Author Archives: Lakshmi Rajan

Every child has its own dream. Every father has his dream about his child. Ferrari Ki Sawaari is endearing story of a middle-class father and his cricket-playing son and how his father gets himself entangled into one  hilarious, bumpy ride on Ferrari when destiny bestows his son with a golden opportunity.

Kayo, played brilliantly by young Ritvik Sahore might be just a school kid but with a gifted cricketing talent.  His father Rustom (Sharman Joshi), a RTO head clerk is an affable, honest, single father who is nicknamed by Sri Harichandra by traffic cop when he volunteers and insists to pay the fine for jumping the traffic signal, even when no one notices it. When the cop asks why he wants to pay even though no cop had caught him or noticed his violation, Rustom says his son who was in the pillion noticed it and children takes their first lesson from their parents. That opening scene for me conveyed a lot about the true drive of the movie – a ride to remember! Destiny knocks the door of Rustoms when he gets a golden opportunity to get selected to a cricketing camp in the mecca of cricket, Lord’s MCC grounds, London. But if Kayo gets selected, he has to pay a hefty coaching fee. Though Rustom lives on a tight budget, he assures his son he would make it. Rustom’s father (Bomman Irani), a man who has turned bitter towards life and cricket in particular chides him for spoiling his child. Did Rustom’s dream come true? The answer would be obvious but how they manage it with Ferrari becoming an integral part of the movie makes the ride very exciting and immensely watchable.

Sharman Joshi is a fine actor that no one would disagree but he has always been casted in multi-hero roles and in Ferrari Ki Sawari he does a solo act as a lead and in a commendable way. As a single father who passionately nurtures his son’s dreams while at the same time silently and obediently bearing the bitterness of his father, Sharman pulls the act with remarkable ease. Supporting him ably are Ritvik Sahore and Bomman Irani as well as the entire supporting cast of the movie. One good thing I noticed in some of the recent Bollywood films like Kahaani, Vicky Donor and now Ferrari Ki Sawari are the interesting castings of relatively unknown faces in supporting characters and the way they perform it on-screen. Even in Ferrari Ki Sawari the characters like the watchman and his co-staff, the marriage planner, the politician and his cranky son all leaves a lasting impression through their characterization and act. And yes, you also has the feisty Vidya Balan performing a lavani dance for the  Mala Jau De number. The movie is enjoyable the entire length except for a 10 minute portion just before the climax that you can excuse it as a pit stop.

My final word… Ferrari Ki Sawari is an endearing ride that I would recommend you to hop on. While the masala flicks tops the box office, rarely you come across a movie that has its heart (and engine) in its right place. Enjoy the Vroooom!

Samsung Galaxy S3 is launched and ever since I got my first hands-on it, I am bit fascinated by it. And then came the Men In Black 3 movie, one of my favourite film and comic franchise.  So my funny bones tickled, my wicked mind worked like Agent J. I got inspired by Columbia picture’s 1997 classic Men In Black film and also by Galaxy S3. Put together, I recut the original film video to produce a funny remix.

Hope you all enjoy it!

‘Are we alone in this universe?’ ‘Is there any alien life beyond us?’ These questions have always riddled us ever since we stared at stars, moon and the vast sky. Though the questions remains unanswered, it has given way to many a fictional books, theories and films.  Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi film Alien was a classic that spawned at least three sequels and two prequels by various directors and inspired many to walk into the Alien territory. Now the ace director is back with what can be called the prequel that resurrects the towering insect-monster-alien.

After unleashing the Alien some 30 years back and instilling within us a sense of cringe, anxiety, horror and many unanswered questions Ridley is back into his own universe of mystery. Ever since the promos of Prometheus appeared on internet and the cast and crew started talking with lots of suspense without unraveling the plot, the movie has captured everyone’s imagination. Everyone wanted to know Ridley’s riddle who are we?’ who created us? Where did the creepy-alien-monster came from?. Though Ridley chose not to call Prometheus not a prequel in true sense, he upped the ante by saying the Alien DNA would be sprinkled throughout the movie to unravel the mysteries.

