Open code is irrelevant to Android's success

Put differently, open code or not Android is going to succeed. iPad uses iOS and it is entirely proprietary and has very large community of developers are developing apps for the platform, Similarly, though Google said Android will be open source, the strategy seems to develop versions of the OS and then make the source available to big partners not to all comers though. The way Android has gone past iOS in number of phone that use it, this free source or not issue is not really going to matter. developers will work with the Android for the phone or the tablet avatar.

IT departments beware though, these devices are going to come into the enterprise and your network. Read about issues in the referred article.

Why open code is irrelevant to Android's success 

iPad 2 announcement-Reviews

iPad 2 announcement created quite a buzz. Most like the iPad 2 too. We have already covered one that likes Motorola Xoom. Basically the issue comes down to iPad is real, it is here. What really matters is how soon other competitive products can come out and offer a better price/ performance spot. With iPad and Xoom offering 2 cameras and powerful graphics power, every one of the competitor will have to offer these. Read the detailed buzz via the reference link.

iPad 2 announcement: Review roundup - Computerworld Blogs

Apple's iPad 2 Launched in Early Mar

iPad was a huge phenomenon. iPad 2 has followed soon. Steve Jobs came back from medical absence to launch the product. It is certainly better. According to Job's estimate the new dual core A5 has double the performance and something like 9 times graphics capability from the earlier version. That is a huge improvement. In a post in the recent past we have seen how the Motorola Xoom might be better. However, let us see what the market decides! WiFi and 3G versions are available. With the front camera and FaceTime apps has a great impact. The device is lighter and thinner. We'll follow both Xoom and iPad to and see who becomes the leader!

Steve Jobs launches Apple's iPad 2 - Computerworld

Motorola Xoom versus the iPad 2

According to this blog item in Computerworld, the Motorola Xoom is better than iPad. Originally the writer compared the Xoom with the original iPad on eight counts. Even when iPad came out he finds that the Xoom is still better! While jury is still out on which is really better, quite often the arguments border on religious fervor, we'll have to wait and see what wins in the market.


The original eight counts of better features were the OS, better hardware, better screen resolution,  front and rear cameras, better browser, it is able to play Flash, no Apple big brother to decide what you should see or not and apps are better on it.

Honeycomb or the Android 3.0is meant for tablets and improved quite a from the earlier versions. As easy to use as the iPad OS it can be customized and is rich in features. Notifications are handled better and multitasking and switching between apps is easier. NVidia Tegra 2, 2 core processor gives you better graphic capabilities. That includes 3D games. iPad processor is a single core one.Xoom wins over iPad with a 10 inch, wide aspect, 1280x 800 pixels vs. 9.7 inch with 1024x 768 pixels.

Tow cameras lets video chat to be done easily while making photo/video taking quite easy.Chrome on the Xoom with tabbed browsing is better than the Safari on the iPad. Motorola has not barred Adobe flash, so you can get to see all the flash content and download them as you like. Xoom does not have Apple breathing down you neck and decide what is good for you! Google's built-in apps, including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar, is better than IPad comes with.  Xoom's Tegra 2 chip, lets you use vector graphics and 3D rendering in Google Maps.

That was in early March. Then came the iPad2 announcement and the author Preston Gralla still finds the Xoom to be the better one. iPad2 moved to 2 core processor and 2 camera configuration. So that was a bit of catch up. He is still not happy with whatever tweaks have been done to iOS 4.3 but Honeycomb remains better still. Xoom advantages of the apps, no whims of Apple affecting you and ability to still enjoy flash remains advantages according to the author. I, too, think he is probably right. But, as I have said it still may get decided on entirely different reasons. These advantages will remain, however.

Motorola Xoom versus the iPad 2 --- the Xoom is a clear winner - Computerworld Blogs

One More Batch of Students Pass Through Our Portals

When I was looking around my facebook page, one of our last year's student came up and we had a chat.I suddenly realized how fast one whole year have passed. Right now we are in the middle of that phase where the 2011 pass out have completed their exams and over the last couple of days been leaving the campus.

Last year the placement scene was bad and this guy I was chatting with, had to go over to Bangalore and got a very good placement. This year situation is a lot better, yet there will be quite a few who would have to seek employment off-campus. We were actually chatting about how just going over to Bangalore and other such centers will let people find jobs. Couple of questions arise from there. Why can't these people find jobs here in West Bengal? The long time ruling party did not do much in terms of attracting these IT companies into this state. The party was actively opposed to this so called "automation" and the state was synonymous with bandhs, strikes and trouble in general. Now that that has changed, hope the scenario will change.

Second question was the quality of the engineers that are being produced in the country. A Mckinsey report had said only 25% of engineering graduates are employable. West Bengal did not have the private engineering colleges as in many other states for a long while. Over the last decade though these colleges proliferated and were put under the umbrella of the WBUT, the technical university. Strangely, these colleges as a lot seem to produce engineers even below the national average. This university has almost a 100% pass rate. I cannot imagine that could be good for anybody.

All the subjects have a 30% internal evaluation quota. Thje purpose must have been good when set up. But, what has really happened is the marks obtained by students are not any indicator of their quality but an attempt by the colleges to keep the pass rate high. Students get a very high set of marks out of this 30 marks. Thereafter they just have to pick up 10 to 15% may be a little more to achieve the 40% pass marks.

Thus, this has given rise to a strange phenomenon. Final year students, particularly in the last semester, do not attend classes. They demand and get reasonable numbers in the these internal evaluations. The balance 10-15-25 marks out of 70 is easy to get, thanks to various question-answer help books available in the market. Students have tough balancing job of course. They have to manage placement interview etc. But, all the same, not doing any class at all cannot be good! Do they learn any of these last semester subjects? Doubtful.Yet, every year we are churning out a few hundered of them, from each of these colleges. Where are we going!?

But then that is just one side of the problem. Most places there is a problem with teaching too. Teachers quite often are not up to the job. We manage to get the syllabus completed somehow. We are unable provide enough effort to get the students interested or make them learn. It is rather a vicious cycle. We go through this year after year, when can we turn all these into a virtuous circle, if at all!!