Jodey Dilon Ko! - Experience

I have learned great many things from participating with Indiblogger. It has changed my entire outlook and attitude toward life. Before my freshman year at college, I was shy, had low self-esteem and turned away from seemingly impossible challenges. Indiblogger has altered all of these qualities.

A faint twinge of excitement floated through my body the night before the Zindagi Indiblogger meet was to be held at The Leela, Mumbai. A hint of anticipation of the coming day could not be suppressed; I still wonder that I slept at all that night. But I did. I slept soundly and comfortably.

After a quick breakfast, I pulled some of my gear together and headed out. The ride of an hour seemed only a few moments as I struggled to reinstate order in my chaotic consciousness and focus my mind.

After lunch, the meet commenced and what I was about to experience was something I had never experienced before. Bloggers gathered in a conference hall, beautifully decorated and aptly lit. In front of us were two large screens which I assumed were for presentation purpose. However, my assumptions were incorrect. The two screens and cameras all around the conference room were set up so that bloggers from two cities, Mumbai and Delhi could connect with each other by way of video conferencing. We have all used video conferencing in our life, but this was different as was not one to one or one to many, it was many to many. 

The primary aim of Indiblogger is that people connect and open up themselves and I must say that Indiblogger does that in a very nice manner. The meets are always fun with interesting games and new people. This time it was cross state.

After Mumbai and Delhi Bloggers were successfully connected, an array of questions comparing the two cities were asked to the bloggers. These questions were mostly asked to invoke a competitive sense between bloggers. As the questions were being answered, I noticed that even after being citizens of the same country, we wanted to prove that Mumbai is better than Delhi and bloggers from delhi wanted to prove otherwise. This was what Indiblogger and Zindagi wanted to bring up.

Delhi and Mumbai were samples to represent a larger set of population, India and Pakistan. As we all know, India and Pakistan got separated during partition and so did many families/friends. Indians and Pakistanis are a result of the same ancestors and share the same blood. Even after being in the same country, there was a competitive sense among bloggers of the two cities, Mumbai and Delhi.This competitive sense is only because of demographic change and not because of cultural difference. Just like Mumbai and Delhi are part of the same culture, India and Pakistan too are part of the same culture. Many Indians want to meet their families and friends from pakistan and many Pakistanis want to do the same.

By taking advantage of television & media, an effort to bridge the gap between two countries is being taken by Zindagi, a new channel being set up, which will air Pakistani drama serials in India. Indian Channels are already being aired in pakistan with advancement of technology and our brothers from Pakistan, enjoy Indian channels as much as we do.

This was the first time that I had ever really made a notable realization in anything. This one experience, this one instant, changed me forever. This day I found peace and discovered that brotherhood yields its own sweet fruit. The sun was so bright and brilliant. This feeling was the best.

Indiblogger aur Zindagi #JodeDilonKo . After a few months I hope to see #JodDiyeDil

Middle East - My first visit to the holy country

Rarely have I been so excited to visit a new place. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is a city which many feel they know, even if they have never been there. The streets, the houses, the sound of the holy prayer, everything seems a little different than expected. I had been to this city called Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with my very close friends who are also my colleagues at work. This 15 days visit was initially about work for 8 days and leisure for rest of the days. To start with, we landed on the royal King Abdulaziz International Airport after a 5 hour journey, expecting a warm welcome from business associates which was indeed very pleasant. We were then, driven to the place of accommodation, a royal colony about 20 KMs from the airport. We had no time to explore the city that day since we landed almost at midnight and had to head on for work the very next day. Unlike in India, surprisingly, Thursday and Friday are weekends for the city. Skipping through the 8 days we were working hard on an assignment, I jump on to the 9th day where work was not a priority since it was successfully completed on the 8th day (Including 2 holidays, Thursday and Friday where we worked from our suite. 9th day and forward was the time to explore the city. We tried to plan our itinerary in a way that we do not miss important parts of the city. 

Jeddah, being a country of strict laws and principles, does not tolerate any nonsense. So we, did not try any. We were accompanied by a chauffeur who knew the city very well. After all, having done hard work for 8 days, we deserved some royal treatment and our associates were very generous to provide us exactly what we wanted. Saudi Arabia is a country where temperatures are always above 40° C and it rarely rains in that part of the world. Thus, there is a compulsive need for air conditioning. Homes, offices, cars, malls, stores are constantly air conditioned. The most interesting fact about Saudi is that fuel is actually cheaper than bottled water. 

The city is surrounded by the beautiful Red Sea. The Red Sea and its uncontaminated reef are incredible natural beauties. Jeddah offers some of the best beaches in Saudi Arabia. In particulat, the area north of the city has plenty of beautiful beaches for spending a relaxing day under the sunm swimming, water sporting and having fun.

The Jeddah Corniche, which is the largest seafront area in the Kingdom, has a great bunch of bars, beaches, monuments, shops, and boulevards. On the one hand, it represents an important meeting point for both local citizens and tourists, just in front of the city centre. We did an array of activities, such as skydiving and snorkelling. We also hire small boats to reach the coral reefs. The best part about these tours is that they are complete trips including food and drinks. 

