No petrol Supercar

There will be another 5Rs hike in Petrol in India. Don't fret on it. I am talking about the same price hike you read in the papers today. The news made me stop purchasing the Suzuki SX4/ Chevrolet Aveo I was potentially eyeing on. The second logical choice was a diesel. I had a look at Maruti swift/fiat Palio multi jet options along with the likes of Hyundai Getz, Renault Logan and Ford Fiesta/Fusion. The sound from the Common rail were a big put off. So what is the alternative?

Reva is there but it really isn't an alternative. It's.......... just there. So I began my Google quest on which car to potentially wait for until I ran into this awesome beauty. The Tesla electric car. Oh'no! you would say. Not Another electric car!!!!! Wait till I tell ye that it does 0-60 miles in 3.9 (equivalent to 96kms) seconds with a 13000 rpm red line to awaken even the dead at heart. It economical too with the company claiming 220 miles( equivalent to 325kms) per charge. The company also goes on to claim a 2cents per mile (a meager 80 paise)

Ohhh wait! don't run with that cheque book just yet. It still on a limited run in the United States and will take another 3-4 years till it makes to India. Until then run your cars on petrol and let loose that gas pedal to enjoy the last litre of the precious gasoline.

Philips does a phoenix

Not everyday and every time does a company accomplish such a feat. Talk Philips and you come to know that its been on a roll lately. The very mention of a company like Philips doesn't really bring excitement which is similar to Apple IPhone or a Motorola ROKR E8 but nonetheless Philips has been really opening its trump cards.

The first one is a mobile phone that runs on a AAA batteries when the user is out of juice or in a remote place. :D Now why didn't Sonyericsson or Motorola ever think of that (Nokia hasn't done anything since Symbian... yawnnnnn!!!!) Retained here are various features that form the strength of xenium range from Philips. The 9@9J has a fantastic battery life that lasts for a month on standby and all the necessities including mp3 player, FM radio, Stereo bluetooth support and expandable memory. A feat considering the weight at 91grams. Yes there are downsides like the lackluster screen and a lowly 1.3mp camera but I am ready to let go of such things for that looooooooooooooooooong standby.

Their second outing known as the x-connect is what can be considered the boldest move that has the potential to oust IPhone with proper product handling. How does this sound?

624MHz processor
3" touch screen display
Windows Mobile 6.1
3G UMTS/HSDPA
GPS navigation
micro SD memory card slot
Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
AA/AAA battery backup (yes again :D)

Again while battery life and build quality are retained, wi-fi will be missed by many. Also the camera is rumoured to be not on par.


The third is the x800 that will kick IPhone posterior at a lower price range. The X800 is equipped with a 2.9-inch TFT touch screen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution and 262k colors. It supports external memory via micro SD cards and comes with a 2 mega pixel auto-focus camera. Other features include Bluetooth and handwriting recognition.

Pricing and availability are still unknown but the potential news sure prove Philips have done a triple strike.

Nissan grows a humoungous 216%

When we appreciate a car's engine, one can easily guess we are talking about Jap cars. It is even more clear when we talk about reliability. The Big Jap corporations have not left a single stone unturned when it comes to churning out cars worldwide. Toyota and Honda have had a smooth and upwardly ride since many years now. But the third largest Japanese maker Nissan has only started making waves since its collaboration with Renault. The car maker has made a turnaround and how?

India has recently started emerging as an important automobile market. Toyota has been taking it a tad too seriously with a varied product portfolio including the likes of corolla and Camry. Honda also has not left a stone unturned and given Indians some fantastic and futuristic cars like the civic and accord. How can Nissan be behind. 3 years and 2 models later they are having some decent numbers in the market. “We sold 160 units in the FY05, 250 units in 2006 and 506 units in FY07,” said Neeraj Garg, director, marketing and sales, Nissan Motor India Private Limited. Of the 506 units, 330 were of the Teana luxury sedan model and the rest were of the SUV model X-Trail.

The company forayed into the Indian market with its first product - the Nissan X-Trail - in in 2004 and with the Teana in 2007. “We are looking at having a presence across all segments,” said Simon Sproule, corporate vice-president, global communications, CSR division, Nissan Motor Co. The company has lined up the launch of eight models under different segments in India by 2012.

Ford up there again, better than the best

It was only sometime ago when Ford had posted a humongous loss amounting to billions of dollars. The Blue oval was a sign of taxi cabs and low resale. I am not even counting low Fuel Efficiency and maintenance issues. Recalls were always above 100,000.

Things turned to worse when Toyota overtook ford for the no.2 position in such important market as North America. But as the saying goes 'better late than never.' Ford is back in the game and how???? The next quarter itself after posting a huge loss amounting to about 15billion dollars, Ford shook management, fired lazy designers, cleaned up manufacturing houses and the result was evident when Ford posted a 750 million dollars operating profit, a first in almost a decade.

Good news later followed when Ford beat all Toyota models in quality and interior design ratings. Some from as reputed companies as J.D. Power.

Now the good news continue to roll as Ford keep cutting fleet sales and concentrate on what the real buyer needs. Ford has recently showed Honda who the boss is.

