Android phones and iPhones can have multiple remotes as they can use the phones also to control the TV. Now that Google TV combines the best of internet and television, hardware can be added to make things like video conferencing possible too!

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

Image Courtesy: http://www.google.com/tv/

When is it really going to hit India however is a question that we might already know the answer to- not too soon! We need to open up internet speed restrictions and consumers need to start buying HDMI television sets, until then the only set top boxes around will be Sun dan dana dan and Tata!

Movie: Enthiran/ Robot

Director: Shankar

Producer: Sun Pictures

Music: AR Rahman

Cast: Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Danny, Santhanam, Karunas

Don’t know what I found more exciting about Robot/ Enthiran ; Rajinikanth, His Fans or The Robot, but I sure went for the movie with my mind in a whirl and expectations upto my nose! Rajini absolutely thrilled me, his fans not as much (they did not behave as crazy as I hoped!) and the Robot a crazy change in Indian cinema quite well executed by Shankar!

Courtesy: http://www.directorshankaronline.com/

The story revolves around Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth) a computer scientist who creates a near-perfect robot, Chitty, that can help the country either in defense or development. Aishwarya Rai Bachan plays his…err… their love interest! The storyline is basically sparse. It brings to life Shankar’s ultimate fantasy, A robot that develops feelings and is able to fall in love, with the same woman as his creator, the scientist. Unfortunately it also feels jealous, angry, and revengeful! The story is interspersed with many songs, not always a welcome break! But the choreography for all songs are excellently done making them quite a delight to the eye.

Courtesy: http://www.directorshankaronline.com/

Performances wise, Rajini as the villain is a feast for sore eyes; one completely forgets Rajini the superstar and is  enthralled by the enigmatic villain he plays! Santhanam does not get to shine in his comedy role much and Aishwarya plays the pretty woman, a perfect doll who desires for a little more attention from her love but ends up getting a lot more than she bargained for!

Courtesy: http://www.directorshankaronline.com/

The first half of the movie is completely absorbing, Rajini not just plays a one man army in the movie, but also proves to be the one man army for the film. He is perfect as the eccentric scientist, the comic Chitty and the scary revengeful robot in the latter part. Cinematography by Ratnavel is excellent, some scenes such as the fight scene in the train are absolutely thrilling. Latter scenes of the Villian Robots and their fight sequences through formations of the Snake, Ball etc show technical excellence. The songs especially have stunning visuals and shot in exotic locations prove to be very entertaining.

The outfits for all characters have been well chosen,  Aish looks like a super-glam doll in most songs, while Rajini and Chitty with the help of Bhanu’s make-up look young and handsome!

Special mention needs to be given to A R Rahman’s music, it is bold, it is edgy, sharp and completely machine, the music manages to breathe final life into the Robot character making it menacingly believable. Rahman has proved he can get even more adventurous and delightfully unpredictable with this sound track.

The movie sets hearts thumping towards the start, but does lose pace in-between, mainly because the thin storyline is stretched beyond time capacities. However the fight scene towards the end makes well worth the wait. As a film it has broken records in terms of budget, revenue, visual extravaganza and technical excellence as well as fresh thought. But more ground breaking than that is Rajini’s youthful and power-packed performance that leaves you with the urge to pop vitamins and hit the gym!

Watch it, the Robot visits India, and it cannot be more charismatic than this!

Endhiran Technical Promo

Enthiran Kadhal Anukkal Teaser

Endhiran-The Robot Irumbile Oru Idhaiyam Trailer

I recently read an article in the Cosmopolitan about how women should change their ‘work personalities’. Why this is so relevant now is because after the age of women saying ‘we too want to work’ , ‘we too want to have a career’ and ‘we to want to become bosses and climb the corporate ladder’ its come to ‘we too want to be just ourselves at work or at play’!

Photo Courtesy: http://www.marklucasdesign.co.uk/

The modern urban female is typically confident, energetic, independent, ambitious and outgoing. She does her part time courses and parties with equal panache, she manages boyfriends and colleagues with élan and she does gardening or shopping with equal passion. At work however the article points out that women tend to control themselves and not do the many things that make them naturally charming in the first place!

Let me point some of them to you!

1. When the woman goes out for a drink with her friends from different jobs she has no care about position or seniority and shows her confidence and charm to all.

2. She laughs and smiles a lot!

3. She is a little flirtatious making her hard to resist!

4. She absolutely stands up to her views and opinions (please ask the husbands and boyfriends!)

5. She has no qualms about demanding for what she wants/deserves/desires!!!

But in the office scenario, she does feel the pressure of position, tends to control her emotions, becomes more diplomatic and neutral and is composed almost always!

