When the whole world is going androidy, I – an early adopter and still a fan of Android – switched to the iOS world.

If you have already made up your mind to get a Samsung Galaxy S3 ( kickass phone ) or an iPhone5 read no further – go ahead and buy it. Don’t break your head trying to decide which one is best – both are great choices – its a win win situation!

If you are trying to make up your mind – here is what made me switch from Android to iOS. And actually it has got something to do with the Business Philosophy of Samsung.

First – my disappointment with Samsung Galaxy S : my first Android phone I got in 2010.

In the initial days there was a noticeable lag. Some problem with the file system. I put a Voodoo Lag Fix which solved the problem. The phone came with Eclairs.

Then I waited and waited to upgrade to Froyo – the next version of Android. Kies – the amazing piece of software ever written – never showed me the magic upgrade button. So I was sitting with Eclair while the world was Froyoing.

Then came Gingerbread – and Samsung refused to release Gingerbread for SGS – as they were peddling Galaxy S2 ( which I recommended my Brother in Law and now I am not so sure )

Then I read about Cyanogenmod and these hackers had released a Gingerbread version for SGS – I started the whole effort of “jailbreaking” the phone – and after one disastrous attempt ( http://venkat2.blogspot.com/2011/09/android-adventures-how-i-bricked-my.html ) I finally managed to upgrade the phone to Gingerbread ( CyanogenMod on Samsung Galaxy S and 3 Button fix ).

Then later I could upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. Life was good but not ok.

The phone will hang intermittently. It would at times just die randomly. At times I will call some number by mistake and will try to cancel – but the phone will not respond – the call will go through. It was never consistent. And no good music player. Sigh.

Samsung is to be blamed – SGS is a nice handset – but Samsung is interested in profits and they refuse to give the latest Android OS – so we will throw their handsets in a landfill and go purchase their latest phone. I will not blame the nice hackers at Cyanogenmod – they are God Sent to us – reverse engineering and trying to make old handsets work so they don’t go to landfills unnecessarily.

iPhone envy

In April 2012, the wife – a long time Blackberry user – decided to join the touch revolution and we went to Croma in Bangalore. She played with the Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy S3 – and decided on the Note – she has a bigger screen to browse and also it came with a Stylus – good choice we thought.

And if I remember correctly she even asked the Croma sales store person to bill the Note.

Then I said lets try out these Windows phone and iPhone – and she tried Windows phone. It was mediocre. Then she took the iPhone in hand – said it snuggly fit in her hand – and started typing.  That was the decision point for her – typing was perfect. It was 10k more than Note, she wanted the iPhone but did not want to put in that much money as we were shifting to Mumbai that month and had no clue how the financial situation was going to be.

After almost an hour of deliberation during which she even called a friend of hers who was a long time iPhone user – and finally we got the iPhone.

The more I started playing with the iPhone – the more I liked it. It had the right amount of things – and it all worked well. No fancy widgets, no fancy lock screens – simple straight and consistent. It just did the job and let you get on with your life / work. The phone upgraded itself wirelessly. Apple makes stuff which simply works.

iPhone5

Then I read about iPhone5 being released. Lot of expectations and everyone was disappointed. I was actually quite happy as the phone was not a revolution but just another iteration of the previous iPhone.

First few versions of Apple products tend to be buggy – either poor hardware specs or faults ( eg. antennagate ) – but as the products mature it becomes really refined and almost perfect.

MacBook Pros ( the ones prior to the Retinas ) – are at that stage. The keyboard, battery life, screen adjustment, touchpad, the fit and finish – everything is inch perfect. You just need to reinstall the OS once a year to have the same experience.

I knew iPhone5 is going to be like the MacBook Pro – as Apple Engineers would have ironed out all the chinks – and also this phone will live with me for the next 3 to 4 years – as Apple always supports their old hardware. At home we have an iMac purchased in 2005 – still chugging along fine.

I was eagerly waiting to feel the iPhone5. The day it got released went to Croma and played with it. Liked the feel and responsiveness. Placed the order and got it on my Birthday!

Life with iPhone5

Initially Maps was missing and was a major handicap. Since I am still discovering Mumbai I rely on Maps a lot and Apple Maps is useless.

