America , Vote for this Disruptor- –in- Chief, 

I am telling you…, 

You have nothing to lose..

This is my perspective on American Presidential Election as an Indian who has never visited America but followed its workings through Television & Internet . I have no doubt of Donald Trump is a true definition of a disruptor; I love his I-don’t -give a-shit- to - political correctness attitude. So refreshing. 

He is fighting with Republicans, Democrats, Hollywood, Wall Street, Digital & Print media Houses, Tech giants, for that matter, the entire entitled edifice of old guard.  Democrat’s minority appeasement vote bank politics has constructed a formidable coalition umbrella of black, Latino, illegal immigrants along with white guilt confused liberals voting blocks. It’s incredibly difficult for anyone to get pass the arithmetic , but this time,  I see that the entire disfranchised white America is very angry and might vote en masse to Donald Trump and are determined to see him in white house. I also predict that there will be increased black favorable votes to Donald Trump which might surprise pundits 

The opposition is fiercer because the interested elite wants a status quo which they see as their advantage and want to preserve and thrive on it.  They are putting everything to play; I see a shameless biased reporting of mainstream media, actually this reporting is having an opposite effect, it is reinforcing the resolve of the electorate to prove it wrong.

Vote for Donald Trump, If not anything, just for the heck of it and see what he will do differently because what Hillary is promising is a boring Status Quo, which will lead to nothing. Even if Donald trump fails in whatever he is promising, he will at least entertain us. With Hillary, you will have no luck on this , So go for it, vote for Donald Trump and make America Great Again!!!!

GPS Integrated Camera's

Photographs, as some one said, are memories frozen in time & space, if there is a way to add accurate location dimension to the photograph, it definitely adds value to the cherished memories.

Digital cameras, whether it’s a point- and –shoot, prosumer or professional variants, all have a possibility of a very interesting integration of location technologies called GPS

(Global Positioning Systems), simply put, GPS chipsets receive signals from the GPS satellites and subsequently calculate accurate locations (Latitude & Longitude) , incredibly at an accuracy’s of 5 to 10 meters, now, if the GPS derived location information (Latitude & Longitude) is tagged to your digital image which you have taken, you can add that important 3^rd location dimension.

All digital images taken from a digital camera have metatags in EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) embedded into it. This EXIF format is a standard format for digital images taken by all digital cameras irrespective of its make and model, this means that all digital images taken by digital cameras will have some information embedded into it, this information is that of the aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed information etc. while you take that snap. Outwardly, you would not see this information from the image you have taken, but when the image is viewed in an appropriate image processing tool, you could see the information which is embedded into the digital image you have taken, now, when you take images from a GPS embedded digital camera, the location information (Latitude & Longitude) is also written/embedded in the image additionally along the usual aperture, shutter speed, focal length information.

The process of adding the location information into the digital image is known as geotagging, when this location embedded image is supplied to appropriate applications, they will read the location information from the image metatags and points the location on a map precisely on where this image is taken. All photo sharing websites like locr, panoramio picasa, flickr etc. instantly recognize the geotagged photos and put them on the map precisely, this way, you and your friends know where on the earth you have taken that excellent snap.

Other than recreation and viewing, geotagging of photos have serious application usefulness to photo journalists, media, law enforcement agencies, infrastructure industry, defence, forestry & environment, public utilities, disaster management, utilities, local government’s agencies, the list can go on.

Surprisingly, the technology of integrating Camera with GPS is not new, we now see that the every other high-end phone worth its salt has a camera and a GPS embedded to it, this means that you can already take geotagged images from your high-end phone, digital camera OEM’s have recognized the usage and value of embedding a GPS into their cameras, the intent can be gauged by the fact that you see a steady proliferation of GPS embedded cameras in the market place, digital camera biggies like Nikon, Canon, Sony & Samsung have started introducing models with embedded GPS chipsets, with a GPS chipset costing less than $10, its not that hurting to OEM’s as well. If you plan to buy your next digital camera it’s a good idea to look for a GPS integrated feature.

