Author: The Metrognome

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Tech

Review: Karbonn Sparkle V (Android One)

Backed by Google, this Karbonn phone is one of the latest to join the low price, high feature smartphone bandwagon.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

The Android space has been buzzing with the launches of low-priced handsets that offer better user experience than the OS ever has before. We have seen the likes of Motorola and Xiaomi bringing affordable Android phones and proving that its experience doesn’t have to be bad, as a result, many companies have been caught off guard and are now rushing to have a better low-end offering.

Along comes Android One, a new project backed by none other than Google, to partner with various phone manufacturers and chip suppliers aiming to give good Android experience at a sub 10k pricing. Karbonn is one of the first manufacturers that Google joined hands with for this project and the result is the Sparkle V.

Karbonn’s Sparkle V, as with other Android One devices, comes with the promise of guaranteed OS updates, something we have not really seen in the past for when it comes to budget Android phones. The phone is very similar to the Micromax Canvas A1 and Spice Dream Uno, except for its design and material. The Sparkle V features a 4.5-inch (854 x 480) touchscreen with the 2 MP front-facing camera and circular speaker grill above that screen.

On the right side panel, you have the volume rockers and Power/ Lock key towards the top – both are quite slim but not bad, giving nice feedback when pressed. The left side is plain; while the 3.5 mm headset jack is on the top; and the microUSB port at the bottom. Coming to the back, there is a 5 MP camera alongside flash and the camera module protrudes a bit from the surface, though not too much. The Karbonn logo in the middle and speaker rill towards the bottom complete the rear.

The looks. The phone uses decent plastic materials and has a matte back. The front, including the screen, are prone to smudges and fingerprints, so much so that you might want to carry a small piece of cloth for cleaning them up with every now and then (or you could use a decent screen guard, if that’s your thing). The phone’s bezels aren’t thick, but it is still a relatively good-sized phone to carry even for a person with small hands. Rounded edges and grippy back means you can carry it without having to worry about dropping the device.

The Sparkle V sports a 4.5-inch (854 x 480) screen that is, just as you expect, an average display in the crop of phones available today. The screen resolution is on the lower side, but colours actually look decent and the screen holds quite well for reading small articles. It is far from being a USP of the device, but it isn’t something you’re expecting to be excellent on the first place anyway.

Camera. Talking about the phone’s camera, this 5 MP (AF) camera can take nice shots in good light conditions. The camera app is the default Google camera app, which seems familiar to use as soon as you switch on the camera for the first time. There are a few setting options to choose from, like HDR, Panorama or even switch to manual exposure. Here are a few sample images

The camera can take nice shots, but clearly struggles with low light. There is also a bit of a problem with its focus, which means your exposure and contrast could suffer. You would not want to click your own pictures with the front-facing camera, but it works for video calls.

Sound. Coming to the phone’s sound quality, the bundled headsets are actually decent but not very comfortable to wear (depending on your ear size), especially while commuting. The sound is quite loud, clear for vocals and FM Radio. The loudspeakers on the back are also loud but they struggle to give a reliable experience for games and videos. There aren’t any strange call drops or network issues and in-call audio is also clear and without distortion on the other side. Also, PS lock-in, WiFi connections, etc were also reliable, with no drop-outs or bugs.

Battery life. The phone comes with a 1,700 mAh battery unit. This isn’t a particularly high capacity for smartphones today. The phone lasted me less than 20 hours on heavy usage. There’s no inbuilt power-saving mode and you might want to use a separate app for that. More often than not, you would have to charge the phone twice a day in order to get your tasks done. It would have been appreciated had Karbonn gone with a higher capacity cell or even done a better job with the software regarding battery optimisation.

Software. The phone runs on Android 4.4.4 with near-stock look and feel that we are used to seeing on the Nexus devices. There are just a few pre-loaded apps other than the ones you usually see (like the OLX app, PayTM, and Saavn). Even the boot animation is quite similar to the one we had on the Nexus One.

The phone is powered by MediaTek’s 6582 chipset (1.3 GHz quad-core processor, Mali 400MP2 GPU) with 1 GB of RAM. There is an occasional lag you may notice. There were hardly any app crashes during my suage and I felt it is one of the few Android phones that are under Rs. 8,000, which doesn’t perform poorly. It isn’t as smooth as the Moto E, but it is surely not a frustratingly-slow phone. It can handle games like Asphalt 8 well, but the things aren’t too good on the graphics side.

Navigating though the OS, closing and resuming apps are quite smooth. There is a minor bug in the OS where the notification center doesn’t show you the percentage an app has been downloaded or updated while it is being downloaded or updated in the Play Store. With a left swipe (leftward-most), you arrive at Google Now. Making and editing folders, modifying Home screens, on-screen keys, lockscreen, Dock, app launcher, Settings are all just like stock Android and familiar to use.

