Buying Lokmanya The Film Legally vs. Pirating It

Ever since I’d seen its trailers, I was excited about watching the movie Lokmanya: Ek Yug Purush. It is a Marathi film that was released in the theaters on 2nd January, 2015 and its lead actor, Subodh Bhave, received widespread praise for his portrayal of Lokmanya Tilak. It was a pretty solid movie, but the thing that I was most excited about was the preparation and efforts that had gone into making it. It was exciting to see a Marathi film in this form. I went for its screening on the very first day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The make-up and the sets, along with the dialogues and the music were top notch. I was glad to see a Marathi film of this quality running housefull shows around the city.

I had decided to purchase a copy of the film whenever it was going to be released to the public. I wanted to own a high-quality version of the film and would gladly pay for a Blu-ray of it. Leading up to its release, I tried contacting its director, @omraut via Twitter, to ask him whether they’d be releasing Blu-ray version of the film (Marathi films usually get released on Blu-rays), but unfortunately received no response from him. I was hoping if not for a Blu-ray, we’d at least get the option of a legal, digital download in 1080p via iTunes or Google Play Movies.

Unfortunately, the film only got released on CD and DVD. Fine, I said, and went ahead and pre-ordered the DVD anyway via Amazon . While I waited for the delivery, a friend of mine told me that a 720p version of the film was already out on torrents and that he’d already downloaded it and watched it. Since I’d already pre-ordered the DVD, I told him I’d just wait for its delivery.

When the DVD got delivered, I was throughly disappointed. The DVD packaging was flimsy and terrible and when I tried to play the DVD, it just wouldn’t play. I tried to rip it using Handbrake, but that kept failing too. I looked up on Amazon and apparently I wasn’t the only one. Two others had complained that their DVDs too were corrupt and wouldn’t play at all.

Here I was, all excited about a movie I really liked, ready to pay good money to own a high-quality version for viewing at home but without any options to do so. The copy that I legally bought and paid for ended up not working at all. On the other hand, my friend who pirated a copy not only watched a much higher quality version than my DVD, he also got to watch it much before me. And of course, he would watch the entire film without trouble.

Oh well…

July 18, 2015 ✚ Permalink

iPhone 6 India TVC by Ingram Micro

Ingram Micro is one of the two major distributors of Apple products in India, the other being Redington. Over the last couple of years, the sales of iPhone have gone up in the country, thanks to Apple’s push and strategic moves in the market. However, the high price of the devices are still a factor when people make their decisions and purchasing a phone on EMIs is often preferred, so much so that some companies offer an exclusive discount on this mode of payment.

Yesterday, Ingram has released this beautiful India-specific TVC for the iPhone 6.

 

Nicely done.

July 18, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Offscreen Magazine in India

offscreen-1

I have been a huge fan of Offscreen Magazine ever since they announced their 3rd Issue. The first two issues ran out of stock before I could order them, but I have purchased every single issue since the third one and love reading every bit of it. Offscreen is a fantastic magazine with some amazing content from talented individuals around the globe and it gives you great insight into the life and workings of people that you look up to. And all this is effectively put together by a single person — Kai Brach.

 

Every issue of Offscreen is available in limited quantities and there are no reprints. You can order it directly from the website, but there have been two major disadvantages attached to it:

  • The Shipping — Offscreen ships via Standard Post from Germany, so local shipping is handled by your country’s local post. So if you’re in India, your delivery entirely depends on India Post and how good their service is. Additionally, your shipment cannot be tracked, so you’re in the dark as to how long it’s going to take to reach you or if it even reaches you at all. In my experience, it takes about 5 weeks for a shipment to reach me.
  • The Payment — Offscreen uses PayPal for their payments, so your only option of payment is a Credit Card.

I’ve been speaking about this with Kai and my friends in India and I’ve always wanted to improve this. So I’m glad to tell you now that you can now purchase Offscreen Magazine locally India, directly from the Beautiful Pixels Store. Many thanks to Kai for his support.