Google released Maps and that completed the migration. I don’t miss anything from the Android world anymore.

iOS is fast responsive and consistent. It never hangs or hesitates. Here is a list of things that I got out of the box without any hacking around.

iTunes Wireless Sync
iTunes Remote App
Photo Stream Sync to iPhoto
Contacts Sync
Podcasts
iTunes U
Do not Disturb ( love this one as I am a light sleeper and ICICI typically sends NEFT SMS notifications at 2 AM )
Nice keyboard that autocorrects ( I have horrible butter fingers – and have tried swype, swiftkey but nothing comes close to the iOS keyboard in its guesses and letter touch accuracy).

And icing on the cake – Apple released iTunes Store to India. Purchased AR Rahman’s “Kadal” the day it was released – it wirelessly synced to my iPhone and was able to play immediately – it was magical.

All of the above can be done in an Android phone – but needs some tinkering and searching for the correct App.

Will I recommend an iPhone to non geeks – Absolutely.

Will I recommend an iPhone to a geek – not so sure.

I am in this cross roads of my life. Nowadays I find less time to hack things – perhaps my next phone might be an Android Phone or an Ubuntu Phone.

Sharing a few thoughts / observations on the TiE Summit held on Dec 20,21 at Goregoan, Mumbai.

Also these are not exactly their words – I am looking at my notes and I only have a few phrases. This is a venkatised version of it – essence is the same.

Kunal Shah of Freecharge : We are all engineers. We are good at solving problems. But where we suck at is defining the problem. Brilliant!

Kunal/Vijayanand of Proto and another Gentleman – didnt note his name : They discussed on traction and finally someone gave a nice sound byte : Traction is when you get customers without spending. That was a superb definition!

Ronnie Screwala, Founder UTV Group : First step to start something is big. But don’t sit there basking on it. So many first steps have to be still taken  – getting funded, forming a bigger team.. it never ends. [ Perhaps thats why we call them as a Startup!  ]

He gave more tips

• Invest in Teams
• Get a good vision / mission – this gives clarity more than anything else.
• Timing is important at every step – including Exits
•  Scale > Control 
•  1 good trait of an entrepreneur – he is a good listener
•  Attract good talent – spend time on hiring the right team – even if it takes 6 months and multiple coffee shop visits. [ So true – keep reading about this courting process in Silicon valley ]

Ajay Piramal – has a pharmaceutical company and others – and is one of the top 50 Richest people in India [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajay_Piramal ]

•  Stressed on the importance of Values. He gave a great definition of Integrity – Integrity is the alignment of thought, speech and action. [ Simple and straight. ]
•  1 good trait of an entrepreneur – courage to take a decision. 
•   Convert challenges to opportunities
•   Be passionate but also be dispassionate from results. Focus on action and leave results out. He gave a supporting story on how they dealt with their acquisition.
•  Associate with people of high value
• Avoid “slippery slope” – I will do a bit of this small short cut or concession – and this will begin small but will become big in the end.

Ganesh Natarajan, CEO Zansar technologies

• Innovation is destroying paradigms
• Dont assume that you have a great solution for today. It will change and your solution will become invalid ( explained how Aptech was no longer relevant when colleges started having IT in their curriculum )
• Scale quickly – that is what entrepreneurship is all about [ huh.. hate that word scale ]

Alque Padamsee [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyque_Padamsee ]

He gave the best talk of the entire event.

Leadership through Innovation

• Innovate
• Enthuse not enforce
• Vision Statement

There were 2 more sessions I attended.

One was Mahesh Murthy, Poonam Pandey and Ramesh Srivats – all Twitter superstars.

They brought Poonam Pandey just for the crowd? Boo – the time could have been well spent with another twitter celebrity.

• Poonam Pandey earns 80,000 per sponsored tweet. She does one such tweet per day – and a 17 member team manages her account – so what did the bunch of hard working entrepreneurs learn from it?
• All 3 have everything to gain from their twitter presence – so if the other two tried to make you believe that twitter is a good addiction etc.. – don’t listen to them.

 There was one more session where Alok Kejriwal, Vishal Gondal, PK Gulati and an IAN member came on stage. It was good – nice sound bytes but I got distracted in an email/sms chat with a customer.

Overall the event was good. Met lot of unsung entrepreneurs – fighting their own battles. I am sure 10 years from now most of these unsung heroes will be on stage – inspiring the next batch of entrepreneurs. 

The delhi events going on are as if it was scripted right out of a poorly made Political themed movie.