15 months of manufacturer warranty, plus, MediaTek has open-sourced its kernel sources and other stuff, which it didn’t have for so many other phones, so you can expect custom ROMs for the device soon – make this a much better package. Oh, and you require a microSD card to take an image or video or even take a screenshot as the internal storage space can’t be used for that because it’s reserved for the OS and your apps (you can move your apps to your microSD card, though).

Concluding our review, this phone (along with other phones in the line) is much more than just another Android phone. This is Android One that promises updates that no other low-end devices do. At about Rs 6,000, this is a good deal. The overall experience with the phone – sturdy body, decent screen and camera, below average battery, satisfactory performance – is rather good. But it makes me look forward to the second line of devices under Android One, especially with the likes of HTC, Qualcomm and Lenovo joining in. The project is off to a decent start and seems it can only get better and bigger from here on.

Categories
Learn

J&K school students meet Maharashtra Governor

The students were very excited about their maiden Mumbai visit; most had seen the sea for the very first time.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The State of Maharashtra hosts children from Jammu & Kashmir every year. However, the joy of the experience doesn’t seem to dim for everyone involved – for the children themselves, or the Government officials who meet them on their visit.

A group of 22 children belonging to the border area of Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir met the Governor of Maharashtra C Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan, Mumbai on Saturday, October 4, 2014. The children came from various villages located in areas closer to the Line of Control and are currently studying in Government schools. They shared their joy and excitement of visiting the city of Mumbai with the Governor. Many of the children said that they had seen a train and the sea for the first time in their life. The Governor enquired about the children and advised them to educate and to serve the nation.

The visit of the children to Mumbai and Pune was organised by the Maratha Light Infantry of Indian Army, under Operation Sadbhavana. The children were accompanied by three teachers and representatives of the 6 Maratha Light Infantry.

Categories
Beauty

Heal minor skin ailments at home

The current weather is causing an occasional rash, the onset of itchy dandruff, even a sudden eruption of boils. Treat them naturally.

The weather is changing in Mumbai, and with the change comes a host of skin problems that are minor in nature but irritating just the same. With the sudden rise in day-time temperature, people are already complaining of heat boils and sun burn, not to mention oilier scalp and skin. Here’s looking at some seasonal skin ailments and how you can naturally treat them.

Eucalyptus oilDandruff: When the scalp becomes oily, it might cause some people to develop dandruff, or might exacerbate the already existing condition. However, before opting for harsh shampoos that only temporarily solve the problem, try this: warm about two tablespoons of eucalyptus oil and apply gently on the scalp using a clean ball of cotton. Leave on for at least an hour before washing with mild shampoo. Eucalyptus oil is known to treat dandruff and surface bacterial infections on the scalp.

If you are not too fond of the eucalyptus oil’s aroma, use coconut oil mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice. Apply this mixture on the scalp and leave on overnight.

Sun tan: Bright sunlight can cause tanning. When you’re home, work on the tan with a mix of sandalwood paste and a pinch of turmeric. For an added benefit, make the sandalwood paste in rose water. Apply this paste to your face and neck every night and wash off once it dries and tightens. This is also an excellent remedy for enlarged pores.

Rashes: Coconut oil is a soothing remedy for almost all skin rashes. Rub it gently over the affected area. It contains anti-bacterial properties and is useful even for mild skin allergies.

Sun burn: Sun burns are common in this weather. This is a good treatment for the affected area: prepare the affected area by rubbing an ice cube over it. Once the area is dry but still slightly numb, apply fresh lemon juice on it. It might sting if the skin is broken or red, but the sensation will soon taper off. Apply thrice a day.

Itchy skin: Aloe vera gel works best for itchy skin, especially if it is prone to acne or excess sebum excretion. Fresh aloe vera gel, obtained from slitting the leaf, is best for this condition. Apply Oats pastethe gel on the face and leave on till it dries. Wash off with cold water. Do this twice a day.

Boils: Boils are often painful and leave behind a scar if treated harshly or punctured. Try this remedy that lances the boil naturally: mix one teaspoon baking soda with a pinch of salt and just enough water to make a thick paste. Apply on the boil thrice a day. The boil will subside in no time.

Dead skin deposits: Some people experience dead skin deposits on areas such as the nose, forehead and chin, apart from the elbows, knees and back. Instead of a harsh scrub, try this gentle one: mix coarse oats in a teaspoon of turmeric paste and apply on the skin in firm, circular motions. Wash off with cold water at once.

(Pictures courtesy www.naturalhealthhealingstream.com, alareejperfumers.com, www.goodhousekeeping.com)

Categories
Do

Group of Mumbaikars takes up Modi’s cleanliness challenge

CST Station receives a much-needed clean up on October 2, on Gandhi Jayanti, to observe cleanliness, sanitation and community health.
by the Observer Research Foundation and Triratna Prerana Mandal, Mumbai

As part of Gandhi Jayanti celebrations on 2nd October, the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health, a joint initiative of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Triratna Prerana Mandal organised ‘Shramdaan’— a clean-up drive at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Mumbai.