After so much of build up, suspense and smart promos that ignited everyone’s anxiety, Prometheus sees its friday today and I booked by ride to the mysterious universe to lean who seeded our Earth millions of years ago and what happened in the ill-fated distant universe from there they came.

The year is 2089 and archeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discovers a star map that they identify in carvings and archeological remaining of various civilizations. They conclude that the map must be an invitation from a civilization who might have seeded our earth. Our creators. After 2 years, their spaceship arrives at the distant planet. Are they alone now? What inhabited the planet? What happened to them? What happened to the crew of the spaceship that arrives there?

To his credit, Ridley has created a spacecraft and universe look far more convincing and visually appealing in Prometheus than the one he created 32 years ago. Unfortunately the movie lacks the cringe, horror and the suspense the original classic brought upon us. It still remains unanswered many questions especially who our creators are and thereby allowing room for many more sequels to come up. There are few cringe-worthy scenes far and wide and one notably a cesarean scene that would make any pregnant women in the hall make a hasty run to the exit door but mostly the film lacks the horror inducing scene and its mostly all about the production quality rather than the plot and the shock values.

To enjoy the movie, one has to be updated of the movie where it all began and that is the 1979 Ridley’s Alien, then you get the missing links and the complete thought and work of the maker. Having said this, I still feel Prometheus is all visual gloss but lacks  substance though not entirely. Ridley is less convincing in his alien riddle this time around. Don’t expect a complete shock and awe effect on you that many Alien franchise has followed. It is more about mind over matter and the quest for an eternal question.

We stepped into this inconspicuous coorg restaurant located in the basement of Field Marshal K M Cariappa Bhavan, itself a nondescript building adjacent to the St. Patrick’s Church compound. The entrance of the restaurant is on the Residency road side and we were greeted with a warm smile by Dev Devaiah, owner of this Kodava cuisine restaurant.

The ambience of the place is no frills attached and plain jane. No fancy interiors and bit withered but all that was made up by good conversation with the man of the restaurant and the food dished out. And for me both are on top of the list to enjoy a good meal.

So I prodded him what made him jump into restaurant business and he bowled me over with his candid reply. Many years ago someone crazy about music wanted to stack up some premier guitar but realized he had no cash. So our man worked hard to come up with an restaurant to realize his dream. And I was talking to that man. Though he said in due course he realized he invested more into the restaurant that he could have very well bought his collectibles. Fortunately, his passion for food and restaurant grew and Wild Spice stood all these years due to it. One candid reply ha! I enjoyed the conversation while having my plate-full!

The restaurant claims to serve ‘authentic coorg cuisine’ and Dev quipped many of the recipe are passed on to him by his mom. It has something to offer for both the veg and non-veg kinds and being a coorg speciality restaurant the pick of the menu being ‘coorg pandi curry’ or pork dishes. And I did see many of them opting for it. They also have thali for those who don’t want to confuse with the menus. The thalis available both in the choice of veg and non-veg are also branched out into rice thali and roti tholi and non-veg thali have quiet a number of variants – chicken, pork, fish, mutton and egg based.

So what you have spread out here is Akki roti, bamboo shoot fry, coorg pork fry, kadambuttu (a coorg style steamed rice balls), mushroom pepper fry.

And we were more than happy when Dev shared us few recipes for our readers but then I would say do drop into this small, quiet looking kodava restaurat if you are in Bangalore and relish the food and yes you can always catch a conversation with the ever-smiling Dev while you enjoy the food and his hospitality.

• Wash rice rava and mix with water.
• Put this into a deep vessel and cook on medium flame.
• Add salt and water, stir with a wooden spoon.
• Continue to stir all the time till the mixture resembles a soft dough, making sure not to burn the dough.
• Turn off the flame and cover for 5 minutes.
• Spoon out a little of the dough on a plate.
• In a small bowl of water add 2 drops of oil.
• Dip finger into this mixture and rub onto both palms.
• Take approximately enough of the hot dough to make an 2 inch ball and roll into a smooth round ball.
• Do the same with the rest of the dough.
• Place the Kadambuttus in a vessel and cover with muslin cloth and
• steam for 20-25 minutes.

