Sunday, January 31

Sowmya's first ever Technology Byte


The iPad

http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video
(You can also watch the keynote at apple.com)

If you keep up with online gadget rumors at all, you know that for the past few months, there's been all that fuss about Apple coming out with a tablet. People have gone nuts imagining what this new device would probably look like and coming up with clever names for it.
Well, they can pretty much relax now because just few days ago, Apple unveiled their brand new multimedia device, the iPad. When I say unveil, I mean that they've only just showed everyone what it is. We won't actually get to buy until late March.

The iPad is supposed to be this iPhone/laptop intermediate device which combines the "best of both worlds" (though I do currently fail to see how this is possible, considering it has neither phone capabilities nor a keyboard). It also seems to slightly resemble ebook readers such as the Kindle and Nook which have gained a lot of popularity recently. The iPad has obviously generated a lot of excitement, being the first completely new thing after the iPhone, which was tremendously successful. Of course, there are those who voice their complaints about it already, though they all (myself included) secretly want one. If you watch the intro video about the iPad, you will see that it's clearly an amazing piece of technology. And it's made by Apple, so it'll be pretty freaking gorgeous as well.

It's clear that Apple has played on the two things that have really put their product at the top: The multitouch interface and the App Store. Everyone who owns an iPhone will personally attest to the fact that the touch capabilities of the device are unparalleled. Other phones have tried to emulate the touch screen, but the iPhone's screen is lightyears ahead. I personally own an iPod touch with a screen that, people say, is slightly less responsive than the iPhone's, and I am still impressed with how well it works (even today, three years after I bought it).
Other companies like Microsoft Zune have also tried to come up with their own App Stores, and they've all pretty much failed. The App Store proved to be a great way third party companies could gain access to the massive the iPhone/iPod touch clientele.

So it was pretty obvious that in its newest device, Apple wasn't going to do away with the two things that had worked so well for it. But one new thing Apple has made sure to do is to emphasize that even the first generation iPad is going to be reasonably priced. They're clearly acting preemptively against what they think customers are going to do: wait. Everyone remembers how when the iPhone came out, it was like 6 or 700 bucks. And buying it when it was first released involved waiting in huge lines in front of an Apple store. Some people, to avoid the rush, even shelled out more than $1200 to buy one on eBay. And within a few months, the price dove by a couple of hundred and those people were probably kicking themselves (Apple tried to placate everyone by giving them all $100 in store credit). Now, providing you're willing to lock into a pricey monthly plan with AT&T, you can get an iPhone for $99. So if people have learned anything from this, it's that they should probably wait at least a little while after the release of a brand new Apple product since the price will almost definitely go down quickly. It's clear that Apple has anticipated this, so they're introducing the iPad for a "reasonable" $499 and have suggested that the price won't be going down significantly thereafter. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Sunday, January 24

Two weeks later, nothing much to report

Hi friends

I am having a wonderfully relaxing day in the library. I've been perusing the library's collection of Bharata Natyam DVDs and videocassettes to watch at future Natya meetings. I've also been checking out a fair share of English DVDs which I hope to watch while not catching up on TV shows. As you can tell, I haven't done any substantial work yet, though that will soon change as OChem Lab starts for real tomorrow. I've been passing the time playing Super Mario 64 while sitting across from Anita, who is diligently studying for MCATs which she (and some other progs) will be taking on January 30th.

I would tell you about the cool stuff I've been learning in my classes, but honestly, I haven't learned anything that cool yet. I haven't done anything terribly exciting outside of school either, though I really want to visit the ice rink day. I realized that I would like to improve my ice skating skills especially if I want to go skating at the Rockefeller ever again.

What I have been doing is daydreaming about summer vacation and all the awesome things I want to do before moving to Philly. Look at this amazing picture taken at Angkor Wat, a temple complex in Cambodia. I-want-to-go-to-there.

And so, even as the fourth semester has just begun, senioritis is slowly setting in. I forgot to mention that a bunch of computers in South Halls have have this stupid virus on them for some reason, including mine. And therefore, I don't have internet in my dorm room at the moment. There's an incredibly long waiting list to get your computer fixed...Arthi finally got hers back after a week or something. So, without internet in my room, I've been bumming around places like downtown, other peoples rooms, and the library stacks.

Seeing as I have all this time which I'm not wasting on the internet, I might as well fill out some paperwork I'll be needing soon, such as the application for an apartment at Jefferson. Does anyone know anything about pets being allowed in the apartments? Like a kitten? Maybe a puppy?

