iPhone 5 - An Apple Gamble?

So Apple finally muscled its way and put Samsung into submission. The court verdict was for Samsung to cough up $1bn in damages for having copied Apple's iconic iPhone. A big blow for Samsung for sure, since it could lead to injunction of its other famed Galaxy line of phones. The latest and very impressive Galaxy S3 has been added to the list of Samsung phones Apple wants to be banned from sales across U.S. No doubt, there is no better form of flattery than to be copied, but Samsung's sales of its smartphones have leapt to such big highs, Apple could not ignore the potential dominance of the South Korean giant. The other way to look at it, if you are a Samsung supporter is - that Apple, the most valuable technology company in the world could not ignore Samsung's rapid rise to the top. If Apple had not intervened the copying innovation Samsung has been leading, Apple could be realistically threatened of its Smartphone crown.

The timing of the court order is very peculiar indeed. It happened just days before Samsung's event at IFA Berlin. It has also happened few weeks before a blockbuster launch of the next 'iconic' iPhone. And in this duration, Nokia announced its new Lumia series of Windows phones, and Amazon will be announcing new Kindles and a potential phone offering too. So what does all this mean to the launch of the iPhone 5 on September 12? Apple's gamble seems to be all on one device, the iPhone. While it has been an incredible device like all Apple products, and arguably copied a lot by Samsung (though it takes one thing to copy and another to do it right and better it!), this is the time of beckoning for Apple the company. Snapping at its heels are competitors who are aggressive, and innovative in their own unique ways.

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Facebook to Phased Book

So why does FB irk me so much ? I can think of many reasons. Because - I don't have time, don't have the patience, don't have any interest at all. Just to name a few. Or I am falling behind the social media wave. Come to think of it, I access facebook out of peer pressure. Everyone's there, so I have to be there too. When I don't have anything else to do in life, I access FB. And it is not surprising that FB is slowly losing its charm. The age old human psyche is affecting FB too. Boredom ...

Facebook's stocks have taken a beating and the entire IPO seems like a farce now. Essentially FB is entirely relying on its users' time as capital for their stocks. As soon as boredom sets in, time spent on FB will vanish, and so will FB. Why is twitter still so tweet? Because its short and 140 sweet. It gives you a platform to be crisp, short, yet cryptic. While with FB, your whole life is out in the open. I don't use twitter myself a lot, but I prefer something shorter, lighter and faster. Its like the sms service on internet. Time spent is less, so boredom doesn't ever set in.

I still don't understand how it pays to reveal your life for everyone else to see. It invites trouble when you are not even aware. It is amusing, in the number of photos and humorous lines everyone shares. But when the shares and updates from everyone becomes a deluge, it becomes a burden to sift through them all. How many updates really matter? Do you care about updates from all your 500 friends? Or just the 100? Isn't social media just another way of shunning calls and even messaging?

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What a hiatus ...

I was so used to blogging, it really feels astonishing how long I have been away from this activity. Well, all this for very many obvious reasons ... and the signs of which began in April 2010. The almost unthinkable (up until then atleast) happened. Yes, I was tied into a unison for life. And the yield of it came around in January this year. If its too cryptic, forgive me :)

By now the internet has been facebooked into submission. I have been so far away from real world, that I have been away from many spicy stories, news headlines, atleast from a detailing aspect. And of course, the responsibilities at home kept increasing, and has now become a full time activity. What with little fingers and all :)

Still, I need to make an extra effort to restart those fond activities - blogging, photography, etc. Have stayed too far away and inertia has set in badly. Here is a fresh attempt - all over again. Hopefully I can turnover quick enough to feel happy and satisified at my blogging efforts. Hopefully India's censorship standards are still not as strict as those in China!

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