Coorg style Pork fry:

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Pork
• 2 table spoon black vinegar
• 5 Onions [medium size] sliced
• 3 table spoon ground Ginger
• 3 table spoon Garlic diced
• 7 Green chillies
• 2 tablespoon Black peper
• 3 tablespoon Coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoon Red chilly powder
• 1 table spoon Cumin seeds
• 1 table spoon garam masala [patta & lavanga]
• 2 table spoon Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

Method:

1.Cut the pork into medium size pieces.

2.In a pan, dry roast the black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, for couple of minutes.

3.Grind the roasted ingredients into fine powder and roast powder again till it turns dark

4.Fry the onion, green chillies

5.Add the pork, turmeric powder, chilly powder & salt with ginger and garlic.

6.Cook the pork until done.

7.Add garam masala and the vinegar,stir well.

8.Cook for another couple of minutes.

Bamboo shoot fry:

Ingredients:

• ½ Kg bamboo shoot sliced
• 2 tablespoon rice flour
• 2 onions sliced
• 6-8 garlic flakes cut up
• 2 red chilies
• ¼ teaspoon mustard seed
• 3-4 curry leaves
• 2-3 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 tablespoon coriander powder
• ½ teaspoon Jeera powder
• 1 tblspn ghee

Preparation:

Newly single Sony, fresh after divorcing its erstwhile partner Erricsson is in a hurry to flaunt itself  in the very competitve smartphone market with its new Xperia range with Xperia S being on the top end of the showcase. Did I hear you say “ah… yet another Xperia?” Hold on. Its not anything like those previous generation Xperia we are talking about here.

A 4.3″ screen, Bravia HD technology (that the Sony’s TV’s boast around), 12 MP camera, a neat looking form factor and much more does tilt the scale for Sony this time that we will find it out here in this review.

When most smartphones start looking similar in form factor, Xperia sports a premium look. Available in black and white (with white being my pick of the two) and gleaming with a thin transparent strip on the bottom (btw, it also acts as an antenna) it is a clear winner on a visual count but not without few shortcomings that we shall discuss next. Weighing 144 gram, Xperia S definitely cannot claim a perfect BMI score and it brackets into the league of Lumia 800 in the body weight category. And add to that a bit of fat all around with a dimension of  128 x 64 x 10.6mm. Its bit bulky compared to its rivals from HTC and Samsung.

Notice the illuminated logos for back, home and menu on the transparent clear strip. Don’t get petrified when nothing happens when you touch them because the real touch-sensitive buttons are just above the logos highlighted by tiny dots and just below the display. I began with a bit disappointing note struggling with the buttons. The touch sensitive buttons lags a bit for some reasons. I assume its due to the fact intuitively we hit upon the clear strip and not the right area where the touch-sensitive buttons nests.

On top you got a power/unlock button and the 3.5mm headphone jack and on the top portion of the back panel is an impressive 12 MP camera lens and LED light.

On the bottom of the front and down the strip is etched Xperia and on the bottom you have the microphone and tag hook.

Again on the bottom of the back panel the strip continues and below the strip is Xperia etched in and above is the familiar old Sony logo. But hey, isn’t it the Sony Ericsson logo? May be it is too irresistable for Sony to part with it! No complaints, I like the logo.

The charging/sync cable port is on the left hand side top and is covered by a delicate plastic cap that hinges precariously.

On the right hand side of the phone, you find the  volume buttons, a HDMI out socket and a dedicated camera button. Ah, yes! Camera button that some of the makers forget easily to fit in. Especially when you pack in a good camera, you definitely need it.

Remove the plastic back panel and it reveals the battery and the SIM slot.  Nested inside is a 1750 mAh Li-Ion battery enough for a talktime up to 7 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 30 min (3G) and a standby time of up to 450 h (2G) / Up to 420 h (3G)

And hey don’t try to pull out the battery, its not user accessible. What you can do opening the back panel is limited to just slapping your microSIM into its slot. Yes, you heard it right – microSIM , so all those of you bestowed with those regular SIM take a ride to your network operator for a microSIM replacement. FYI, there is no microSD slot even. Xperia S comes with a built-in internal memory of 32 GB. Now that makes me wonder, why Sony did not go for a fused body case with just a slot for the SIM card. It would have made a better style statement!