In Rang De Basanti, the mom of a fallen soldier gets lathi charged. A similar photo was captured a few days back and got circulated.

A police stamping the face of a kid lying on the ground – apparently stolen from a different protest is now being circulated by the protestors on Police atrocity.

Honourable Prime Minister addresses the nation – reads out a lifeless 2 para speech in English assuring Security for all women and utters  “Theek hai” to check with the cameraman if it recorded fine which the editors missed to cut off – and it has become the new joke.

A police constable who collapsed because of Heart Attack and unfortunately died has now taken the center stage as cases have been booked against 8 kids – even though the Doctors have said there was no internal or external injury and cause of death is Cardio Arrest.

I doubt if anyone still remembers why this all started. The poor 23 year old still struggling to live has been forgotten.

Its sickening to the core. Who are we fighting against?

India against India?

How did things spiral down so fast.

I strongly feel that the enemy is within each one of us. It is not external – it is not another country, not a religion, not a person, not an idea – its in different shades of everything – hidden deep inside us.

Yesterday I saw a well dressed lady take her well bred cute pup for a walk near the Saree shops stretch near Marine Lines in Mumbai – and the dog pooped – she dragged the dog away not bothering to scoop the poop and put it in a waste basket.

I was angry and even had the holier than thou attitude thinking I would not let such a thing happen if it was I with that pup.

I should have gently talked to her – humorously perhaps – pointing to her that we should not be trashing our country. Or I should have suggested her to carry a waste cover all without hurting her ego.

Instead I did nothing – went my way. That lady and dog will be out today and will be doing this deed for the next 15 years. I could have stopped it forever with a simple gesture. I did not.

How many such things that I – as one person – a simple honest gesture – can start doing – so an impact will still be made.

I should start discovering these streaks within me – the laziness or anger or ego – which prevents me from doing the right thing.

It is time I discover the Enemy within me – before I start pontificating to the Government how they should run it.

The past few days I am reading news and protests centred around the atrocity committed on a 23 year old College Student by 6 drunken men. Right now college students in Delhi are fighting with Delhi Police demanding harsh sentences to the accused. Perhaps their anger is not towards the 6 accused – but the general malaise that has spread on how a woman is treated in India. Perhaps they are demanding for a draconian law to punish the criminals.

Go back a few months – Anna Hazare was on a fast unto death to brink Janlokpal bill to curb corruption. Anna Hazare has a clear plan – have a good law and that will curb corruption.

In both these instances will a law help in preventing both these crimes?

Can a law change a society?

Indian Men should respect Woman and accept them as their equals if not more.

We should stop taking short cuts and not use our unfair advantage ( be it a last name that I have or a big fat wallet ) in order to trample upon others.

Can a law bring the change in the above two scenarios?

The more I think about this the more helpless I feel. All the sound bytes, twitter feeds are full of anger and vitriol. But I don’t see any solution.

What would have Gandhi done? He fought Casteism, Hindu Muslim communal clashes – apart from fighting the British.

How do you change a Society?

Gandhi is the father of the nation. He preached ahimsa. Got freedom for India. A compelling movie was made by Hollywood that went to win Oscars..

I did not know this man’s greatness till yesterday.

Blame the boring History books of this country – they never taught how cool this man is. I was busy mugging the dates and the events to get marks – actually used to hate these history classes.

I clocked the last 2 runs at an incredible pace ( by my standards )

10Kms in 1 Hour 2 minutes.

If you are a pro I can hear your chuckle. But this is a 37 year old who had not run or worked out till 35 years of his life – and was never those athletic types.

And here I am – clocking better and better timings.

July 2012 I did 10K in 1 Hour 8 minutes

May 2012 I did 10K in 1 Hour 18 minutes

Nov 2011 I did 10K in 1 Hour 35 minutes

Feels as if my pace is increasing. The real reason for better timings is nowadays I don’t take any breaks while running – not even slowing down for a walk. I am getting efficient in running. My pace seems to be the same.

I am growing well when it comes to running!

And this makes me happier.

But this happiness will not last long. I will be gloating over this 10k timings for another 2 or 3 runs and my happiness will wane. Then I will be setting a new target – either 10k under 1 hour or 12.5k.

Why I am doing this? Why am I not satisfied with my new timings? Am I greedy?

This running-growth-happiness is – I believe – is human evolution in a nut-shell. We always keep looking for faster, stronger and higher records.