Well this article seems to believe that what can make a woman as successful at work as in personal life are those unspoken NOs. Well for starters be confident, It is the one most attractive quality and nothing wins over other people as easily as confidence! Smile, it costs you nothing and gives you almost everything, I did not mean here that you need to be loony but do not suppress that urge to smile or laugh it lightens the eco-system around you! Stand up to your views, accept others views or even agree to disagree but stick to what you believe. And lastly go ahead and ask for what you want, you are required to be a go-getter these days, why just for your company why not for yourself as well!

And oh do not discuss this with your male friends, the much spoken about ‘mystery’ factor pays well at work too!

Those seven days that followed the event, media across the globe reported her infamous outfit- the meat dress. Well for those interested the dress is not designed to ‘look’ like meat, in fact it is real meat- beef to be precise cut in an un-lady like but creative manner to cover her front and bare her back (side!), well what more she even had a head-piece made out of it. And how do I sitting in a normal sub-urban home (without TV) know all this? Well it is the power of media!

Photo Courtesy: Daily Stab

She got her gig, but right or wrong!? Who is to say, well if the public reaction is anything to go by I would say it was quite acidic! The twitter had one precious tweet on how we all done meat cause we are made of it so Gaga did not do something so mind shattering! I hate to think what she must be plotting next to ensure the rest of us can absolutely not have part of!

The publicity did have an angle of pacifier to it, well why else would she say the dress was dedicated to bringing down ill-treatment of animals. I will not become vegetarian because her dress made me sad about killing animals, but because it grossed me out so much that when I see meat, I think Gaga and want to Gag!

A recent article on Gaga being the inspiration for Halloween horror made me smile. It is quite perfect, Halloween was never this scary!!!

1. Shantanu Narayen, the president and chief executive officer of Adobe which as everyone knows in one of the most popular brands in the world of technology.

The recent launch of the CS5 brought to focus more than Adobe’s wonderful product, but also the brilliant men behind it. And the one from India, Shantanu who was brought up in Hyderabad has a long list of achievements. But the beginning was at Hyderabad public school and then graduating in Electronic Engineering from the famed Osmania University. He started his career with legendary brand Apple and then went on to start his own venture Pictra Inc that specialized in the idea of photo sharing across the internet. Then come November 2007 he was announced as the CEO of Adobe Systems. Under his leadership Adobe is reaching new frontiers in innovation and expansion. In 2009, Narayen led the $1.8 billion acquisition of Omniture, Inc., expanding Adobe’s product portfolio and global presence.

2. Indian born Nitin Nohria has somewhat created history by becoming the first non-white Dean of the world’s most famous business school Harvard.

Some of this brilliance started way back in 1984 when he graduated in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay and then went on to receive his Ph.D. in 1988 from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He first joined Harvard Business School in 1988 as an assistant professor and went on to climb through many coveted positions at the school, finally becoming the 10th dean. Being a keen observer of leadership studies it is no wonder that he has indeed achieved one of the most prestigious posts. Besides teaching he is also co-written or co-edited 16 books, and authored more than 50 articles, teaching cases and notes. His most recent book, “Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice” was released in 2010.

3. Manoj Night Shyamalan is one of the most recognized names in International cinema. Born in Pondicherry, he was known for his passion for filmmaking since an early age.

In fact he is to have made around 45 short films by the age of 16. His parents both doctors moved to the US when he was still a young boy. Now based out of the US, Night has given us many blockbuster movies such as ‘The Sixth Sense’ that was nominated for 6 academy awards, ‘Unbreakable’, ‘Signs’, ‘The Village’ and also the script writer of much adored ‘Stuart Little’. Besides being critically acclaimed these movies are great entertainers. The next much awaited movie Avatar The Last Windbender is scheduled for a July release and I for one is sure to catch it!

4. Indira Nooyi, yes she is one of the most powerful business women in the world and all media have extensively covered her over the past decade.

The CEO of PepsiCo the world’s second largest soft-drink maker and ranked No.4 on Forbes magazine’s annual survey of the 100 most powerful women in the world, she is a force to reckon with! Brought up in Chennai she did her BSc. in Chemistry from Madras Christian College and subsequently earned a Master’s Degree in Finance and Marketing from IIM Calcutta. Indra Nooyi also holds a Master’s Degree in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management. Prior to joining Pepsi, she was VP Marketing at Asea Brown Boveri and VP and Director Corporate Strategy at Motorola. Taking care of restructuring, acquisitions and mergers that created brands such as Yum!, Tropicana and Gatorade, Nooyi is known to have taken forward Pepsi by leaps and bounds. The icing on the cake came with Fortune ranking her the #1 most powerful woman in business in 2009.

