A Chinese phone like never before - Xiaomi mi3

Xiaomi.... What is it??

This is a typical response that I get whenever I flaunt my phone in my company. Many people don't even know how to pronounce the name in the first place. I know you are also struggling with the same, so let me make it simpler for you, its pronounced as Sha-o-me.

On 15th July Xiaomi officially entered the never ending list of handset companies in India. It was a very casual launch event with only selected few bloggers attending it. Nevertheless, the people who represented the company here are high ranked. One of the them was none other than Mr. Hugo Barra, who used to serve as VP Android in Google. He joined Xiaomi as VP of international business and mainly looks after expanding the company outside Mainland China. Xiaomi has recently moved up to 5th place worldwide as a phone manufacturer. In China they are current no. 1, displacing the likes of Samsung and Apple.

So the first product that comes out of this company for Indian market is their flagship phone called "mi3". Xiaomi has announced their another top of the line phone called "mi4" which might come to India by year end. Also we would get: RedMi 1S, RedMi Note, MiTV and MiPad.

I hope the prologue might have helped you to come to senses as far the company is concerned. So lets get down to the review of Mi3 then.

Hardware: This phone has top of the line hardware specifications and when you look at its price, you would surely vote it as World's newest wonder. This phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset (Krait 400 architecture) along with a DDR3 2 GB RAM. The display is of size 5 inches which packs the Full HD resolution with a mind blowing pixel density of 441 ppi. In a layman's term, the display is quite clear and there would not be any pixelation. It comes up with 16 GB fixed storage without a memory card slot. The only saving grace in storage is that it supports OTG connectivity. There is a never ending list of sensors installed in the phone, some of them even exclusive in this price range like Magnetic and Barometer sensor. It works on the 3G band with HSDPA+ along with the 2G band.

Form factor: The phone has a sleek design but the overall size is pretty big for a 5 inch phone. The bezel at top and bottom are too much for the actual display size it offers. One hand operation is challenging for sure. The body is made up of magnesium alloy and the back cover gets metallic finish, which is quite slippery. A back cover with rubberized finish is highly required. It is not a heavy phone and that further worsens the grip problem.

The volume and power buttons are on the right hand side and are made up of metal. The top side caters to the SIM tray (which takes in a regular SIM card) along with the 3.5mm audio jack. The bottom has the microUSB port for data sync and charging. There is a mono speaker at the bottom with laser precision drilling on the chassis. The sensors are on the left side of the earphone and right has the 2MP camera and notification light. The back panel houses the 13mp Sony camera which is made up of 5 pieces lens and has f2.2 aperture. Lighting is taken care by the dual LED flash and claims to have a 30% more light.

Operating System: The company is known for their home made UI wrapper (ROM) on top of Android called MIUI. The phone gets the latest version 5 (Released) of this UI with underlying Android version of 4.4.2. I will get to the MIUI later on.

Display: Its a 5 inch Full HD display covered with a Gorilla glass 3 protection. It has impressive density at 441 pixels per inch. The display quality is quite good and vibrant. Its a treat to watch HD and Full HD content on this screen. Viewing angles are also good and you wont face the problem of color fading even at an extreme angle.

Camera: This is a Sony 5 piece lens camera which outputs 13mp still images at a blink of an eye. The auto focus system has its limitation but then once its locked its super fast to capture the image. The camera s/w has a lot of settings to tweak your images. The advance mode also allows one to set the ISO and shutter speed. Such settings are unheard of in this price range phones. The day light images are superb and offer a lot of details while the low light imaging is its Achilles's heel. The front is a mere 2 mp camera but still can capture Full HD video. Overall its a pretty good camera at this price range.

Processing power: The Snapdragon 800 wins hands down in the processing prowess. Its so snappy that you feel delighted to do multitasking on this beast. This Krait 400 architecture has become a celebrity in the technology world for its processing power. The 2 GB RAM further compliments the package and you get around 1.2 GB free RAM on start up.

Telephony: The in call sound quality is quite good, thanks to the 2-3 noise cancellation mics. Both the parties can hear voice without any issues. The mobile network reception is also good, however I faced an issue of the network bar icon showing zero (No reception) even then I was able to make calls. This s/w issue is no more present on the latest update (V23) of the MIUI 5.