Terrace Garden

A farmer at heart, my father, Sri Ramana Reddy, retried academician, started a Terrace Garden at his independent home ( Lat 17.325268, Long 78.555264), a variety of vegetables & fruits are grown organically for personal consumption. He gets me supplies when ever he visits me, organic produces taste and smells different (better) than the mainstream ones. For a how-to question, It’s- not- at- all- complicated is his answer, interested can contact him at 040-20060100 for a free phone consultation.

Car Black Box

Got this cute little device which the manufacturers call Road Memory installed in my car, the device is a video camera with GPS chip set integrated, some call it car black box, for the reason that when you install and allow it to run, it would record all the audio, video & G Force variables of the car and is tagged to the geographic location which makes it an interesting tool to look and review historical activities of the car; drawing analogies to aircraft black boxes.

The device opens interesting possibilities for personal and commercial usage. Simply put, when you play archived video files generated by the camera over a computer, you can view all the video with the exact location coordinates, date, time and the path traversed on a goggle map, along with a graph of G-forces which were at play precisely at that instant. An intuitive light weight application is provided along with the CD to view these video files generated in travel.

The device is essentially a plug and play device, you just need to stick this device to windshield of your car, connect power to car’s cigarette lighter charger, you are up and running. The device has a 1.3 mega pixel VGA camera with a provision to tilt to a suitable angle and positioning, has an SD slot which will store all the files which will be generated while on move.

My friend in Korea says that, insurance companies offer substantial discounts on insurance premiums for vehicles which have these devices installed. The video, he says, submitted as evidence for litigation is permissible in courts, should hold good in India too.

Ideally 2 hours of video data takes 1GB space, the data is recorded in a continuous loop, and this means that you will never miss the freshest data. The device has an internal memory and an emergency battery which lasts for 20 seconds, which will ensure the capture of a video of any accident incident, that’s even when there’s no power.

On the desktop application part, its simple and intuitive, just copy the video files from the SD card and open with this desktop application, you should be connected to the internet to see the location on the google map though; sample video file of me driving in Hyderabad and surroundings is below. The device cost me 150$, should be definitely a useful for fleets, if not for personal transport vehicles.

GPS/GSM Child Phone for Talking & Tracking

It’s satisfying to see a good review of the product which I have authored in My Mobile magazine, arguably an authoritative Indian mobile magazine. In print form, I could see the product rubbing shoulders with Nokia’s & Samsung’s of the world .SatNav being a GPS products company always wanted to ride the mobile wave with carrier agnostic value added GPS location based services. We did make some forays in GPS location based mobile apps but with limited success. Carriers were not keen to give a push as they are not seeing big monies, comparable to their ring tone revenues.

The GPS child phone is a niche product targeted towards anxious parents. The child phone is tightly integrated with an effective LBS (location Based Service) platform, definitely a higher entry barrier for any one to just come in and offer these services. A very good start I should say for a small and medium company like us. We don’t know of any competitive product currently available in India, which translates to a very favorable first mover advantage scenario. We are making efforts to capitalize this situation swiftly.

Risking repetition of what the reviewer said, I would say that it’s a useful gadget for anxious parents, gives a near absolute locational control on their wards. Due to our limited resources we are currently focusing only on BTL marketing activities, which are showing some good results. I should say we are finding difficult to defend price points, and challenging margin structures prevailing in the distributor/ dealer supply chain.

My daughter goes to HPS School with this GPS child phone device, a functional demo to the primary school principal convinced her to allow this device inside of the school. I was told that no wearable gadgets, including wrist watches, are allowed inside of the school. I congratulated my self for the job done there J

GPS /GSM Wrist Watch for real-time Tracking – TK203 Product Review

Brought this oversized J watch. Details on the box cover summarize the features pretty much. The digital watch essentially is a GSM /GSP modules fitted in a wrist watch form factor. Usage is pretty simple, put a working GSM SIM into it and then configure the device through SMS commands. Geo fence (configuring alert if the device moves beyond your authorized geography), auto tracking (alerts at specific intervals), over speed alerts are some of the important features of the device. Watch also has an SOS button, when pressed sends location alerts continuously to pre configured numbers. There are 10’s of Shenzen GPS/GSM tracking devices screaming for attention on gadget portals which I assume will do exactly the similar job, innovation here is; fitting all this functionality in a wrist watch form factor. I should say that the task is partially achieved, looking at the oversized nature of the device.

