Hardware

The Adam has been in the works for more than two years (The first blog post was in April 2009). And right from the beginning, they went with the best hardware platform available - nVidia Tegra with a dual core CPU, irresistible Pixel Qi display, a lot of RAM for a tablet, plenty of connectivity options all in a sleek package(Complete specs). And all this translates into real world advantages - longer battery life due to the Trans-reflective display, a camera that can be used as both front and back facing capture, HDMI output, and a full set of connectivity options including 3G.

When your product is aimed at tech savvy Android users, it better be right on top of the hardware game. Selling all this under $500 seems like a gamble, but NI have probably realized that its the software ecosystem that makes more money in the long run as in the case of App store and the Android Market. Also, they probably needed all this power for their custom UI on top of Android, the Eden. Unfortunately, by the time it became available to the consumers, tablets with similar/better hardware and by well known manufacturers have already hit the market. While the Adam's hardware is not aged by any standard, it cannot boast of being the best hardware platform.

Software

Choosing Android as the platform isn't something that would've take a long time to decide on. After the runaway success of the iPad, almost all competitors have adopted Android, partially due to the fact that there aren't many good alternatives for a tablet OS. Also, owing to its "Open source" roots and a wide support by the developer community, it would mean more developer and user love, which translates into more sales. The Adam currently runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with custom enhancements and applications. Android 3.0 Honeycomb was released this year with major improvements to the UI for tablets. In fact, Honeycomb is specifically targeted at tablet manufacturers and hasn't hit the phone format yet. NI has been fortunate enough to get access to it as Google has started to pick and choose the manufacturers it is giving away the source code to (The source to honeycomb hasn't been made public yet). Customizing Eden for honeycomb will take a while, now that it comes bundled with UI components for tablets. That said, it might not matter a lot as Eden has been a major selling point for NI and they wouldn't want to throw all that hard work away.

NI has been rolling out patches for major issues, as well as performance/feature enhancements. While it might not have been very quick, they have at least shown the inclination to support the device in the long run, which is important for them to build up a reputation in the market.

Marketing

This is where things got real bad. The launch at CES was a bummer. Very few review sites had a hands on and fewer still had a preview on their blogs. The launch didn't even include actual demos of the device and available images were mostly mockups. When you want to be taken seriously, you had better have a few working devices for tech journalists and reviewers at your launch. There was a lot of anger from fans, mostly due to the complete lack of communication and genuine pics/videos from the company. It seemed to be yet another vapourware, and people quickly grew disinterested and started focusing on other upcoming android tablets which had, by then started flooding the market.

With constant delays at every phase of the project, the team should have planned accordingly for the launch. Had they released it a month later with working review pieces, detailed demos and hands on videos, the reaction from the tech world would've been better. Also, there is hardly any online/offline marketing. When you do not provide enough visibility for your new product, don't expect much in return. Word of mouth publicity and social networking can only sell so much. NI should definitely put in some effort and do some advertising, especially in growing economies like India and China, where cost of advertising isn't as high as in the developed world.

Sales & Support

When you screw up your marketing and still have your pre-orders booked out, you are counting your blessings. But then that wasn't smooth either. Constant delays, website and payment gateway issues, lack of communication regarding shipping delays put off many potential buyers. Manufacturing should have been handled better, and support folks should have kept buyers updated on shipping issues. Pleading that you are a startup will earn only so much sympathy and understanding from your customers. Plainly put, the whole buying experience needs to be fixed, and support has to be expanded. An online support forum is always good, but getting knowledgeable staff and a quick response is crucial too.

Applications

One thing NI seems to be doing right, is getting in a lot of applications on their device. They have been constantly adding newer applications and enhancing the existing ones. Android lovers will be kept happy as kernel sources are open sourced (github), and community support at XDA is just getting started.