Timescape UI , Apps and Bravia Screen

If you are on a mood for so me Ice cream and Sandwich, hold on your appetite! Xperia still runs on Gingerbread version of Android as on date. But don’t shrug, the promised ICS update is due very soon and mostly this June. So you can breathe easy. Samsung has its TouchWiz and HTC talks ‘Sense’ and for Sony its their Timescape UI skin that dresses the android. While some might vouch for the stock Android UI, big companies believe in their own UI to keep their device stand out.  I am biased for Samsung’s TouchWiz (I know the pure Android geek in you might look at me with horror!) and find this Timescape UI bit clumsy but neverthless in Xperia S, Sony has tried a lot and it almost works well in this avatar.

The Bravia engine driven screen lives up to its mark and gives the likes of  Amoled, Super Amoled and the retina a good fight. The screen is pretty crisp, sharp and wonderful. Full marks here to Sony.

For your idea here is the screen shot that gives you an idea of the pre-loaded android apps and Sony’s app picks. Along with the familiar Android apps like gmail, youtube, Maps, browser, Gtalk, Navigation, Places, google search, google+ etc, Sony also has included its own highlights such as  PlayNow music app, Timescape with social networking integration that pulls all the social updates into one place, and TrackID for identifying music, appXtra, Recommender etc.

Messaging in Xperia S

Messaging is quiet a pleasant affair and the large screen does bode well. It also presents a number of options for predictive text to accommodate your typing style.

Camera of Xperia S

The number that Xperia S would proudly flaunt to its competitors like HTC One X and Samsung S3 is its 12 MP camera. (Hey we are not including Nokia 808 PureView and its mammoth 41 MP camera here, its a different league and lets keep it aside!) Xperia S sports a 12-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, f/2.4 aperture and LED flash.

You can set a resolution at a max of 12 MP at which point you get an image saved in 4:3 format. You also have other options as shown in the first far left screenshot image.

The right screenshot shows the setting screen for the camera button, where you can have it “launch and capture” to open the camera app and instantly take a photo when you hold down the physical camera button or launch only or off the quick launch.

As the bottom left screenshot image shows you have options for single auto focus, multi auto focus, face detection, infinity and touch focus.  You also has the option for capturing method either by on-screen button, touch capture or camera key only.

There are also various metering options, exposure compensation and various flash settings, but then lets not forget at the end,  it is an LED unit and cannot replace a real camera with all these fancy settings.

Unfortunately there is no filters to play around. Especially when you are used to Instagrams, lack of fun filters to fiddle with your images makes it all serious no play with this camera. Neverthless the images are crisp and sharp and produces good results.

The following screenshot gives the video options. 1080 pixel video is quiet sharp and good. The camera’s fast to focus, allows you to zoom in while recording and produces very clean results at maximum resolution.

Music, video and browsing in Xperia S

Think Sony, think entertainment. After all we identify music and gaming with Sony. So obviously its natural to expect a good music and video enabled device from Sony and you would not be disappointed. Xperia S comes armed to entertain you. To begin with it comes with Music and Video Unlimited offering from where you can sign-up to Sony’s streaming entertainment hub. With a 4.3″ screen and a bravia engine screen display, it offers a fantastic video playback. Xperia S comes ready to stream content from and to your connected DLNA devices.  So if you have a DLNA TV, you can throw the content directly from your phone to the TV effortlessly.

Audio quality as expected from Sony is brilliant and you have an equaliser and various surround-sound settings to fiddle with. Unfortunately DNLA features aren’t included in the music player.

Naturally with a large screen and a good resolution, browsing is a pleasure and a breeze. Thanks to Dual-core 1.5 GHz, Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor the web-browsing is faster and a delight.

