The OnePlus One that I am Proud to Have

We live in a world where smart phones are produced faster than universe can produce smart people. With the avalanche of smart phones that come your way and almost every week a new smart phone has a 'launch' it is very hard to stay enthusiastic about it for a long time.
I appreciate the Apple Fans in that regard that they wait patiently and enthusiastically for a phone that is two years late in terms of innovation.
As a disclaimer, I am a Samsung fan boy and while the phones may be dismissed as cheap plastic, it hardly matters for me what the phones are made up of as long as I can chat with my wife on Whatsapp and watch the trailer of the avengers movie at the same time. Yes, as buggy or half baked the multi screen maybe I still like the fact that I can do more than one thing on the screen of my S4.

I started my journey with Galaxy S2, a much awaited and stable version of android that added steroids to mobile computer. When Samsung released the 10.1 tablet, I brought it out because that helped me watch my shows at night. Then it all spiraled upwards till Galaxy S4 when the advance multi-tasking feature grabbed my attention. The pop-out video player added another level of excitement. But then slowly this excitement waned, there was nothing new in S5 save perhaps the water proof feature. That's when this one caught my attention.

I am talking about the Oneplus one, the self professed flagship killer from a relatively new Chinese manufacturer called Oneplus. Chinese? Did I say, yes and you heard it correctly. OnePlus is a relatively new company that has launched One as the first phone in the market. Why is this phone so special?

There are a couple of reasons,
One. This phone comes packing with Cyanogen mod CM11, the one ROM that many people install after rooting, bricking the warranty. Cyanogen who made android better than Google themselves is build into the phone as a firmware.

2. The unique invite system that they have. OnePlus basically isn't available retail and can be purchased only if someone invites you for buying it. So when getting hands on the phone is a difficult task you want it even more.

It was impulse decision when my friend asked me if I wanted OnePlus invite and I purchased it. How much did it cost? Only 273£ and I ordered it in UK. It didn't burn a hole in my pocket nor put me on the hook for 2 years like the Note 4 I was planning on buying.

Did I regret it? Not at all

It took seven days for the phone to arrive at my office and the first day was exciting. So much that this was dreamforce week and I was more excited about something other than dreamforce that week. Now this post is not about the specifications of OnePlus one, there are plenty of those floating around. But this is about my experiences around them.

The packing
When the phone arrived in the mailbox, I was really excited. The packing was decorative, like a jewelry box.


 
 

The Operating System
The operation system is arguably one of the fastest one I have seen. It responds to touch in an instant and is blazing fast. It took me five more minutes to dig into all the customization features on the phone and they were a lot. An overnight spend and I had customized this beast for my use.
Since then, OnePlus has never disappointed.
The only feature I am missing from my S4 is the multi view option that would allow me to chat and watch videos at the same time. Other than those, OnePlus does everything better.

Camera
Perhaps for me Camera is not the very interesting thing to look at. Sure any mp after 8 is good for me but I never got good pictures anyways. During the recent weekend traveling in London, OnePlus camera was praised more than often.





These are some of the HD pictures taken with OnePlus during the trip to London.

The Looks
Perhaps for a smart phone, looks don't matter that much as long as it augments your life and helps you multitask, the OnePlus becomes a winner on that front. It looks beautiful with the granite like back cover and its sleek design, I have received more compliments the more I use it.

So there you have it, there are other features but I don't really care about those. OnePlus has changed the way I look at smart phones in a complete different way.

Do you own a OnePlus? What are your views mention those in comments below. Just so you know, I don't have any invites to give away.
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10 Insane things you should never say to a Writer


1. Have I read anything you've written? Lets start with the obvious, unless you have good taste in literature I would probably say no. But then if you have you not read anything at all, I don't think you have. Stop wasting my time and pick up my book.
 2. How much money do you make? That's plain rude. It is one thing to ask a CEO how much money he makes and completely different for a writer. Remember writing is a job like others.
3. Where do you get your ideas? I have a magical crystal ball that churns out ideas every-time I want. See this is kind of stupidity is why we writers write. There is no extra organs in my body that churn out ideas nor do I have a shrine dedicated to getting ideas. So where do I get my ideas from? I take that as a compliment, stop staring.

4. Will you write my great story idea or If you help me write my life story, I'll split the income with you after we sell the book? Unless you are Shahrukh Khan, the chances that anyone will pay for (and more importantly, pay me) for your life story are thin. You may have this awesome life about going about by your routine, doing routine things but unless you convince your own mother that what you doing is worth spreading, don't come to me.

