Tuesday, April 22, 2008

WordWeb - Terms and Conditions!

I had downloaded WordWeb a month back and had found it quite useful and I now have it on all the computers I use.
Last night when i tried to use it, I saw a message warning me that to continue the usage i will have to answer a question.
How many times have you used a flight in the last 12 months?
I happened to choose more than twice and it in fact, stopped me from using the free version and prompted me to update to the Pro version.

Their justification:

"WordWeb free version may be used indefinitely only by people who take at most two commercial flights (not more than one return flight) in any 12 month period. People who fly more than this need to purchase the Pro version if they wish to continue use it after a 30-day trial period."

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Weird and Funny at the same time. I had never come across such a licensing term before. I am still coming to "Terms" with it :)!!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Could there be an iPhone killer?

Ever since the iPhone was debuted in the Macworld Conference last year our lives have never been the same again.
Ok, i know its not been such a revolution yet, but it has had a juggernaut run upto now.
It's intuitive user interface and multi touch features among other technological innovations have wowed many a people.

A simple phone device which weighes almost as much as a brick and was invented to make us mobile and in effect help people to reach us anywhere has turned out into this absoultely wonderful piece of technological marvel, not only helps us to be mobile, but is also a information device, a multimedia device and much much more.
Everyday, there are new innovations and new patents being filed in this field. Everyone wants more features, more ease of use all at their finger tips and this keeps the telecommunication industry to push the envelopes each and every day.

Blackberry and a majority of the Nokia models and to some extent the Motorolas and Samsungs had kepts us
interested before iPhone made its grand appearance. iPhone came, and it just conquered everyones hearts! Althought it has quite a far way to got to capture the market share and become ubiquitous.

This also leads us to the question that by the end of this year could there be an iPhone killer?
Its not such an absurd thought if you think how iPhone became the talk of the town in just about a few hours.
iPhone itself with its introduction has created a precedence of sorts and this could lead to more mobile and smart phone manufacturers trying to come up with their answer to the iPhone.

HTC launched its HTC touch which was dubbed the iPhone killer. Touch has performance issues and quite frankly can be dubbed the poor man's iPhone. The LG viewty could have been better if they had provided a much better camera and wi-fi support. But, it is still a very good product. OpenMoko the open source mobile platform was also launched and it managed to create a lot of hype in the open source world.
Now, Nokia which easily has the largest share in the mobile handsets market is seemingly on the verge of creating the iPhone killer and it is codenamed it "Tube". There is a lot of hype and buzz created around this and it will exciting to see how this
one goes.

Iphone indeed has been the trail blazer in terms of smart phones with excellent user interface and blending it with intuitiveness and ease of use. It is now upto the competition to push the boundaries of innovation and come up with a better and smarter yet simple and more importantly an affordable mobile phone as an answer to the iPhone.