While on a long winding journey to Mumbai from Ahmedabad, a man dressed in pure white sat next to me & we started talking. As the conversation progressed, we exchanged pleasantries about India, its cultural variations, people, their habits & some trivia.

After a while, the bus halted for dinner. Soon afterwards, the bus was about to begin it journey, & at the same time I noticed that the gentleman is not yet back. I saw him standing at the tea stall, but couldn’t call him out as I’d never enquired his name. Luckily, he saw the bus moving and ran to board the bus.

“Good that you saw the bus moving, I was about to request the driver to stop” I said. “& I couldn’t call you because, I didn’t know your name”, I added.

“You never asked”, he said.

“Sorry…”

“Thank God, if I had missed the bus, I would have missed the shoot tomorrow”

“Are you an actor by profession?”

“No, am made to act”

“Where?”, my curiosity knew no bounds.

“Everywhere in life from shooting to being shot”

“Have you shot too?” I couldn’t contain my excitement

“Yes, hundreds of them”

“You sound as if you shot some people” I joked

“You guessed right” his eyes conveyed a very different message. His reddish eyes looked serious & deep.

There was a muted silence between us till he broke it.

“I meant a reality show”

“Wow!” I exclaimed ending it with a “Where?”

“It’s titled, “Kasab ki Gasab kahani” on Taara TV

A chill ran down my spine and I asked. So will you be meeting Kasab?

“Ha ha” He laughed ingloriously, & added, “By the way I forgot to introduce myself. I am Kasab”.

A thundering silence followed, reverberating in the tympanum for a few minutes, freezing my senses.

He continued.

“You know me as the person who shot dead a few hundred at CST station 10 years back. I was sentenced to be hung till death by the court…”

“I read in the newspapers then…& you were released subsequently isn’t?”

“Yes. I moved courts and finally the Supreme Court commuted my sentence to life imprisonment”

Why did they commute it?

“As you know, they sentenced me to death and kept me in the VIP AC room for two more years. Without even informing the date of being hung, I was kept on tenterhooks. The main cause of worry was my health as am not used to such VIP conditions. I often got a cold, cough and also mild fever frequently. Once, furious to the core, I said, if I die before being killed, you will be responsible. The Supreme Court was worried and commuted”
But then how did you get released? I had a quill of questions behind me.

“That is a joke. Once, a lady came to visit the jail and I told her about how mosquitoes bite me in the jail. Also, I added that these mosquitoes might transfer diseases like corruption, red-tape-ism, frauds, scams etc, since there are Indian politicians next door. Luckily, she turned out to be the President, & as she was not aware of what had happened in CST on that fateful day, ordered my immediate release”

“Hmmm… she is just a dummy” My opinions were also voiced, “But I read that you were rearrested”

“Yes. Yes. That was the funniest incident in my successful career as a terrorist. Osama uncle told one of my distant cousins to get a plane for his grand-daughter to play.”

“Who? Osama Sin-laden? “

“Who else will have an apt name? Let me continue… “He was more excited now. “As was the family’s custom, my youngest cousin stole one of the Indian Airlines flight while it crossed our own green-land (read Pakistan). Osama uncle got angry…”

“But why angry?” I interrupted

“Arey baba. Once earlier, while working in the US, my cousin paid him a visit. As busy as he was with his research on crackers and mines, Osama uncle purchased some flights and gave it to my cousin to play. He invited a few friends, who were as ignorant as he was, & they tried flying it, ending up crashing into all those tall buildings in US. Finally uncle was blamed for killing people of the twin tower, peeling off the paint at pentagon & even after a decade, he was cursed for initiating a movie called ‘My name is Can” by one Karan Joker & Rukhrukh Khan. Nevertheless, forget it. But Osama Uncle was innocent and told them that he will rebuild the twin tower with actual rocks from Afgan and that he will repaint Pentagon. No one heard & uncle migrated to his 45th wife’s house in Karachi, the same house where the Indian Airlines was kept”

“But you were released on that ransom is what we got to know….” My curiosity forced me to interrupt.

“Let me finish beta. After this incident, uncle pacified the children telling that he is returning this toy and will instead get them Indian MIG’s, which always fell here and there, putting the blame on the pilots.”

“But why MIGs?”

“Honestly, he had good intentions. He wanted to save the remaining Indian pilots and hence he thought of getting those for his grandchildren”

“So thoughtful of him” I sighed & nodded in agreement.