Box Package

Watch with a Digital Time Display

Position ( latitude & Longitude ) Display

Location message on mobile

Good

• Functionality is fine, easy configuration through SMS
• Can be used independently by end consumer.
• Device can be integrated by system integrators very easily as communication protocols are given.
• Service providers can enhance usability of this device by providing a location map instead of latitude and longitude values

Bad

• Definitely oversized. I understand the form factor limitations.
• Battery is a big let down. Gives a 4 hour battery backup, which defeats the purpose of this device.
• Device responds by sending latitude and longitude values, you guys need to go to web and use a third party mapping application; say Google J to see the location on map. Will not attribute this as a negative point on the device; system integrators can easily push an intelligent map to end user.
• Does not send latitude/longitude in concealed environments, again will not attribute this to the device as GPS devices, by its virtue need to be open to sky to receive signals.
• It cost me 10K INR, when it reached me, along with duty and shipment from Shenzen.

Nokia’s Free GPS Navigation & Maps for Lifetime Offer!!!

Every one saw it coming, Nokia; India’s No 1 most trusted brand company across products has announced its free navigation and maps for ever, a significant announcement much to the heart burn of Samsung’s, LG’s and all others. Nokia’s quest for a differentiator in highly competitive mobile space, analysts believe, has driven this $8.1 Billion costly take over of NAVTEQ, the global mapping company, more so that the takeover happened just before the global financial crisis.

Nokia tried different things in monetizing this costly buy out of NAVTEQ, branding blitzkrieg in 2008 saw Nokia coming strongly in India on mobile GPS navigation, the catch however was subscription though, a nicely done commercial summarizes the offer.

However consumers did not take the bait. To my mind it appears that they were not happy on the map content and coverage offered at that point of time more ever the constant reminder of available FREE maps and location services of Google has deterred mass adoption of Nokia maps.

2009 though, saw huge improvement in content and coverage of NAVTEQ a.k.a Nokia maps, now this FREE thing from Nokia will definitely have takers. Map making industry feels that this final salvo from Nokia will still reduce the perceived value of a digital map. Interestingly to note that, among all the content creations, accurate and fresh digital map content making is considered to be a costly and laborious endeavor. This toiling in creation of maps explains the existence of high entry barrier for map content creating companies to enter and thrive. This is the reason that we have is only two companies, NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas who can truly claim to be the world wide mapping companies. Google will surely join this club shortly though.

I suppose Nokia will not keep quite and leave it here, its huge success in Nokia OVI application platform will drive innovative LBS apps, some with tight integration with operators thereby putting in place a fully working LBS ecosystem which every one is talking about. Nokia’s renewed aggressiveness is palpable as it lost significant market share to other mobile OEM’s during 2009. Nokia product philosophy to put GPS chip in its every phone in coming years is also seen as a grandiose plan to have stranglehold in all things related to LBS.

Google is also quite aggressive, doing its own things on maps & LBS apps etc, every one acknowledges that, by far Goggle has the best content and coverage on India, most interesting to note is that Google has unassailable lead over NAVTEQ or TeleAtlas, considered to be the global leaders in mapmaking.

To my mind it appears that Nokia & Google will be driving all this map and LBS things in near future. Both have very strong R&D teams in India working on things on what matters in India. Both have the muscle and the willingness to invest on creating fresher map content and supply it FREE to consumers. Off course FREE here is Oxymoron, both have several tricks up their sleeve to monetize in multitude of ways.

Its would be interesting to see what the other mobile OEM’s will do in India, logically they have to go run to Map providers in India like SatNav, Map My India or Tele Atlas to offer a matching value, which can put severe pressure on their already diminishing top lines, or they may just ignore this FREE Navigation option and search for another differentiator.

Finally, for a consumer it’s a very good VAS, and also for the LBS industry where the awareness will grow for sure and soon the market forces will follow.