Mahatma Gandhi dedicated his entire life so that India could attain ‘Swaraj’ but cleanliness was a cause that was even closer to his heart and above all he encouraged and promoted cleanliness of the surroundings, as he strongly believed that “if we do not clean our backyards, our Swaraj will have a foul stench.” Therefore, cleaning public places, like the CST, is the highest form of tribute to pay our beloved Bapu, father of the nation.

Cleaning up CST stationAnswering the clarion call by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, all the enthusiastic participants followed in his footsteps by devoting their time towards the 100 hours of ‘Shramdaan’ to promote the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. On this occasion, Central Railways had called for public participation in their efforts towards honouring their commitment under the Clean India Mission 2019.

The staff of ORF researchers and interns, as well as volunteers that mainly included school students, teachers and many other citizens worked hand-in-hand to clean Platform No.1 and the adjoining entrance lobby of CST. Everyone contributed to the event with the sweep of a broom, the scrub of a brush and ardent words of appeal to keep Mumbai and our public places clean.

CST station, a UNESCO world heritage site — littered with garbage, posters on the walls and the splotches of paan stains — is not as welcoming to travellers and commuters as it should be. In an honest effort from all those who participated and without any hope or expectation of pats on the back, five hours were spent diligently scrubbing the station and to ensure that it was left in a better condition than before. Students and teachers from the Al-Muminah Girls School at Masjid Bunder participated enthusiastically in the clean-up and awareness campaign to encourage commuters to do their part towards keeping India clean. As the day progressed, commuters and curious onlookers also joined in. And, that is not all! Those who took a break from cleaning duties switched to spreading awareness by engaging commuters at the station.

On Independence Day 2014, Observer Research Foundation Mumbai and Triratna Prerana Mandal (TPM), one of Mumbai’s best-run community-based organisations, launched a joint initiative − Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Community Health. This Centre aims to take up research, policy advocacy, activism and leadership development in the areas of slum sanitation, waste management, waste recycling, water conservation and public health in Mumbai and the larger Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Categories
Deal with it

Ravan in the fast lane

Our traditions are fading in the face of our own hazy recollection of them. What do we teach our children?
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

The festive season is well and truly upon us, and while basking in it, I decided it was high time I helped my son brush up on his cultural knowledge.

Thanks to Shahrukh Khan, my child knows about Ravan, though he hasn’t heard of Ravan from the Ramayana. Realising that he had learnt a different version of Ravan prompted me, like many other moms, to attempt to undo the damage by telling him about the characters of our great ancient epics.

But I slowly realised that the road to enlightenment was full of hurdles. For one, I myself remembered only a very sketchy outline of the Ramayana. It really shook me up, and all my claims of being connected to my culture now lay about me in tatters. After a few days of heavy thinking, I managed to put my jumbled version into the right pieces, but I was still far from the real picture.

After this fiasco, I did not have the courage to attempt the retelling of the Mahabharata, which is even more complex than the Ramayana with its vastness and unending series of characters.

How did this happen? Have our lifestyles really started to take a toll on our traditions and cultures, which are slowly fading away without us even realising it? Even when we understand that we are doing very less to preserve our culture, we shrug off responsibility and excuse ourselves in the pretext of modernisation, liberated thoughts, paucity of time and daily stresses.

After becoming a parent I realised that I would impart the same ethics and sow seeds of all the beliefs and traditions which, once upon a time, I had resented as a child. Don’t we all try to mirror theTeaching our children our traditions parenting styles of our parents, and try to inculcate the same values in our children? Sure, all our parents’ values never become a part of our personalities, but we remember all of them and try to pass them on to the next generations. We may never have actively participated in trying to keep our culture alive, but when it comes to our children, we want our children to adopt our culture in its entirety.

Dussera reminds me of my sweet childhood, when listening to our epics during story sessions with parents and grandparents were one of our biggest pastimes. Children today are smart enough to tell you that they know that Santa Claus doesn’t actually come to their house on Christmas eve and their parents buy the gifts. As children, even we knew this about Santa Claus, but we were so rapt in our fairytale worlds that we willingly ignored what our minds cautioned us. We have grown up calling a sleepyhead ‘Kumbhakaran’ or a witty person ‘Birbal’. But our children have never heard of these hallowed personalities, which is the biggest tragedy of their lives.

Whatever age you are, the sight of the burning Ravan effigy with firecrackers exploding in the background never fails to enchant us and remind us that good always wins over evil. We try to teach our children about the many evils they will encounter, while also quietly reminding ourselves that we too, will slay the Ravans in our lives.