“Yeah and now they accuse Sin-laden uncle of trying to gain access to Indian defence secrets with the rusty MIG”

“What a pity Kasab!, really, earth is not a good place for good people” I said during the moment’s mood. “& what about you?”

“Ohhh yes. Meanwhile my cousin called up Moania aunty in Delhi, & her son Rafool attended”

“Rahool it is.” I corrected

“All are the same. With a head filled with mud, he did not understand anything. Our cousin bluffed that Rahool’s childhood friend from Italy is in the hijacked flight and will be killed if am not released. Poor boy! He immediately called, Onemohan uncle, the PM. I was released faster than the bullets I fired”

“Oh. But why did you not leave India after that?”

He continued, “First few months, I couldn’t as I was mobbed by the Indian media. Even the policemen couldn’t break through the crowd. But now am happy, I survive only because of the Indian Media”

“Now, what did they do?”

“Almost all of the TV channels, Radio, News channels, Regional channels, Newspapers, Billboards, Advertisers etc wanted exclusive interviews, photo shoots & I found an opportunity”

“Oh. I’m liking it. Tell me more about how you did it” I went on in full adrenalin

“I kept a manager, booked slots for the exclusives and started charging them on a minute to minute basis. Indian channels got me a living. Some channels like Indiablah TV, Parson Tak etc couldn’t get my interviews. They made their own stories and found a look alike to be interviewed. I sued them and finally settled it out of court”

“Wow, you are hyper intelligent Kasab”

“I must thank this country, which though tried to harass me did it only in AC rooms, invested crores to save me, though I killed a hundred. I’m indebted to the channels, which gave me so much money, that I left terrorism which became non-profitable. Not only that, I have told all my other Pakistani terrorist friends to leave the path of violence & somehow infiltrate to Delhi, get interviewed by the channels, tell them adventurous stories of Jihadi valour, taught in Pakistani madrasas”

“Wow, which are the channels that helped your TRPs?” I asked technical only to prove that am also from the proud media background.

“TRP? You mean Tere Rehem Pe?” Kasab looked confused

“Sorry. I meant Ratings!”

“Channels include national & local. Programs were more important, like “Kasab jaisa koi nahi”, “Kal ka samaachaar aaj hee”, “Kasab se” etc… By the way, am having a few Bollywood offers too…”

“Bhaarat Mata ki, Jai” I said proudly.

“Indiablah TV ki jai” Kasab cried out loud with tears swelling his eyes.

“What will you do with so much money?”, I asked

“I am planning to buy & stay at the CST railway station”

“Station? Why not a flat” I was surprised

“Has your Aampaani brothers left anything in Mumbai for others to purchase?”

“That is also right. Sorry Kasab.”

We reached our destination by then, where BIG BOSS was waiting to embrace. Afzal Guru got down from another car after an interview for ‘Readlines Today’.
I checked the calendar in my Nokia Paperphone. May 20th, 2020. A decade had passed since the judge sentenced Kasab to be hung till death. Yes, with a lot of loopholes, one in the rope itself…… !

A recent conversation with a colleague sparked new debate on the privacy of our real life information while living our virtual lives. My colleague wanted to connect with me on Facebook and I felt a wee bit apprehensive about letting my official contacts on my FB account which was more for personal use and friends. But that got me thinking how private is my information anyways, now that I have put it up on a social networking site. Is it really true that only my friends view my information? Well that got me searching and it boggled me, when hackers can break through Google servers or even important corporate information, Is a FB account any challenge. So there was my choice, I either remove all private info and lead a so called ‘not happening’ virtual life or I do something about it.

Yes settings can provide decent amount of protection lets see how! First log into your FB account, and on the top right corner you will see the tab ‘Account’, click on it, comedown to ‘Privacy Options’ and click again. Once the new page opens up, click on Personal Information and Posts. Now under this you will find many info headings such as bio etc and options of privacy, for all seven of these ‘types of information’ set privacy as ‘only friends’. Once this is done, there are a few things to ‘uncheck’! Uncheck the ‘friends can post on my wall’ option. Then under photo albums, click on edit settings and again set viewing option as ‘only friends’ for each and every album. Now click on the ‘Privacy’ button at the top left of the page, now under ‘contact information’ set all the lines to ‘only friends’ again. Click on ‘Back to Privacy’ to get to the main page again, now select the next on the list ‘Friends, Tags and Connections’, once again set everything to ‘only friends’. Tiersome right!? But definitely Worth it! Now things get repetitive, back to the privacy page and click on ‘Applications and Websites’ now you will find around 6 options, on the line ‘What you share’ click ‘Learn More’ and kindly read the info put up there! Go back to the Applications and Websites page and click on ‘Edit Settings’ now you will see something called ‘What your friends can share about you’ here uncheck all boxes and click on ‘Save Changes’. Go back to Applications and Websites, click on the drop-down menu across from ‘Activity on Applications and Games Dashboards’ Select ‘only friends’. Okay guys keep faith, there we are now almost done (on the applications and website page at least!) The last line, click ‘edit settings’ for ‘Instant Personalization Pilot Program’, here uncheck the box and click ‘confirm’. Now click on ‘Applications and Websites’ then click on ‘Back to Privacy’. On this page now click on the option line ‘Search’, in the new page select ‘only friends’ for ‘Facebook Search Results’. Next to ‘Public search results’ uncheck the option ‘allow’. Now when you are asked Are you sure!? please CONFIRM!