The quality of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brand vehicles soared to the top of the charts equaling that of Toyota and Honda, according to the first quarter 2008 U.S. Global Quality Research System (GQRS) study conducted by RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The company earned best-in-class honors in two important engineering functions: interiors, which includes such areas as trim, seats and instrument panel appearance; and electrical, which includes entertainment systems. Ford tied for best-in-class in two other functions, paint and vehicle engineering, which includes such areas as ride and handling and cabin quietness.
Additionally, Ford’s domestic brands pushed customer satisfaction up one point to 77 percent.
A total of 15 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury vehicles are ranked in the top three of their respective segments for either TGW performance, customer satisfaction or both.
The following models are segment leaders:
• Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 – TGW for sports car
• Ford Five Hundred – customer satisfaction for large car
• Ford Sport Trac – customer satisfaction for medium traditional utility
• Mercury Milan – TGW for mid size car
• Lincoln Navigator – TGW and customer satisfaction for large premium utility
The new 2008 Ford Taurus (called Five Hundred in the Middle East) and Mercury Sable (called Mercury Montego in the Middle East) both recorded quality levels that equate to less than one problem per vehicle, as did the Volvo S80 (947). The Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ were close, with 1,030 TGW and 1065 TGW, respectively.
The Five Hundred also led a string of impressive new vehicles launched in 2007. Five Hundred showed a 33 percent quality improvement compared with the product it replaced. The new Ford Escape improved 16 percent over the out-going model.
In fact, 36 of 40 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and Mazda nameplates improved this year versus 2007.
The 2008 first quarter U.S. GQRS study, which RDA Group conducts for Ford, asks customers of all major makes and models to comment on troubles and rate their overall satisfaction with their three-month-old vehicles. The survey includes vehicles registered from September 2007 through November 2007.

One may ask. What about India? Well Mr. Mathew (His surname ends with Mathew but he is to Ford India what Bill Ford is to Ford motors. :)) himself has promised the best service possible for ford cars. And with overdrive churning record Fuel efficiency numbers in the chaotic traffic conditions with the Ford Fiesta, Honda needs to make-up the city fast.

Honda maybe known for its engines, but Ford is known for its legendary status and that includes not just engines but the cars as a whole.


Good going ford.

Is it the end of the Iphone?

Since the dawn of computing Windows operating systems have ruled the roost. But various other operating systems have been on the horizons since. While most of the populace doesn't know the difference between a pc and a computer or nokia and mobile phones, there have been better alternatives in the market. The window UI named as Microsoft was better pioneered by Apple's Mac OS and the open source better known as linux has held its own.

With the Apple's mac based IPhone conquering the smartphone market long a windows forte and followed by the undesirable and same as always nokia's symbian, freedom followers started working on Linux to get something priced down to earth with most needed features.

Enter the Openmoko FreeRunner. Descended from Neo1973, this yet to release phone stores wonders within the small plastic box. A monstereous 500MHz processors, wireless b/g, motion sensors, hardware accelerated 2d/3d graphics rendering, generous 2.8" VGA screen, creative GNOME Desktop environment, hip LED lights all around and the ability to hack the open source makes this phone the most desirable gadget in the gsm industry for the geeks.

A great alternative with added extras if the ROKR E8's basic rich feature set is not enough for you.

The return of the Titan

Motorola is returning among the lookalikes of the mobile phone market again. But the Motorola we see this time around is a new player. Long evolved since stable handsets and innovative feature set ala Siemens (Siemens and Motorola were to join hands once to form a single company.) has brought Motorola to where it is today based on its strengths.

The phone which has lately caught my attention doesn't have a GPS. Nope! Neither does it have a wi-fi. It Isn't a touchscreen either. Surprised? That's the name of the game Motorola plays with most phones, their phones are mobile phones first. The marvel I am talking about is Motorola ROKR E8.
The E8 boasts of some excellent features not found in most common handsets. The phone's Keyboard changes with each application to give different modes which Motorola calls Modeshift. Some of the modes I am aware of are
1. Phone mode
2. Music mode
3. Camera mode.

Top that up with a 100 grams lightweight phone with a quad-band signal to cover the world. And then some salt and pepper. 2gb of onboard memory, A universal 3.5mm jack for using our Sennheiser, Grado, AKG, Bose or Beyerdynamic headphones just make this phone a must have.

For those who live by nokia, the author wont care at all about writing about a Maruti 800 on this blog. There are some limitations. But for those who swear by good things, the ROKR E8 is coming soon. :) Stay tuned for a detailed review.

Another Fast and the furious Sequel

Just when the adrenaline from The fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift is about to disappear, news of the new Sequel have surfaced. The Studios have fortunately retained the cast from the first movies. Yes! The old cast makes a comeback. It would have become obvious from the last scene in the Tokyo Drift where Vin Diesel gives us a peek as Han's friend.

Paul walker and Vin Diesel are joined in this sequel by Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster (I would have loved to see Eva Mendes join the gang too. ;)).

Not retained will be the script. The penning is rumoured, not to be a continuation of the first movie. Also not retained would be the snazzy custom wheels which is actually good news.

No screeners are out yet but keep a watch. It maybe out soon.