Tech Specification of Xperia S

• 4.3″ LED backlit LCD display
• 720 x 1280 pixels resolution with 342 ppi pixel density
• 128 x 64 x 10.6 mm dimension and weights 144 grams
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz, Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor
• Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine for display
• Sony’s Timescape UI
• 1 GB RAM
• 32 GB internal storage
• 12 MP rear camera with  autofocus, LED flash and a 1.3 MP rear camera
• camera features: Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization
• Video: 1080p@30fps, continuous autofocus, video light, video stabilizer
• Li-Ion 1750 mAh battery
• Available colors: White and Black

What I like in Xperia S

• The display is stunning
• Very good audio, video and camera functionality
• Good browsing experience
• Though it lacks expandable microSD card, it thankfully has a 32 GB internal memory
• Looks premium and good inspite of the fatness
• Good pricing viz a viz its competing models like HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3

What I did not like in Xperia S

• The touch navigation keys below the screen is not very responsive
• Lack of expandable microSD card
• Bulky form factor at the age of sleek smartphones
• Though the ICS update is due as of now still its Gingerbread Android, being a flagship model Sony could very well pushed it with ICS

Samsung Galaxy S3 is here and I was elated to have the first hands on it during  the Indian launch event that happened on May 31 at New Delhi.  The next galaxy that Samsung hopes would carry forward the legacy of S2 indeed lives upto its expectations inspite of a mild ‘shocker’ of a price.

We would be coming up with a comprehensive review of Galaxy S3 very soon but here is our first impression as we fiddled around briefly during the launch.

4.8″ super Amoled screen! Like me many of you would have thought its just going to be too big like Galaxy Note and I got small palms to complicate things. But holding the Galaxy S3 is a delight. Inspite of the large screen, Samsung has really done a good job at keeping the bezel narrow and there by enabling it easy and sleek to hold in your palms. There is no ugliness in handling it.  More over its very light on your palms.

So as this tutorial and product information screen says the highlight of the phone are the S-Beam, Smart Stay, pop up play, buddy share, best photo feature, S-voice etc…

Ok many over blew the plastic nature of the Galaxy S3 but then I find no complaints at it atleast during the time I fiddled around. Would I change my mind later? Wait for my complete review to come up soon. The 8 MP camera sits pretty neat behind. The curves on the back are fluidic.

The camera was impressive during the short time I played around with it. Let me stress again this is  based on my short hands-on.

There are quiet many features and options available in the camera menu…

Hmmm…. Single shot, burst mode, smile shot

Still in camera menu …

There is this best photo feature. Can you see the ‘thumps up’ indicator on the top right of the picture? Well, you can take multiple shots and the S3 suggests you what it thinks is the best pic of the lot.  Ah! l would like to see how right it is when I get the review device.

If Samsung has to be believed its S-voice does lot many things and it has a wider natural voice recognition. How far it would detect our strong flavoured Indian accents? Well, I was unable to decide upon it and would reserve the judgement during the comprehensive review.

S Beam takes NFC technology and pairs it with WiFi Direct Connect and with just slapping the device on the other device enables super fast file transfer.

Comes pre-loaded with many apps… and did I tell as expected the touch sensitivity is super smooth.

Browsing is super fast and a pleasure to…

This is the pebble blue model. Hmmm… my liking is tilted to the white device.

Now seriously I cannot recollect why and for what am I reacting? Hmmm… let me guess?  ‘Rs.43,180 ?’ ‘hey this could be my next phone?’ ‘I opt for white’ ‘I need more time’ Ok, I will try to figure out that reaction when I come out with the complete review of Galaxy S3 shortly. Keep your face recognition on our website till then and for ever ok?

All I could say is I am definitely impressed by the device and it seems to be upto the expectations and is promising. Rest of the verdict reserved for our detailed review but the first impression begins on a positive note.

When in one particular scene Sonakshi tells Akshay Shahrukh is for charisma, Amir for acting, Hrithik for good looks and Salman for his body, what are you? And Akshay replies ‘khilladi ka naam bhool gayi aap’. Yes the original khilladi is back and how! Prabhu Deva who gave Salman a much needed career altering hit with ‘Wanted’, remakes yet another Telugu super hit movie to bring back Akshay into his khilladi best.