Now that you are done, its time for a trial check, click on ‘back to privacy’ click ‘Personal Information and Posts’ and then click on ‘Preview My Profile’. I’m sure you understood what you are about to view now! Yes you are going to type in names of friends/people and see how your FB acc looks to them. If it is exactly what you want them to see then its a job well done… indeed!

Tumbnail courtesy – Alephunky

No, we are not going to teach how to copy and paste. This is about plagiarism in bollywood. Apart from so many songs, that are being copied or inspired (which sounds more respectful), bollywood, often borrows film concepts from Hollywood, that too without any concern. We can’t even see any credit being given to the makers of the original. It will presented as if it was the director’s brain child, born out of discussion in hotel rooms with asst. directors. We don’t have dearth of new, creative talents here. Rather, we have lazy, intelligent filmmakers, who are ready to indianize an alien concept. From the legal view, though our Indian laws are not very stringent towards plagiarism, laws in other countries severely punish copy cats. Every filmmaker here was so happy that no non-indian knew about the plagiarism going around here. But globalization of Indian films came, both as a boon and bane.

The international arena started absorbing candy floss Indian films and I am sure that it would’ve come as a shock to them to see the level of breach of copyright happening in Indian Cinema. To trace back, the first bollywood film to be sued by an Hollywood company is Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai. US studio 20th Century Fox had filed a case, claiming that the film’s original was their 70 million rupees. But there was no follow up to that story and only god knows what had happened behind the screen. Few other recent films which was ‘inspired’ from Hollywood are Hey Babbyyy – Three Men and a Baby, The Godfather – Sarkar, Hitch – Partner, Derailed – Train, Nine Months – Salaam Namaste, What Lies Beneath – Raaz, God Tussi Great Ho – Bruce Almighty. Behold, this list has only very few films and there are more out there and it comes as a great surprise that these films are not sued.

Recently, another case has been filed, suing the US distributors of the blockbuster “Singh is King”. Viacom 18 was the company, responsible for the distribution and American Rights Management Company has challenged it in the US court on the grounds of copyright infringement. The company has claimed that the Viacom-distributed film is a rip-off of the 1929 short story Madame La Gimp made by Damon Runyon. Added, The film has also been copied from films like Frank Capra’s Lady For A Day, A Pocket Full Of Miracles and Jackie Chan’s Miracles, the lawsuit claims.

The distributors are yet to reply any. But nevertheless, I think its time for the directors to really think out of the box and create original ideas, rather than faultily interpreting fundamental rights. On a happy note, Indian cinema is no longer consider has just another cinema industry and it is clear that the world is watching and giving our films some respect and attention.

p.s. Good lawyers know the law; great lawyers know the judge. – Author Unknown

Author – Alan Smithee

The first is in regard to a comapny called Cardlytics that now allows advertisers to link their promo offers directly with customer transactions. In simpler words the customers can find promotional messages attached to their bank transactions when they open their online bank account. So if you have recently eaten out, you payed by card, you come back home to check your account and find a discount offer waiting for you at the same restraunt. In fact there might be better offers for online transactions. Imagine the possibilities this could set off. But issues such as privacy, security and customer details will ensure lots of regulatory steps be taken. How banks will respond to this model is yet to be seen, being an issue of trust with customers.

The second case is Google, yes google again! Well this time they decided they have maps, they show locations, businesses and what not, so why not actually make it support ads as well! Yes thats right, now Google is selling Map-based ads in over 5 cities in the US. It works like this, around 5 small businesses from a city can have their flags on google maps with a small yellow box providing the ad message. The companies require to b legal and confirm details with google and then ready to go! It works on the ad concept of ‘tags’ and is continually being worked on and is seeing expansion to other cities as well!

More innovative and creative looking advertisements will definitely gather attention, but innovation in the location or placement of ad and the relevant situation can actually fill the gap between attention and action!

Website to visit : www.cardlytics.com