Thursday, January 14

four down, one to go

Happy Sankranthi Everybody!

Here I am in my dorm room, enjoying some last remnants of winter break: Super Mario 64 (via emulator), Beetroot halwa that my mom made, a jar of Horlicks, and some lovely christmas presents including warm pajamas and a beautiful new digital camera which I've been utilizing heavily. I am also currently inhaling the scent of neem and jasmine flavored soaps which I got from the Indian Grocery store in Edison.


My semester contains a wonderful combination of nonscience classes such as Linguistics, Graphic Design, Hip Hop Dance, and Piano. But of course, there's also Ochem Lab (uggggh) which I can tell is going to be horrible.

As you can tell by my schedule and lack of enthusiasm for classes that involve work, I have officially entered second-semester-seniorship. It's only been four days since the start of classes and I'm already making plans to slack off for the remainder of the semester. My last semester at Penn State. It's incredible how so soon after we began our prog journey that one summer, we've already become seasoned veterans of college. The other day, I was on eLion and came across a button that said, "I intend to graduate this semester". I was tempted to press it.

Saturday, January 9

New York City Part 1

Happy New Year everybody!

Oh boy I have lots to tell you. Tomorrow I go back to college for my second semester of my last year. Yay for being a second semester senior so soon! It's going to be great :)

So anyway, last week I went to New York City to celebrate the New Year with some school friends and my family. It was a blast. We left my house on Wednesday morning, with the intention of driving all the way to Edison, NJ, to where we had booked two hotel rooms. It was a tight car ride; I squeezed in between Soreen and Staci in the back. Kevin drove and Katherine sat up front and operated the musical selections. My parents came separately in the van with Vishnu. All was well until we crossed the New York border line and Kevin's GPS somehow managed to steer us off the highway and into a lengthy detour in the Bronx, down many streets with sketchy store names like "Horizon Wireless". Note: you should look at the pictures from my facebook album entitled: New Years at New York City.


We got back onto the highway a while later and managed to reach Edison by late afternoon. While Kevin, Soreen, Staci, and Katherine all went to watch Avatar in a movie theater, I hung with my family that night and went to visit Madhavi and Shyam's new apartment in Jersey. We even had a lovely sit-on-the-floor dinner.


We drove back to the hotel and fought to stay away until past 12 in order to get practice for tomorrow. I know what you're thinking: staying up? That must be a cinch for you! Actually it was kind of hard since my sleep schedule was running normally again. :P

The next morning, we took the NJ transit into New York City (Penn Station) but then took the subway to Flushing, where we were meeting Soreen's friends from college. We had dimsum at this cool place and hung out at some Asian stores before heading back into the city. I learned that I had been holding chopsticks the wrong way forever.

Finally! When we emerged from the subway station, it was 5 PM and we were amidst the flashy signs and bright lights that were Times Square! It was exciting...up until we realized that police had already started barricading people into pens to watch the ball drop. We frantically looked around for an entrance into one of the pens before they closed it up. Eventually, we ran 10 blocks from 42nd to 52nd street to enter one of the open pens. There was already a huge mass of people crowded around the entrance. After being pressed and mashed and squashed for 20 minutes, we eventually trickled out of the crowd, having crossed the first of many such barriers.

Here my friends look triumphant after crossing the first barrier and freely walking down the road. However, there were a couple more to come. The longest wait was before the final barrier, after which we entered Times Square itself. THAT was a good feeling. It was a chilly night, but when we were in the crowd, it didn't feel cold.

It's hard to tell in the above picture, but the ball is sitting right on top of that tower in the distance with the flashy signs (that building is One Times Square, the one you see on TV all the time). We ended up moving as far as the Sbarro's Pizza, but then that was it since there were so many people there. At abut 7 PM, we decided to leave Times Square and maybe visit Central Park for fireworks. I saw Madhan on the subway!! How cool is that?

Eventually, it started snowing and hailing, so we decided to head back to the hotel room and maybe catch the ball drop on television. Instead, we got delayed in Penn Station and ended up celebrating New Years at the top of a parking deck! It was actually loads of fun. When I make the video, you can see it. And THEN, we were incredibly pooped and our hands were really cold after flinging ice at each other for a while so we drove back to the hotel and slept. What an end to the decade!

To be continued in Part 2.