5. I'm going to write a book someday when I have time. This is the most common sentence you hear as a writer. If I get a penny for every-time someone says this, I will be richer than Bill Gates. Essentially the person means two things, one, I am entirely jobless and have plenty of time to write a book or two, the task is so menial that anyone can do it. So let me break the bubble for you, if you are not already writing, the chances that you are going to ever write are marginal. Statistically many people never get past just talking about writing. Those who actually start never finish it and even if they do finish it, they will end it at that.

6. How long does it take to write a book? The maths somewhere is, the amount of time it takes for you to reach orgasm multiplied by the number of days it takes for you to build starship galactica plus one. Basically bull-crap, writing a book is not a manufacturing thing were you have an assembly line and you have product and workers. Its a haphazard process and no fix time involved. Of-course if you stop wasting my time, it will be sooner.

7. Do you have e-book for your book? When are you sending me free copy of your book?
Ouch.
I am so grateful for you to ask. I am so desperate to seek approval, your highness, that I will give give away free copies of my book, that took me a year to write, for you to read and give me a one line of comment on it. Well played. If you have not already received a free copy of my book, your opinions do not matter to me.

8. You should write on XYZ topic. I like reading about that That you for your suggestion but no thank you, while I appreciate the knowledge of what you would like to read, but I will write what I feel like writing. That being said, if there is something popular worth writing, I will choose it whenever I wish. You could give it a try.
9. Has your book been made into a movie yet? Yep and a flying pig just popped out of nowhere to delivered the fat cheque for that. This question seriously implies that you are too lazy to read and you would want to watch the film instead of the book. I don't have a clever response for it yet.
10. You must be rich
Ha ha ha ha. Ha. The last Ha is a snort. Yes I am rich in creative ideas. Lets leave it at that.

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Things no one should tell you when you are leaving the country but still they will

A while back I moved to London. The transition was smooth, I packed a box of seven clean underwears, a packet of bakarwadi (it's a pune thing), few clothes and was on my way to the land of Queen (real one).

It was a new experience altogether. First thing that stuck me was how many people had wrong advise about traveling to London from India. As goes the unspoken law of char log kya kahenge, my journey to London spread across the community of people I knew (and didn't know) and they had to meet me to talk to me. How do these people even communicate? Do they have some whatsapp group that we don't know about? Or do they like have weekly conference call to get status update from each other. "Oh my son just got a job with Xx salary, what about you, report." Anyways these people kept popping everywhere with advise in abundance.

"Oh be careful about immigration officers at Heathrow airport. They provoke you," said one wise fellow, "They have a right to detain anyone who creates ruckus and deport them from the country."
"Remember, " said another, "I have heard that British Airways is a bit of racist towards Indians. Be prepared to face that."
"But you have never left your house in forever, how do you know that?" I asked.
"I read," he said, "I have a news filter that tells me all countries that are racist towards us. I think they are jealous of our rich culture and the fact that our national anthem is chosen one of the best national anthem in the world."
That jibe about national anthem went for another fifteen minutes. Before he could start about his long lost anscestor, the Prince of Nigeria, I made an excuse of going for a TB test.

The number of people Indians know from London is alarming, "My closest friend lives in London. If you have any trouble, just pop over to him," he said.
"Thanks, I'll need them when I am actually house hunting. Can you give me their contact details so that I can call them when I reach in London?"
"Sure give me your email id," he continued, "I don't have their latest contact number but I have their yahoo email Id"
I'll tell you what, I am a email racist ok, you give me your yahoo email id and I will judge you. You give me your rediffmail email id and I will start looking for your tail.

While this one going on another set of people started popping up at different times. Now these set of people were not here to advise me on what I should do in London (thankfully) but rather what my personal choices are and how me moving to london is going to throught India back into stone age.

"Why you don't love India?" he asked.
"I do..." I shrugged.
"You don't get enough here or what? Leaving your country, you learn in this country and become corporate slave for them..." and the lecture went on. The problem with that was, during is swadeshi moment I was struggling hard to find a pause to gulp my coffee.

Two weeks later I am on a 9 hour day flight (I counted) chasing the hot sun, five pegs of whisky, two hours of sleep and watching two movies back to back later, I realised, I am in London. No there was no racism on the flight but i may have troubled one flight attendant talking about my allergy to certain vegetables while gobbling on vegetarian food. Poor fellow she kept checking on me from time to time.

No one provoked me at the Heathrow airport. The immigration officer in Mumbai had more questions for me but those were mostly because he could not believe anyone would want me in London (I get that a lot).