However, for fully equipped areas, to enjoy sand and swim in the wonderful Red Sea, we went to the seacoast just above Jeddah. We went there by car , from the city, down from Camel Roundabout towards North Obhur Road. Here, on our left going direction north, we found some pristine and peaceful oasis of rolling waves, combed sand, teal umbrellas, and assorted crabs that troll the beach. They are both private clubs and Resorts clients reserved areas, such as the one offered to us by our business associate.

The most known among the private beach clubs is the Silver Sands Beach. It was about 5 km from our villa on the same Obhur road, just after crossing Abdul Majeed road. The beach was very nice. It had a long enough shore line to walk along and a very large swimming area. We had the opportunity to snorkel and dive. Umbrellas and loungers were included in the 50 SAR entry. Skimpy bikinis were ok in that area as it was predominantly a western beach.

To conclude, this was the best experience I ever had with my friends  who are more than colleagues to me and I would like to state that every place is heaven when you are with the right people. A strict country did not let us down even a bit and with great memories, we returned to our beloved country, India!

Here are some more pictures:

Visit http://zindagitv.in/ to know more about life. #JodeyDilonKo

Finally, a Larger iPhone?

Source : Google

This past week, a photo surfaced showing a Taiwanese holding up two Apple smartphones -- one an iPhone 5, and the other an alleged iPhone 6. Another tech enthusiast later came saying that the image was a fraud, and instead published his own pictures of the handset.

The images were posted in a couple of tweets, no details provided except an #iphone6 hashtag. In them we see what appears to be the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 placed next to the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 model. Neither of them are powered on though!

The design of the two handsets is nothing we haven't seen before. On Wednesday, for example, a lot of images surfaced, what was claimed to be a final build of the Apple smartphone. If one looks carefully between the two series of pictures, there's only one difference between them (the Apple logo cutout on the back)

In the  leaked photos, both of the iPhone 6 models have a small front-facing camera visible at the top.

Source : Google

Apple is expected to launch the two new smartphones (iPhone 6) sized 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch respectively for the general public this fall (September - October) along with their new mobile OS - iOS 8 & OS Yosemite for Mac which were launched for developers in the WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference). 

Is apple going the right way with IOS7 and further

Back in 1982, personal computers had monochromatic green screens. If you wanted to design a user interface, you had two tools available: Green letters and blank spaces.

Image Credit - Google Images

Steve Jobs had a deep and rich vision in 1981 for how user interfaces could work. If nontechnical users were going to do highly complex tasks on a computer with no training, he felt that Apple would need to make the technology disappear and the operations be utterly intuitive to nontechnical people. 

Here are some examples and difference between ios6 & ios7:-

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

Image Credit - Google Images

The iPhone was the highest realization of Steve's vision. Unlike PC applications, iPhone apps were not merely software programs; they transformed the phone into familiar physical objects. The notepad looked like a real notepad; the calendar was like holding a calendar; the clock looked like a clock and the library looked like a real wooden shelf with books. This is called Skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism makes it easier for those familiar with the original device to use the digital emulation and that it is visually appealing. 

Steve Jobs once said this:-

“people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

― Steve Jobs

In iOS 7, all of that is gone. Apps are now controlled with cryptic little florescent symbols that are interspersed across the screen. Everything looks the same. No more notepad; no more dials for making selections. It's all just dull software; black letters on white. Even the blue tint that helped you see if the keyboard shift key was pressed has been eliminated.



Apple has brought back the era of the hideously ugly, monochromatic 1982 UI. And it's worse than an IBM PC. Instead of a soft green color palette, iOS uses garish, florescent colors against harsh white backgrounds.

Image Credit - Google Images

This is the a good example of difference between skeuomorphic and flat interface.

Image Credit - Google Images

This is so wrong.

DOCUMENTS V.S. CONTROLS

The worst thing about iOS 7 is that the distinction between documents and controls is gone.

The iPhone always had a feeling like a well-engineered European sports car, with simple, purposeful buttons and dials to control the device. These controls were clearly and substantively distinct from user documents and workspaces. Now it's all blurred together, so you can't tell any more which things are controls and which aren't.
It reminds me of the days when you had to read a manual to learn how to use a piece of application software.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

The designers of iOS 7 forgot that consumers buy Apple products because they want simple, elegant devices to make their lives easier. But it appears to me as if the goal of iOS 7's designers was to look cool and hip, no matter the impact on users.

The new icons are garish, distracting, and less intuitive than the old ones. The new graphical flourishes--like making the lock screen photo go blurry.

I think this is far and away the worst thing Apple has ever done. Not only did the company throw away 30 years of progress, they have pulled all the major app makers down with them.

Apple has made a giant mess with iOS 7. It's hard to imagine the Apple design people owning up to what they did any time soon.

It pains me to say it, but I think Apple has given its loyal customers good reason to start looking at Android and other options.

Image Credit - Google Images