Music: Listening to music is a pleasure on this phone. The Dirac-HD processing takes care of generating deep bass while keeping the crisp notes. The MIUI baked music app is good and handy. You can double tap on the home screen unlock circle to change the lock screen to a music player :). The player also supports shake gesture for toggling the songs.

MIUI 5: This is where Xiaomi started their march in the market with. This is a custom ROM and much loved in the developer community. Xiaomi has further optimized this ROM for this specific in house hardware and the combination gels perfectly well. MIUI is known for its customization flexibility and the Themes apps allows you to change the whole look and feel of your phone with the use of these available themes. Few of them are free, so you don't have to pay even a single penny.

MIUI has so many features and covering it in this review is impossible. It would certainly require a chapter of its own. Below are few simple tweaks available out of the box:

1. Silence the incoming call ringtone by a flip of the phone.
2. Close all apps with a single tap
3. Incoming call would be shown as a mere notification on the top of the screen if you are working in a full screen app, like Notepad.
4. You can assign different color for the notification light
5. A double click on the lock screen circle makes the lock screen a music player
6. Hold down the home button in the lock screen mode and it starts the LED in torch mode

Following are few of the screenshots of the MIUI 5

Compass app - Notice the Barometer sensor input in form of ATM

Radio App - simple interface

Android Kitkat and MIUI 5

16 GB fixed storage - A challenge for gamers

Glove mode is supported for extra sensitivity

It has a built in security app

Stock MIUI music player

Pros:

1. Awesome combination of HW and SW at an affordable price tag of 14000/-
2. Decent and fast camera for day light photography and Selfies
3. MIUI can be customized in a lot of ways
4. Warranty stays even if you root your device. Dev ROMs are available for geeks.
5. The MIUI is constantly under development so you get all the new features regularly.
6. Network reception is good for both telephony and wifi. It also supports dual band wifi
7. The music reproduction through in-ear headphones is awesome. 
8. The sales model is very disgusting. Last heard 20000 units were sold in 2.3 seconds on Flipkart.

Cons:

1. The back cover is slippery and you would have to shift to a third party/Xiaomi add-on back panel
2. The overall form factor of the phone is a bit too much for a 5 inch display
3. Limited service centers as of now
4. The phone gets heated if the battery mode is not kept at optimum. A gaming session of about 20 mins makes you keep the phone away because of the heat.
5. No ear phones in the package

Bottomline: I would say its a steal at the price it is offered!!!

Tone your mileage with Acetone

Well, I am back with exciting news. The fuel prices have started shooting up and it’s high time we have realized it. The day, when we have to shell out 70/- per liter for petrol is not far away. While googling on net, I came to know about a compound which can help you improve the mileage of your petrol vehicle. Hmmm I know by now you must be very anxious to know about it :).

My bike (Splendor) gives me an average 45 kmpl. It is kind of on lower side looking at the power it produces. Even after servicing the bike, I was not happy with the mileage. Then I came to know about a chemical compound which the fair sex is well versed with. May be not by the name "Acetone" but could be by "nail polish remover". Basically, acetone is the organic compound with the formula OC(CH₃)₂. This colorless, mobile, flammable liquid is the simplest example of the ketones. It is used in the nail polish remover and few other color removers.

There is another use of this magical compound and that is to help the combustion process in the engine. Usually the combustion process leaves behind some amount of fuel and thus it is wasted. Acetone helps this combustion process to burn the fuel completely to maximize its usage.

So, with an average of 45 kmpl, I cover up 180km with 4 liters of petrol. Now when I last filled, I put 2 ml of acetone per 1 liter of petrol. After I was done with this 4 liters of petrol, I realized, I have travelled 230km. This is a good 50km jump from my milestone of 180km. So effectively I gained almost 25-30% for the same amount of fuel. I am still experimenting with the right amount of acetone for mixing. There are few myths about why acetone should not be used and how it affects plastic parts n all. You should consider that we are mixing very small amount of acetone per liter. For 1000ml we are mixing just 2ml which is not enough to destroy any plastic part. So be assured that it will not have any negative impact on your vehicle. Once I am comfortable with it I will use it on my car as well.

You can get a 100 ml bottle of Acetone in any chemist shop for 30 – 40/-. So guys, start using it and let me know your feedback as well.