Recently I heard an Oxford University lecture on brain – “Dopamine” floods the brain when the records get broken and makes the brain happy. And the brain wants more and more records to get broken because of this. This is a positive feedback cycle – which in turns lifts mankind as a whole.

Marathon ( 42 Kms )  was once the ultimate test for human endurance. But the last few years runners are pushing 100Kms and more.

Take any other field – we have invented Flights and can travel to anywhere around the globe quickly – but why aren’t we resting on our laurels – why are we exploring Space Travel – why do we rejoice when records get broken – be it the Olympics or the world record for maximum hot dogs eaten?

Because in Growth lies our Happiness.

And in Growth lies our evolution to a better species.

Sorry if I have disappointed you since i did not touch on the negative aspects of growth that leads to  global warming, amassing illegal wealth, corruption etc. in this post – I am on a runners high now 🙂

Few weeks back I was reunited with Starbucks. And here is the story.

Way back in 2001, I was a FOB ( Fresh out of the Boat ), in Louisiana State University ( LSU ), Baton Rouge. While roaming around the campus I came across this Coffee shop in the campus Bookshop which was serving coffee at 4$. And it had a funny name – Starbucks.

Right opposite it was McDonalds – and for 4.5$ I could get a good filling burger, french fries and a large coke drink – enough for that day’s hunger needs. ( it was 2001 – I was still young and was burning Bank of India loan money and was in the midst of an economic downturn in my life. ). I added a mental note to check this coffee shop someday.

I don’t remember when I had my first cuppa – would be after I got an assistantship most probably – but for a coffee addict the taste and caffeine kick was out of the world. I remember I had a Caramel Frappuccino and it had stayed from that day since as my favourite.

Much later, in 2006 when I started work at ThoughtWorks, Chicago, when I stepped out of the train station there was a Starbucks. It became my daily ritual to pick up a Grande Non-Fat Cappuccino – yes I became health conscious and reserved Frappuccino for those special occasions. After a few days (  or weeks ), the Barristas knew my pattern and the moment they saw me enter the door, they will immediately place an order. I will join the queue and by the time I reached the cash register, the drink will be ready and I will get it in my hand immediately ( other muggles had to wait for their drink after paying!).

Forgot to mention – everywhere I went they will have problem calling out my name or writing it on the cup – Venkat was so difficult for Americans to pronounce!

Then in mid 2006 we moved back to India ( http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in/2006/06/moving-back-to-india.html ). Starbucks was #10 in the list of things I missed the most. Perhaps I can strike it out now.

Every time when I got into a CCD or a Barista – I would wonder – when will Starbucks come to India. Sometime in December 2011 I read a news item that Starbucks in Partnership with Tata is coming to India.

Later I read the first Starbucks is to open in Mumbai in October 2012. I was even more excited – as I am in Mumbai now.

I could not go to the first day opening show – but went on the 2nd week. Took a train from Kandivali to Churchgate ( 1+ hours ), was a nice 20minutes walk from Churchgate to Fort, stood in line and ordered – you can guess it – a Caramel Frappuccino. Waited for the drink to arrive – the Barristas this time had no problem calling out my name.

Sangeeta found a table and chair in the mezzannine floor. Settled down and took the first sip after so many years.

Bliss!

Yesterday morning I woke up to see the news of the passing away of Moorthy Uncle in our Apartment Complex. He was an enthusiastic retired Bank Manager – full of knowledge and vision – and it’s a big loss to our community.  He was an initiator of eco-projects and also kept a reality check on us in our Association dealings.

I was sad initially but then started thinking – every year some 10% of the people I know are bound to pass away. When Steve Jobs passed away I got sad. Some day the other people I “worship” are all going to pass away.

Wouldn’t life be too depressing? – to wake up every day to mourn.

Perhaps it’s time I take a second look at death and look in its eyes. The souls who are here are done with this adventure – Jobs created the PC industry, Tablet industry, Phone industry, Moorthy Uncle in his stint as a Bank Official must have made a difference to many lives who I will never know – but I know that he started eco projects in our Apartment Complex.  Now they are all off to their next adventure.

This brings us to the 2 different philosophies on death.