The Adam still is a decent device, but NI needs to pull itself together very quickly and fix its sales and support issues. The jump to honeycomb is crucial for the future of the platform, even if their custom skin isn't ready. They can always go the Galaxy Tab 10.1 way, and add the UX customization later on top of a default Andriod experience. I do hope they try and expand the market for the Adam before planning on a successor. In India, where the company is based, the tablet market is booming with the iPad2 and Galaxy Tabs, but the Adam isn't even known outside the enthusiast circle. The faster they move, the better it is for the company and for other hardware startups here.

How can anyone expect companies to give all their sensitive and confidential data to a black hole in the sky?

If you are thinking that cost-cutting is one of the major advantages of Cloud Computing then I guess you’re compromising your security of data with cost-cutting which is a serious issue to be thought about. By the way, cybercrime is on the march as online predators deploy armies of “botnets” and computers are hijacked without owner’s consent these days.

On a second thought, a lot of smaller companies and startups who don’t have a data security policy in place, and invest very little on security, cloud would be an attractive option to them. Complicating issues further, one can’t go and demand for a separate server or a processor for each and every individual customers. It’s a “virtual” machine – a slice of a machine with its own operating system that is partitioned off by the software from other customers. Ultimately, there is a sharing of processing and storage space. And so the analogy of the title :D

All said, Google will offer cloud-computing services designed specifically for U.S government agencies. Sounds paradoxical eh?

The beginning

It all started with the Xperia X1, released in Feb 2008 that caught the attention of everyone. With a functional touchscreen+QWERTY keypad, a different approach to the UI(panels), an unmatched display, a reasonably fast processor+RAM running WinMo 6.1 to boot, it seemed that SE had managed to pack everything sweet into a comfortable form factor. With expectations running sky high, SE did finally manage to deliver something that no one had done then, albeit at a high price.

Meanwhile, 2008 turned out to a year SE would love to forget, keeping in trend with the economic slowdown.

Sony Ericsson are reporting that for Q4 of 2008 sales were down a mighty 23% on last year, that  margins are down 15% on last year and they have stated that they had a net loss for the period of €187 million.(Detailed report here )

Yet, the Xperia X1 managed to do better than most of its siblings. Expectations were running high on the successor to X1, with news that SE had joined the Open Handset Alliance adding fuel to the speculations that they were going the Andriod way. With a regular product lineup that only offered incremental features, SE had to take a significant hit on its sales numbers and profit margins for 2008 .

2008-2009

From Q2 2008 to Q3 2009, SE managed to release updated phones in the walkman, cybershot lineup. Phones such as the G900, W705, C902 kept the competition alive in the mid-end segment. Although their numbers aren't known, one can take a wild guess that they would've done pretty well considering SE manages to sell mid range products in good numbers.

With no other high end phone released (other than the X1), the W995 managed to have its fair share of glory. With a 8.1 MP camera and the walkman tag, it managed to combine the best of the 'C' and 'W' series. The phone did reasonably well from June 2009 till the next wave of SE products were released in October. Incidentally, this also marked the end of the 'C' and 'W' lineups as SE switched to a different branding strategy.

New Wave

After Xperia X1 sold in decent numbers, and the smartphone market growing strongly with the availability of newer platforms and devices,  it was inevitable for SE to adopted a new strategy. Not only did it need a new flagship product, but also a diverse enough product range that would do good in all segments.

Around May 2009, rumors began to spread that they were working on something big - a successor to the X1 running Andriod. What was called as Rachael, and then X3, was finally christened "Xperia X10" when it was officially announced in November 2009. It would not be appropriate to call it X1's successor in the strict sense because it isn't a QWERTY phone (that title will probably goto the Xperia X2). The X10 has a list of firsts for SE - the first with a Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor, and the first phone on Andriod. It was directly pitted against the likes of iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre, and the N97. While the ommission of Andriod 2.0(donut) will definitely be a big let down, the probable reason for it would be that they are having trouble porting their custom UI for donut and would rather focus on shipping the X10 on time.