PS: I have started using it based on my understanding. Before you start using Acetone, google it and make sure you are well aware of its pros n cons.

|| गणपती बाप्पा मोरया ||

गणपती आठवड्यावर येउन ठेपले आहेत तरी अजुनही पूर्वी सारखी चाहुल लागलेली नाही. सुमारे ५ वर्षांपूर्वी पर्यंत गणपती १ महिन्यावर आले तरी एक वेगळेच वातावरण जमुन यायचे. आता मात्र तसे जाणवत नाही. भोवतालचे वातावरण आपणच इतके वेगळे करून घेतले आहे की गणपती जवळ आलेत हे मित्रांच्या "हैप्पी गणेश चतुर्थी" च्या मेल्स आल्याशिवाय कळत नाही. कदाचित आपण हल्ली देवासाठी सुद्धा थोडेसे "busy" झालो आहोत. मी राहतो त्या सोसाइटी मध्ये आम्ही पोरं मिळून गणपती साजरा करायचो, गणपती तोच असला तरी गणपती उत्सव साजरा करणारे चहरे मात्र आता बदलले आहेत. कदाचित ह्यालाच सर्व लोक "मोठे होणे" असे म्हणतात. आता पूर्वी सारखे मित्रांमध्ये जाउन गणपती उत्सवाची तयारी करणे जमत नाही. काम अणि नोकरीमुळे ह्या सर्व गोष्टींकडे वेळ द्यायला वेळच उरत नाही. आता मात्र गणपती विसर्जनाच्या दिवशी सुद्धा काम अणि ऑफिस संभाळावे लागते. एरवी विसर्जनाच्या दिवशी कानावर ढोल ताशांचा आवाज यायचा ज्याची जागा आता ऑफिस मधल्या "keyboard" च्या टाइपिंगच्या आवाजाने घेतली आहे. खरच कधीकधी कळत नाही की आपण बदलले आहोत की आजुबाजुची परिस्थिती....

रविवारची भटकंती : माळशेज घाट

साधारणतः सकाळची १० ची वेळ असेल, माझ्या मोबाईल वर एक एसेमेस आला आणि लक्षत आले कि कदाचित कोणीतरी मेम्बर गळाला आहे. माझ्या पेर्सिस्टंट च्या मित्रांचा "भुलेश्वर" नामक ठिकाणी जायचा प्लान होता. नेहमी प्रमाणे रीतसर प्लान ठरल्या नंतर एक एक जण कलटी मारणे तसे आता नेहमीचेच झाले आहे. जेव्हा प्रत्यक्ष जायची वेळ आली तेव्हा लक्षात आले कि प्रचंड प्रतिसादा नंतर सुमारे ४ जणांची लक्षणीय संख्या जमू शकली आहे. आणि हे ४ जण म्हणजे: मी, माझी बायको, वैदी आणि त्याची बायको. तसे "भुलेश्वर" हे ठिकाण साधारण ४० km वर आहे पण आता हे फ़ॅमिली औटिंग झाल्यामुळे आम्ही निर्यण घेतला कि आपण "माळशेज घाट" ह्या ठिकाणी जाऊ.

"माळशेज घाट" पुण्यनगरी पासून १२० km अंतरावर आणि नाशिक - कल्याण ह्या मार्गावर आहे. घरातून निघायला १२ वाजले इथेच पहिली चूक झाली. घरातली काम करणारी बाई सकाळी ८:३० ला येते सांगून १०:१५ ला उगवली. तसा माझ्या बायकोला तिच्यावर जरा जास्तच कॉन्फिडंस आहे आणि तिने तो सार्थ (?) हि ठरवला. घरातल्या मुख्य गोष्टी (भांडी धुणे) उरकून झाल्यावर आम्ही १२ ला निघालो. पहिला स्टॉप खडकी रेल्वे स्टेशन होता जिथे दुसरे दाम्पत्य आमची वाट पाहत उभे होते. एखाद्या रिक्षावाल्याला थांबवावे इतक्या अदबीने त्यांनी हात दाखवून आम्हांला थांबविले. एव्हाना १२:३० ची वेळ झाली होती. पुढील संकटाची मी अगोदरच व्यवस्था करून ठेवलेली. नाशिक रोड वर दिसलेल्या पहिल्या पेट्रोल पंप वर मी गाडी नेली आणि लक्षात आले कि क्रेडीट कार्ड नामक लोकांच्या सोयीसाठी बनवलेली गोष्ट हे लोक स्वीकारत नाहीत. मनातल्या मनात २-४ शिव्या हाणत मी गाडी बाहेर काढली आणि ठरविले कि पुढल्या पेट्रोल पंप वर पेट्रोल टाकू. शेवटी शेल (Shell) मध्ये पेट्रोल भरून आम्ही पुढील प्रवासास निघालो.