Eastern Philosophy

It’s about re-incarnation and the soul moves on from one set of experiences to the other. The soul experiences all it can in this lifetime, and learns new things – and this does not go waste. These experiences/learnings get carried over to the next life time. That’s why some people can always do certain unbelievable things that makes us wonder and say “he just did it as if he was born knowing it”.

This teaches us to treat nature with care. I better save this earth, as next lifetime when I come here I need to breathe.

Western Philosophy

For a long time I believed this side of the story. This life is one shot, it’s one opportunity that we have got – so we better make good use of it and not squander it away.

Try as much as possible to “experience” and “live” life. Make the most of this one opportunity to experience life. After this there is going to be none. zilch.

Love this thought – and in fact have been living my life based on this. I got bored after a couple of years in my salaried life ( TCS 2 years, LSU 2 years, Compuware 1 year, Thoughtworks 2.5 years ) and got an urge/itch to move on to a new adventure.  Exception being 3Five8 – my startup – this is my fifth year – and each day is still an adventure.

There are some down sides to this western philosophy – shining example is the Obama land – they live life like there is no tomorrow – over consumption, destroying hectares of land for a Sunday morning coupon newspaper, gas guzzlers… and in spite of the Katrinas and Sandys they are still debating – is the globe really warming?

The good thing about this is – when Steve Jobs got to know he had little time left of this life – he did more of the living. He was so focussed he pulled out an iPhone and iPad – and set the entire human civilisation on a different path. ( Ok thats a little too hyperbolic but one cannot deny that he made a huge dent ). Had he just given up and sat depressed and prayed for a longer and healthier stint next time – what a bummer our life would have been. We will all still have the horrible touch screens of Nokia phones and twitter/facebook might not even have taken off.

What is the takeaway for me?

When someone passes away – instead of feeling sad and depressed – I will try to know more about the adventure they had in this lifetime. The difference they made to others.  Talk to their closest friends and relatives – about the moments they had together. Appreciate and remember their adventure.

Try to find areas of inspiration. There is a reason why everyone is here and try to find out the reason this soul was here. We are all here to keep pushing mankind to the next level – one step at a time – getting inspired and inspiring others.

So death is a lot more than mourning and depression..

iPhone5 is around the corner.

Rewinding back to 2008 when iPhone was introduced in India. I was working in ThoughtWorks that time, and I badly wanted the iPhone. I had read so much about it and I was in awe.

And the price was quoted – ( around 30k – dont remember ) and I was floored. I didnt buy one as I was hoarding cash towards doing a startup. I envied the iPhones which some of the lucky bachelor guys had splurged themselves with.

Fast forward to 2010 – iPhone3 was introduced at around 36k I guess. I went and bought Samsung Galaxy S for 28k which looked like iPhone and had this Android thingy on it.

And it was one of the best buys. I started on 2G and could SSH to my servers smoothly.  Later 3G came along and there was no looking back. I was available round the clock – I can process all my emails, view attachments, chat during the long train journeys between Mumbai and Bangalore, could upload Photo tweets, download podcasts while running if I was bored – in short – could go around freely without lugging my laptop.

2 years down the line, I am reading about iPhone5 once again ( they are quoting 45k ) and Samsung Galaxy S3 is around 33k and will drop down further after iPhone5 comes to the market.

The heart still says iPhone. The mind says SGS3. I am torn.

I use OS X primarily and appreciate the nice touches and “appley” things – these are present in the iPhone too – both the OSs are merging. Also the reminders, notes – all are seamlessly synced.

However Google is now innovating like how Apple used to. The notifications, easy access to turning on/off wifi,gps etc.. changing the bottom perm icons, the lock screen displays – so many things can be customised – which cannot be done in an iPhone.

But still I long for the consistent and solid interface of the iPhone. The apps all have the same responsiveness ( perhaps because they uni task unlike in Android ). iTunes is there – ( I use double twist in Android but it sucks ). The ones that I use the most are there in iPhone.

However, in the Android world I have been riding on the Cyanogen mod ROMs for the last 1 year or so. I like the “hacker” satisfaction I get on my SGS. Will I get it in iPhone5?

I am still not in the market for a replacement phone yet. The trusty SGS is still chugging along fine. I am on Ice Cream Sandwich and very much satisfied. The phone feels almost complete ( except for a good music player).

But the geek in me is getting restless. Who will win – iPhone or SGS3 or the old war horse SGS. Stay tuned!

Updated as on Nov 12,2012 : iDid. More to follow