It is definitely not an easy task in Mumbai to go see the burning Ravan. The Mumbai gardi discourages us. So we content ourselves by going to malls and eating out. And while all that is good, does this mean that the future generations will never get a taste of what we experienced in our childhood?

A popular management saying goes, ‘Don’t tell us the problem, tell us the solution’. For starters, we could organise our own Ravan burning in our building societies. Involve the children to make Ravan and his brothers’ cutouts and collectively burn them. Plan to make it a community function. Have some sessions where an elder recounts our traditions and the stories behind them. Plan it the way you want, just don’t let the festival pass you by as just another holiday.

I think we owe this to our future generations. Do you?

(Pictures courtesy www.postmygreetings.com, www.princessliya.com. Images are used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Deal with it

Combating ‘people stress’ at the workplace

More than our work, our workplace colleagues add to most of the stress in office. Here’s how you combat the pressure.
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

The other day I was teaching Mc Gregor’s theory X and Y, which states two completely alternative explanations of how people work. One school of thought says people don’t want to work and only work when under coercion, threatened with punishments or shown incentives. It also states that usually, people shun responsibility and only seek security in a job. The other theory states that people not only look forward to but also assume responsibility towards tasks they feel intrinsically motivated to do. So people are not lazy but they need to feel happy about doing something and if that happens, then they do wonders.

Don’t we all follow both these theories at our workplace? Likewise, we also see people of both kinds in our offices. Sometimes we start off by completely following Theory Y, but somewhere down the line, systems at work bug us and slowly we start responding to the system by underperforming or minimally performing. Come to think of it, what is the biggest issue we have at work place that bothers us the most? The job profile, the nature of job as well as other conditions associated with our work, remuneration, duration and travelling time to offices (the biggest problem of Mumbaikars) are all potent factors for both satisfaction, and largely, dissatisfaction. But if we have to name the most threatening factor that really robs us our peace of mind is the PEOPLE at our work place.

The toughest challenge is in the form of human beings – these could be colleagues, supervisors, managers and higher apex authorities. How difficult it gets at times to manage working with people! Ego hassles, dominance, personality differences, moods, feelings, ambitions, self esteem, power displays – all characterise in varying forms the people we work with. We meet all types of people in our work environments and HR principles tell us that we need to have harmonious relations with all of them.

That, of course, is easier said than done.

So what kinds of people do we see at the work place?

The giants. These are people who mostly know everything and are overpowering. They are the ones who maximally use insults, threats to get work done and are basically the ‘terrors’ in our lives.

Bullies. They use all the aggression at their disposal to make you slog.

The pessimistic ones. Whatever you do, they always fail to see the silver lining. Full of negativity and cynicism, they complain about anything and everything.Stressful colleagues

The keeping-tabs-on-you types. These people account for your every move and their eyes follow you everywhere.

The ‘goody two shoes’ types. These are silent, nice and always around to help, but sometimes their sheer lack of ambition and being too good rubs us the wrong way.

The victims. These people always feel the grass is greener on your side.

The super workers. They have an OCD which makes them work all the time. Their meticulous nature makes the others feel inferior.

The gossipers. These people keep changing sides and let you down when you trust them with your secrets.

The quiet but shrewd types. These willmanipulate people without anyone knowing.

The dependent ones. Thesepeople are extra friendly but always indecisive about everything, and load you with all their work, too.

These are just a few as we meet many more types at work.  At times people become so difficult that no matter how hard you try, they somehow manage to draw out the worst in you. At times we confront them openly, and at other times we wage silent mind wars against them. Most of these conflicts leave us feeling sick.

In places like Mumbai, where daily life itself is a constant source of stress, workplace pressures definitely take a big toll on us. All our meditation and yoga goes out the window in the face of dealing with ‘people pressure’. So what do we do? Definitely to change people and situations is not always in our hand and experts tell us that change yourself and you will be happy. Tune to let nothing bother you and take everything in a positive stride. Phew but only if we could do it.

So what does one do?

Workplace stressFight it out. But ensure that you can handle the repercussions. Also, your fighting response is a reflection of discomfort and mental anxiety, so you might want to address these first.

Talk it out with people. You will find that sometimes, gossip eases mental tensions.

Hope that the person(s) bothering you disappears. If they don’t, take a break from your desk and vanish for a while with a cup of tea or coffee.

In times of stress, try and summon happy memories. If you have trouble with this, browse pictures of friends and family for a few calming moments.

Be firm when dealing with the source of your stress. It is not worth it if the pressure makes you sick or anxious all the time.

Keep reminding yourself that this too, shall pass.

Dr Pooja Birwatkar is currently pursuing post doctoral research and working in the area of science education. She has been associated with the field of education in the past as a teacher educator, and her area of interest is research in education. 

(Pictures courtesy worksmartlivesmart.com, www.rediff.com, work.chron.com) 

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