जशीजशी हॉटेल्स दिसू लागली तसतशी भूक लागायला लागली. मग त्यामानाने जरा ठिकठाक दिसणाऱ्या एका हॉटेल मध्ये जेवण उरकून घेतले आणि मार्गस्थ झालो. माहित नाही का पण जेवल्या नंतर पुढील प्रत्येक हॉटेल जरा जास्त बरे वाटायला लागले होते. हॉटेल पासून १० km नंतर "आळेफाटा" हे ठिकाण आले जिथून आम्ही डावीकडे वळलो. रस्त्यात लावलेले बोर्ड्स पाहून कल्पना आली कि "ओझर" आणि "लेण्याद्री" हि अष्टविनायकाची ठिकाणे ह्या रोड वरून जाता येण्यासारखी आहेत. अपुर्वाला (माझी बेटर हाफ) अचानक "शिवनेरी" पहायची हुक्की आलेली जी आम्ही यशस्वीपणे दूर केली :). शिवनेरी येथून साधारण ३० km वर आहे.

सुमारे १०० km पुण्यापासून आल्यावर अजूनही माळशेज घाट का येत नाही असा मला प्रश्न पडला आणि तेव्हड्यात घाट सुरु झाल्याचे दिसले. पूर्ण घाट चढून वर गेल्यावर धबधबे दिसायला लागले. पाऊस इथेही नव्हता ह्याचेच काय ते दुखः. सर्वात जास्त खटकणारी गोष्ट म्हणजे तिथे धुडगूस घालणारी पोरं. हि जागा फ़ॅमिलीला नेण्यासारखी आतातरी राहिलेली नाहीये. नेहमी नेहमी धबधबे बघायला मिळत नाहीत म्हणून त्यात भिजणे मी समजू शकतो पण म्हणून जोरजोरात शिवीगाळ करत भिजण्यात काय मजा आहे कळत नाही. त्या लोकांकडे पाहून ते अर्थिकद्रुश्ट्या मागासलेले वाटत होते. कदाचित आदिवासी सुद्धा
सधन वाटतील इतके कमी कपडे घातलेली पोरं भर रस्त्यात बसून नाचत होती. पोलिसांचा कदाचित असा समाज झाला असावा कि त्यांना पोलीस खातं इथे नेहमी येणारा थकवा दूर करण्यास पाठविते. एकूणच जागा छान असून पुन्हा येण्या सारखी नक्कीच नाहीये. शनिवार-रविवार तर मुळीच नाही. आम्ही तिथे साधारण २० min थांबून परतीच्या वाटेला निघालो.

येताना "ivy chateau indage" नावाच्या एका ठिकाणी चहा-कॉफी घेण्यास थांबलो. आत गेल्यावर मला "वाइन" बाँटल्स सोडून फारसे काहीच दिसले नाही. मग कळले कि हि जागा एका वाइन फॅक्टरी ची वाइन (Wine) कॅफे टाइप जागा आहे. फारच सुंदर जागा आहे. तिथे माझ्या मित्राने ४ बाटल्या पॅक करून घेतल्या कारण हि वाइन इथूनच बाहेर एक्स्पोर्ट होते. बाटल्या फारच भारी दिसतात, जो पीत नाही तोही सुरु करेल अशा असतात :). एकंदरीत त्याने हि ट्रीप सत्कारणी लावली म्हणायचे.

आम्ही घरी यायला ९:३० वाजले पण फारसा थकवा जाणविला नाही. एकदा जायलाच हि जागा ठीक आहे. दिवसाचा हायलाइट मात्र वाइन शॉप ठरले :). एकंदरीत दिवसाचे ९ तास कसे गेले कळले नाही...

What is going on behind the scenes: TrackVehicle - Gallardo release

In May 2009, I released the beta version of a small system which helps you manage data related to your vehicle. As I always say, necessity is the mother of all inventions, TrackVehicle was also developed as my need to get rid of the Excel stuff.

