IIT Madras

Right after coming out of the airport with a prepaid taxi ticket in my hand, someone noticed and came to me. Checked the ticket and immediately took my bag, carried to the corresponding booth, and then to the vehicle. This is India, so they need to be leveraged, but truly the hospitality is worth respecting.

Inside the campus everyone seemed to be ready to help. The hugeness of the campus bothered outsider like me a little but I eventually reached the destination.

Well these are the people here. But there are other things to notice. I see a blackbuck antelope crossing the street fearless just behind me. Spotted deer cubs resting in peace besides road where people are walking. Its really nice to see such a harmony outside a zoo. They just live here freely and naturally. Same goes for monkey. It was written not to feed them, otherwise they will develop a habit of snatching.

The buildings are great here, hostels are provided with capsule lifts, 4 toilets, electric geyser, washing machine for each floor of each of the 7 stored building. The administration building is separate than all other buildings. There is a place for all classrooms of all departments. But the campus is not beautiful just for the eye-catching buildings, or the nicely built roads or free bus service throughout the campus. The friendly behavior of the people, the ecology of the wild animals, are what make the campus really more than a place for study. Except for the heat I will really like to visit this extraordinary place again in future.

Apple's Mythical Tablet

It all started in 2009 by news and hints from separate resources that we are imaging Apple's new upcoming handheld device. Apple being a notoriously tight lipped organization all of our assumptions are based on some supporting incidents or events, though all of those together can clearly make a big picture of what I am discussing here.


To start I think the most supporting truth for this thing is: We Need One! :) Yes, with this successful touch technology its efficiently better for a 10.1" tablet pc than a 3.5" iPod touch or iPhone.
iSlate- Secondly, this tablet is supposedly a slate like device which they were planning to give the name iSlate, oh yes people, its name was supposed to be "Apple iSlate" based on the fact that the domain name iSlate.com was booked by Apple quite a few time ago and they have trademarked "iSlate" by a shell company called Slate Computing. Now iSlate.com domain is registered through a brand protection firm MarkMonitor but it was actually MacRumours who claimed to have discovered the owner name as Apple Inc. which seems to have temporarily been exposed sometime ago. Now MarkMonitor handles the domain registration and trademarks of some big brands including Apple and that also have been found to take ownership of iSlate.jp and iSlate.cn.


Thirdly, the news from Wall Street Journal also quite clearly revealed about this device shipping in March 2010.
Fourthly, Financial Times also published a news about Apple to host a big exclusive event on January 26th, 2010. The company has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January. But both YBCA and Apple declined to comment on this, they said.


There are plenty of some other small evidences which clearly indicates about something big coming up from Apple. So what other than a tablet pc fits for this thing?


Now the images available for Apple tablet are all just concepts of artists. Those are not real. So I haven't put any of those here. But you can surely wait for few more days to feel the heat.


Now how is that thing and whats inside:
See, none of the things I am talking about can be taken for sure. These are on air either for being within Apple's plan but now being discarded or very similar to the reality but not reality or going to be a reality. So build your expectations carefully as that can be wrong. What I am sure about is the device is never a netbook. And there will be lot of interesting features some of which are real useful and entertaining but some of those may be quite expensive unnecessarily (like an OLED screen). For the rest of your queries you should visit Gizmodo.


Definitely, a not-a-piece-of-junk computing device should be as costly as $500 to a maximum of $700. But an OLED upgrade of $1500 is really heavy for lot many people like me.


There are some predictions available for Apple tablet.
Here are 10 predictions for the tablet:

Apps: Like the iPhone, the tablet (the iSlate? iTablet? iPad?) will include the apps made famous by the iPhone. (Three billion of these programs have been downloaded and purchased for use on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.) After the tablet announcement, app-makers will get to work creating versions of their apps capable of running on the tablet.

E-books: In tandem with the introduction of the tablet, Apple will add e-books to the iTunes Store. With the tablet’s color screen and video capabilities, the device will expand the possibilities for e-books.

Connectivity to external devices: The tablet will connect to wireless peripheral devices, like your printer, external keyboard and mouse.

Flip-out hinge: A flip-out hinge on the tablet will make it possible to prop the tablet on a desk or table when you’re using an external keyboard or watching a video.

Wireless storage: You’ll be able to back up information from your tablet directly to a WiFi-connected hard drive, like Apple’s Time Capsule.

Access to media on your computer: You’ll be able to wirelessly access various media, such as photos, music and videos, stored on your computer, via a WiFi connection.

Virtual keyboard: The tablet’s onscreen keyboard will use a new technology to provide tactile feedback when typing.

Magazines: Apple will encourage magazines to reinvent themselves for the tablet. For an idea of what this might look like, check out the video at the home page of the media company Bonnier.

Data plan: You’ll need to pay a monthly fee in order to have always-on internet access with the tablet. If you’re willing to accept lots of ads on the device, you’ll be able to sign up for a reduced-fee plan.

Videoconferencing: A new application will make videoconferencing easier than ever.

But to be honest, will there be lot of consumers having a laptop or netbook and an iPone or iPod touch willing to pay $700 to $1000 for this one handheld touch device? I am not that certain.