Meanwhile, the 'C' and 'W' series made way for a new strategy where SE tried putting the best of both worlds into a single product. The clear distinction beween the two series is now gone as both the Satio and Aino have high end cameras, and media capabilities (in addition to the smartphone capabilities of the Satio). Also, the true successor to the X1 came in form of the Xperia X2, which offered incremental upgrades and WinMo 6.5 to keep the fanboys happy.

Of particular interest is the Satio. It is the second 12mp mobile on the market, losing out only to the Samsung Pixon. Leaving that aside, it has almost the same hardware specs as the iPhone 3GS and runs the tried and tested Symbian S60 5th edition. Although S60.5 isn't the best in terms of touch optimization and response, the fact that Symbian is the most popular smartphone OS with thousands of applications readily available will play to its advantage. Putting a high end camera and media capabilities into a smartphone is a gamble - it may be a smart move if they manage to do both well. Unfortunately the homebrew UI isn't tried and tested, and the fact that it runs on S60.5 which isn't particularly smooth itself, might just put off prospective buyers. With that said, its about time SE had a bit of luck, and the Satio seems like it deserves every bit of it.

Final Words

The announcement of 4 top end products targeted equally at the trigger happy, music junkies, enthusiasts and business executives, SE has tried to get its wheels moving. With varied platforms like WinMo, Andriod and Symbian, and high end hardware specs, it has forced mobile buyers to take a good hard look. No more losing out on prospective customers because they don't like the mobile platform - there is now something for everyone. With the Satio and Aino already out on the market, the X10 and X2 are expected to be released in early Jan 2010. This does mean than they will lose out on the high spending Christmas and New Year weeks, but its always better to release a polished product than repent later.

SE does have something to worry about. All these products are top of the line and there is nothing new for the lower and mid segments. Was this a conscious decision or were they too busy focusing only on their high end lineup is a question that will have to be answered. If they can put out patches and bug fixes for the next 6 months and keep customers happy, 2010 may just turn out to be a good year for the failing giant. Will it take them back to the glory years of the K750i? Only time will tell.

It all started when Simon King, an English graduate working at an American University was fed up with not knowing how his team was doing. What began as a network of fans over Chat instantaneously grew about to become the world’s largest cricket website.

Founded in 1993, the technology then was quite basic. It had one person recording the score and the other generating a flat file. With more demand from the ardent, 21st Century fans regarding the statistical analysis and more new rules introduced from the International Cricket Council, the then Cricinfo went topsy-turvy and didn’t have any other choice rather than scaling itself up. Although it doesn't seem like it, scoring cricket is fantastically sophisticated since there are an extraordinary number of things which can happen, such as a super sub or ball hitting the helmet kept behind the keeper and so on.

Zach Hitchcock, ex-employer New Zealand cricket team developed a Video Analysis software and started out his own venture with the help of Chris Cairns, New Zealand all-rounder, which latter became ‘Feedback Sports Ltd’. Based on his experience in the cricketing analysis, he was referred to Cricinfo. With Zach and Lupo Data Concepts, a BESPOKE application was developed that feeds real-time scoring information into the website.

Here is how it works. An operator sets up a match in the software by accessing the relevant match information in the database. The scorer sits in front of a television and uses a ‘point and click’ interface to describe the action as it happens. The software has an interface to score each ball of the cricket match live, in real-time. The scorer has the option to automatically generate real language descriptions of the game, which can be over-written should anything unexpected happen like super sub, etc. Once the information for a ball has been entered, the scorer sends the same and the software packages it up and in turn sends it to their Linux-based server which displays the data on the website.