Rowdy Rathore is nothing put pure ISO 9001 certified masala entertainer that makes no pretentions for any intellectual and critical acclaim. All it delivers is the language of ‘The Dirty Picture’ entertainment, entertainment and entertainment and it over indulges in it. The story is nothing to boast about but borrows from the 80′s mashed, remashed and rehashed formula but surprisingly for most part of the movie it manages you to keep entertained.

Akshay dons the double role of a cop and a petty thief.  In first half of the movie, Shiva a small time conman is happy indulging in his petty con jobs and inbetween falls in love with Sonakshi. With no logic or reasoning and making the vintage phrase ‘love is blind’ true, Sonakshi falls in love like a magnet inspite of her knowing his con activities. Hey he confessed and so Satyameva Jayate err or is is love alone triumphs?! But the love in the air gets disturbed with the arrival of a little girl who identifies Shiva as her dad and also a bunch of murderous goons bays for his blood. Who are they and why are they behind Shiva and who is the girl? ACP Vikram Rathore gets into the picture in a rustic bad land of Bihar where the writ of Bhai ji rules (Southern veteran actor Nasser)  and the movie ends with Shiva taking vengence with loudness, madness, blood and gore  and alongside Akshay’s trademark antics and also couple of songs (What else is Sonakshi for? except to dance around and flaunt her flabs around waist, in a movie that offers her no other scope otherwise)

After having watched Akshay in all his hillarious best in last decade, it comes a bit difficult to adjust to his back-to-khilladi mode but then he tries his comeback well.  Did I say tries his best? Yes, actually he is not to be blamed but the director Prabu Deva to force him to do some of very highly southern masala film formula on him, which the some of the southern mass super stars are fluent to do but Akki falters a bit into that persona. Yet, he tries his best and manages to shoulder the film and deliver the max impact.

The songs of Sajid-Wajid duo compliments well to the uninhibited masala quotient of the movie and the songs are hit numbers with catchy tunes and crazy lines. The movie has mass written all over it in all departments and Prabhu Deva does not get embarassed in delivering it on a over dose.

My final word Rowdy Rathore is not perfect in wholesome masala entertainment but still holds well in delivering a pasia vasool fare. Akshay reinvents a new khilladi in him albeit bit embarassing in few places but you can be guaranteed of pure filter kaapi in a strong souther flavour.

Hollywood’s affable Men in Black duo dressed in super slick black suit and black sunglasses are back together after a decade doing what they best do, policing the aliens and saving the world but then this time, its the Agent J (Will Smith)  who gets most of the suiting err filming. If you thought MIB2 over killed it with the Alien madness, MIB3 is more human both emotionally and with less Alien show pieces. Yes, MIB franchise cannot get away with its famed line-ups of aliens-of-comic-very-animalistic-protypes, so earlier in the movie. we have a chinese restaurant scene where in you get your diet of Alien creatures fighting it out. But then it mostly ends there. A dynamic shift in this edition of MIB seems to be some lessons learn a decade back and so the movie does not over kill or overwhelm you with ‘alien creatures’.

Agent J (Will Smith) can never stop himself from nagging his senior, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) over his stiffness and lack of emotions in his life and towards him, while in a lunar prison camp Boris ‘the Animal’, the villain and the last remaining member of a roughe alien race  breaks free after being locked up for 40 years and revisits Earth with vengence to destroy it as well as kill Agent K, who had captured him and also reason for loss of an arm. So how does he plans to go ahead with his revenge? he goes back to past exactly July 16, 1969 the day Agent K had captured him. His plan to kill Agent K in past and destroying earth in the process that K had undone it during that time. This scheme ofcourse takes our Agent J to crash land into the past to save his partner in black as well as our planet and thereby us in the future. Head spinning eh? Well, its all the time travel jet lag, I suppose! In the end though Agent J comes out knowing a bit about his own past and that of Agent K, which adds to the sentimental, emotional value to this MIB fare.