I thought, I should share some information about the upcoming release of the system called "Gallardo". It would be a good jump from the very basic version release in May. As I am the only one working on this as of now, the development takes time. The new release will come with:

1. All the bug fixes reported by people using it
2. Facility to record the running repair and servicing information
3. An option to store data either on MS Access or FireBird database
4. An option to export the mileage report to Excel file or Google Docs
5. Reminder will send an SMS to a mobile about upcoming servicing/insurance

This is keeping me busy since last couple of months now. I hope it will help you managing the information with ease. The probable timeline for the release is September 2nd week. So watch this space !!!

Bandra-Worli in 10 mins

Hi guys,

Had been to Mumbai last weekend. On Sunday afternoon, me, my wifey and my in-laws decided to go for a drive on sea-link. Started from Mira road which is good 30km from Bandra at 5 pm. Suprisingly the traffic was kind of sparse. Reached Bandra at 5:35 sharp, thanks to Westren exp highway. Finally we reached the sea link in about 40 mins. Our first reaction was like "Wow" this is huge. The sea link is not yet fully operational. Only 1 lane is open for commuting and the construction of the other lane is in progress on a typical govt schedule. These guys have already taken good 4-5 years and still it is not fully operational !!

The toll for one side journey is 50 and for return its 75 which is quite hefty. The pune-mumbai express highway toll for 90km is 140. It was nice to drive on the sea link. You can easily maintain speeds above 80. One thing I noticed is, for time being the govt has put up hard plastic divider for the bidirectional traffic. It is kind of risky as few people neglet this and drive above 100. Any single mistake by anybody and it would be a disaster.

Overall the drive is good but you can hardly see anything from your car apart from tall buildings. What impressed me is the drive on Worli sea face. South Mumbai rocks for sure. The buildings, locales suddenly change once you enter south mumbai. The resedential buildings on the Worli sea face have got an awesome view. We then went to HajiAli to visit my in laws old house. On the Worli-Hajiali road I saw RollsRoyce and Jaguar-Land Rover showrooms. To my disappointment, I found Heera Panna complex is closed. I wanted to visit the shopping complex to have a look at the mobile phones.

So it was a nice short drive on a kind of lazy sunday evening. I enjoyed driving on south Mumbai roads. The traffic is very disciplined in mumbai unlike Pune. Due to shortage of time we could not go to Marine drive. Happy Motoring !!

A shift from Mineral to Synthetic

Recently I done 4th servicing of my car. It has run 17000 km in 4 years which is pretty low, thanks to my company which was only 3 km from my place. Since many days, I was contemplating to shift to Synthetic engine oil. My car has had enough of mineral oil and recently I felt the engine pull in the higher rpm has reduced.

I searched a lot on the internet about the benefits of using the Synthetic engine oils instead of the regular Mineral oils before making this move. Surprisingly, a synthetic oil is not a refined crude oil but an artificially made laboratory oil from compounds other than crude oil.

I have driven almost 100km after changing over to the synthetic oil and I have observed a peculiar difference in the engine performance. The pick up in the lower gear has improved a lot which is very handy in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. The engine has become quite rev happy now. I will check the high rpm performance once I hit the Pune-Mumbai expressway this weekend. My car usually struggles after 145kmph when the rpm hits around 4K rpm level (Redline is at 6K rpm :) ). If the weather permits, I will check and push my car beyond 145kmph this time to gauge the upper end performance. Oh BTW my car tyre has rating 'T' which means the tyre can withstand the speed of 190kmph.

Other than the engine smoothness and better engine life, another benefit of Synthetic oil is, a slight improved mileage. I usually get around 16 kmpl on highway and 12kmpl in city (No pedal to metal). Lets see if there is any noticeable difference after moving to synthetic. The oil is costly than the regular oil but then the oil change interval is 15-20k km which is double than the recommended interval for the mineral oil. It took 3 ltrs of the engine oil for my car and cost of the oil is 610/- per liter. I am using 5W40 Selenia (FIAT produced) synthetic oil which goes to Linea and Grande Punto.

Guys, if you are not bothered about the initial investment in the synthetic engine oil, go for it, you will never regret it. Let me know if you want any further details on the same.

PS: I have started using a chemical compound called 'Acetone' in the fuel and I will update on it in the next blog.