Stepping outside the Heathrow airport and breathing the British air for the first time, I realized... dammit I forgot to pack six pair of socks.

Have you had any such experience while planning a trip? Share them in comments below
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Hacking Travel using your Smarphone

Last few years humanity has learned a valuable lesson in becoming social. Did Steve Jobs know he was changing the course of human history during the launch of iPhone we may never know but the last couple of years smart phones have successfully penetrated most of the households in this world. While most people use their expensive (and very expensive) smartphones to forward dumb meme's and make quirky jokes, the true potential of a smartphone is unlocked when you utilize it to augment your daily life and enhance your experience.

When it comes to many people start to panic. How do we go? where do we stay? will we be sharing a berth with a known serial killer? etc. These anxieties are not always valid but quite normal. Using our smartphones we can enhance our travel experience to beautify the experience even more.

Here is the list of Apps ordered by the level of priority you need in your phone when you are traveling in India or Abroad.

1. Foursquare
Although there are lot of controversy and privacy issues around using Foursquare, the value this app gives is much higher than the problems. When you visit a restaurant or a new place you can checkin into foursquare and earn badges. One biggest feature that has helped me numerous times is that it recommends places for dinner and lunch in your area. Not only that once you checkin into any place, look for tips on what to order. The self correcting internet medium will always tell you which place to dine and what to order.


2. Google Maps
Anyone who uses android phone knows the value of Google Maps. Maps helps you find direction to places around you. Google Navigation (that comes bundled with the Google Maps) will give you turn by turn direction. This App has saved me a lot of times driving in the unknown regions and so far has never misguided me, even in many parts of India. Not only that, Google Maps also gives you timings and stops for public transport including bus, metro and trains. Good option for riding the local public transport.
Note: Google Maps is an inbuilt app in your Android phones so there is no android Play link.


3. Google Now
First there was Google, now there is Now. Google Now has exceedingly becoming the number #1 app that I use whenever I am traveling. From the basic information like weather in the city you have landed to the local updates, currency conversion, language translation and many more other valuable information. What is more, at the gate of airports Google Now keeps your tickets handy and gives you updates about your flight right there on your palm.

4. Google Translate
One of the biggest challenges we face while traveling to a different country is the language. Google Translate helps here tremendously. If you are traveling internationally, not only does it translate text from english to local language it also does it vice versa. It also gives you the phonetic spellings in english to mimic the language. For some languages, it also reads out the translated text.
I used Google Translate extensively during my trip to thailand. You should have seen the look on face of my taxi driver.

5. Google Googles
Wouldn't it be cool if you knew everything Google knew? Google Googles unlocks the potential of your phone camera with its massive data base to give you relevant information. Need to translate a hotel menu? Just take a snap, need to know more about that monument you just saw? Take a snap and let google translate it for you. My favorite feature is that it helps me get the gist of the book by scanning the barcode, helping you choose faster.

6. Ixigo Road Trips
I mostly use this app during my road trips in India. This app helps you find fuel station, food eateries, dhabas (local traditional village cuisine) along the way. It is quite handy to locate cheap hotels, motels if you want to crash for few hours.


7. Meru Cabs/ Ola Cabs
Traveling around India and need a quick airport transfer? Meru and Ola cabs have their respective apps on android that help you book a cab without the hassle of a call. One of the best feature of the Ola cab app I find is that it shows you the location of nearest cab and time it will take for it to reach you should you book now. Very helpful for last minute travel plans. Although many people prefer to book a prepaid taxi at the airport, Ill prefer these apps because they send me a receipt in my email after the trip.



8. Hotels.com
Gives you a list of hotels in the city you want to drive in. It helps you locate hotels based on ratings, accepting of credit card etc. During my trip to Ooty, I wanted to pay using Amex, I used hotel.com to search for an Amex paying hotel in a jiffy.

9. Zomato
Craving for some authentic cuisine? Need to have chinese at 2 am in the morning (very unlikely you will find in India) but Zomato helps you find the restaurant based on your cravings and the time. What is open now is also a good feature to find out open restaurants around you.

10. Tripit Travel Organizer
One of the biggest headaches during traveling for business or fun is maintaining a lot of documents. Travel itineraries, hotel booking and other important documents. It also spices up your itineraries with other important info like weather updates. This saves a lot of headaches of finding your tickets, plans all the time and makes your travel a little less hassle.


Thats it from me today. It was recently brought to my notice that I use Apps a lot, that brought the idea about sharing my phone apps with the world. This column will be published monthly and discuss apps on Android, iPhone and Salesforce.  
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