Matt Pickering, Business Development Manager for Lupo Data Concepts, says

The technology choice for the project was crucial. Before we even began we could see a number of challenges we would need to address. Cricinfo has scorers in India, South Africa and England which meant we needed to deploy the software to all of those locations

Deploying real-time software simultaneously in multiple locations is not as easy as what you think. The whole application was developed in .NET Framework 2.0. The team chose to introduce Microsoft technology into a Linux environment. Cricinfo now has a Windows Server 2003 running in its data centre. This, combined with SQL Server 2000, provides the communications centre for the system. The scoring software itself employs Smart Client technology, built with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Tom Gleeson, one of the owners of Cricinfo, says

We now have an option that allows users to query particular wickets or what type of balls Shane Warne bowled when Flintoff hit a four. You can really drill down and analyse the data. It’s relatively simple in terms of what the site is capable of but from a user point of view it adds a great deal of value to the site

Cricinfo now has a database that stores information about each and every match that is being played, such as who, where they’re playing, as well as historical data on every international game that has been played since 1970. Gone are days when web used to be mere pages. It’s all about streams, syndication, real-time entities, and some finest RSS technologies now.

Anyone looking for a complete PHP framework will have definitely stumbled across these four major options

• Zend - The original PHP framework that started it all (Apparently CakePHP came earlier than Zend)
• Cake PHP - Easy and light with support for both PHP 4.1+ and PHP 5+
• Codeigniter - Relatively new lightweight framework
• Symfony - Rails inspired, comprehensive

Although there are many more frameworks out there in the wild, these are the most popular and actively developed. As you guessed, this post is about Symfony and why I think its the best. Calling something "the best" is sure to draw a lot of fire from all quarters, so I'll omit it hereon

The Good:

• Feature Rich - Has all the features one expects from a RAD framework - MVC design pattern, ORM tools, scaffolding, caching, authentication, internalization and localization
• Actively Developed - The team not only works on the framework, it also incorporates suggestions/enhancements from community members
• Extensive Plugin Repository - It has 647 plugins from 283 contributors
• Amazing Documentation - I can't stress on this enough. Documentation makes ALL the difference when you are spoilt for choice. In addition to the complete API reference, you have "The Book" which is a complete reference to learn Symfony step by step. Then there are the real world examples - Jobeet.com tutorial which guides you in making a Complete working website in 24 days (1 hour a day). And yes, you can check out the site here
  Then, you have the customary "Create a blog in 1 hour" tutorial, and another one that makes the admin interface
• Flexible - There are always two ways to do something using Symfony. For ORM, you have doctrine and propel. For javascript you can use prototype(inbuilt), jQuery or Mootools. Supports XCache, eAccelerator, APC , Memcached for caching.
• Automatic Admin Generation - Borrowed from Rails, this module makes it a breeze to generate a optimized and fully functional CRUD interface for your applications. And yes, it does work perfectly well
• Extensive developer tools - Symfony supports three deployment environments, along with very good developer tools that lets you configure, debug and monitor your application performance from the web page itself.
• Integrated Testing Framework - The "Lime" toolkit allows for unit and functional tests to be written and executed with minimal fuss
• Rails Inspired - Need I say more?

The Not So Good:

• It is NOT a small and light framework. But I don't think you can consider 20 MB too large these days, comparing with RoR
• Learning Curve - Don't use it if you want to finish your application yesterday. It takes time to learn how to use it, due to its strict adherence to coding standards and quality. If you are an experience programmer though, you will find it easier
• Needs optimization - Even though it isn't a pain to optimize unlike RoR, it still needs some work like setting up caching, and using Memcached for database objects if you want to deploy a real world application on it. But then good documentation is available for that too
• Its NOT for everyone - This is general to all frameworks. No framework, RoR included, is a "one-size-fits-all" deal. So before you decide to take the plunge, design your application, and put considerable time into thinking if you really need a framework. If all you need is a standard blogging engine, or a normal website with a couple of dynamic scripts, ANY framework in ANY language will be an overkill.

If you can live with the above three points, then Symfony is for you. Even though I'm a complete beginner, I've started to love Symfony. I'm sure you will too, if you look at it objectively. So install it, learn it and have fun!

Edit: Found another great post - http://www.mellowmorning.com/2007/08/18/ten-reasons-why-symfony-rocks-part-1/