Its Will Smith all the way who outshadows his aged senior. And another noteworthy casting is Josh Brolin, who does a pretty neat impersonification as the younger version of Tommy and also the character as well as casting of Michael Stuhlbarg as Griffin, an extraterrestrial being who call it a curse or boon or both can see and be in  any moment of past,present and future and calculate the probability of every possible outcome of a situation in all the linear and non-linear combinations.While the bigger let down is the villain, who just fizzles out after a big bang intro and a lunar jail break. Ofcourse he is beasty with his own unique  (?!) alien dart-board-styled killing method but then it just fails the MIB funda. Though visual graphics are more refined in this movie compared to the the previous two (ofcourse the technology has come a long way since the last two movies), seems like the underline given to the production team is not to overkill as they did in the MIB2. So it is more of a controlled visual effects here be it in characters and their execution. The back to the past does has its few funny moments especially when Will Smith is told ‘its propably not the best of his times’ for men of his color and also when he finds his ‘younger’ senior drastically different than how he knows him to be in the ‘future’ present. Though not very hillarious, at best you can smile and go on.

So the final word MIB3 is better than MIB2 but fails to live up to the uniqueness and the originality MIB1 had, still it can be watched once, you won’t regret too if you don’t.

The future is in motion gesture technology. And already companies are experimenting in motion gesture technology in gaming, mobile devices and SMART TV’s and have rolled out products. When it comes to computing, we rely on hardware – mouse, keyboard and touchscreens. All this is set to revolutionize with a breakthrough technology announcement by  Leap Motion, a San Francisco-based motion-control software and hardware company who wants to change the future of human/computer interaction.

Leap Motion has announced Leap, the world’s most accurate 3-D motion control device as of date.  Though Microsoft’s Kinect has made the motion gesture technology popular and more relevant in practice, Leap a device not larger than an iPod, is 200  times more sensitive and accurate than any product currently on the market, if the company has to be believed. And more importantly is quiet affordable with the limited pre-order deviced priced at US $ 70.

What exactly is the device, The Leap?

For beginners it looks inconsequential in appearance, a small block of hardware USB peripheral device roughly the shape of an iPod or your whiteboard duster. Plug it to your laptop or computer, run the software and you are all set to leap forward. Leap creates  a 3D interaction space of 8 cubic feet to precisely interact with and control software on your laptop or desktop computer. And you are ready now to control a computer/laptop in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements.

Possibilities of the Leap technology

Leap opens a whole new imaginative possibilities in various fields. With the SDK available for developers, software developers can push their imagination to new heights around the technology.

• Imagine what an artist can do with his motion gestures on the computer screen, It would become his digital canvas to paint through his finger movements.
• A leap forward for engineering field to work on 3D modelling softwares
• Immense possibilities in the surgical and medical fields and studies
• Gaming would be a whole lot of fun when made with Leap in mind
• A fun and intuitive interaction with the computer by clicking, grabbing, scrolling and using familiar gestures like pinch to zoom in 3D space.

And much more … only we have to wait for the software developers to unleash their creative possibilities. To begin with, the intuitive interaction with the computer to enable the basic computing needs with great accuracy itself is a fun idea to fiddle with.

Pre-order of Leap Box

Leap is available for pre-order for limited period for USD 70.  Click over here  , if you fancy a device.

Fascinating isn’t it?

Its summer time again! Time to indulge on fruits, juices and water to cool your body and mind. Good folks around us came together to bring out a summer special photo-up exclusively for us. And also we have listed out some of our articles that might help you beat summer as well as provide amazing food facts that do wonders for you. Beat the heat!

Credits:

Photographer: William G K

Models: Shiva Prasad, Pavana, Warren, Mahipal (from left to right)

Make-up: Satish

Styling & Concept: Sanjiv Vakharia

Costumes: Zenia

So munching on watermelon and sweating out on summer? Don’t miss out our following articles that would refresh your body.

Do you know watermelon are powerhouse of certain nutrients and packs health benefits?

Some juicy tips about juice

Power fruit therapy – The Famous Five

Health benefits of Mangoes

Salads – Food with benefits

Healthy Eating  – Soups!

Juice it up!

Why you should drink water?