Here’s what you get if you order the magazine from us:

  • Local Payment Options — You can pay using Net Banking, Debit Card or Credit Card.
  • Priority Shipping — You get shipping that can be tracked online & don’t have to rely on India Post to “do the needful”.

We currently have Issue #11 in stock and for sale on the website, but you can sign up if you’re interested in future or past issues. We have plans to bring many more such interesting magazines and products to India, so stay tuned.

If you want to purchase Offscreen Magazine #11, you can do that here.

July 4, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Twitterrific’s New Facial Recognition Feature

A couple of days ago, The Iconfactory released version 5.12.1 of Twitterrific, the popular Twitter app for iOS. A subtle yet brilliant new feature introduced in this release is the facial recognition feature for the rich media previews in the timeline. Allow me to elaborate what this is with a couple of screenshots:

I tweeted out something today with a link and an attached photo. Here’s how that tweet looks in the official Twitter app: 

  
and here’s how the same tweet looks in the new Twitterrific:

  
Twitterrific 5.12.1 makes use of the Facial Recognition API in iOS to detect faces in any previews on your timeline and crops them so that the faces are always in focus. It’s a small addition, but makes a big impact to your timeline.

It’s the little details like these that have an immense effect on the overall delight that an app gives you. Twitterrific was already a fantastic Twitter app for iOS and didn’t need to add this feature, but now that they have, I wish this was default in every app out there. 

Twitterrific is available for Free on the App Store.

July 2, 2015 ✚ Permalink

The Release Notes of the Reuters TV iOS App

Reuters is one of the most widely known news agencies in the world. They offer an app called Reuters TV on the iOS App Store. Available for both the iPhone and iPad, the app offers a personalized TV news service wherein you can watch on-demand & insightful video programming for the topics you’re most interested in. It makes great use of rich media and graphics to offer an immersive experience and it is one of my favorite ‘news’ apps that I use to keep up with the news.

I also love Reuters TV for its release notes on the App Store. Being a news agency, Reuters takes a clever approach towards the Whats New in Version on the App Store. Here’s what the release notes for the latest version released today (v1.1.2) look like:

EAGAN, Minnesota (Reuters) – Battling the onset of a brutal allergy season and unusually high pollen counts, developers in America’s midwest contended with red eyes and runny noses to release another update to the Reuters TV app.

The new release surprised commentators, who had not been expecting a release so soon after iPad compatibility was added. In brief comments, a spokesperson for Reuters TV said the new app resolves a number of minor bugs and speed issues that had crept into the recent release and claimed it addresses “technical debt”.

A high ranking team member, who declined to be identified, described working through the night to deliver improvements for the new version. He claimed the new app will run “a heck of a lot faster” and “a whole lot smoother”.

Analyst Chance Johnellor said he was “confident” the updated app will perform reliably, pointing to research his team had done to suggest the update delivered improved performance and battery life.

Spokespeople for Reuters TV declined to comment further on the release, noting that they appreciated all user feedback and that further updates are planned soon. The team can be reached at [email protected].

This isn’t a one-off case though, they’ve been doing this since the very first version.

Version 1.1.1

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Version 1.1.0

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Version 1.0.1

reuters-tv-v101

The Reuters TV app is available Free on the App Store and you can read and watch the content for 30 days. After that, a subscription is just $1.99 a month.

June 20, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Apple Announces New 15″ MacBook Pro with Force Touch and Cheaper 27″ iMac with Retina 5K Display

Apple today announced the availability of a new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Force Touch and a cheaper base model of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro now features the same Force Touch trackpad that the company introduced in the new MacBook and also added to the 13″ MacBook Pro. Also new in the hardware is 2.5 times faster flash storage, faster discrete graphics and slightly better battery life. In India, this updated 15-inch MacBook Pro is available with a 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz), 16GB RAM, 256GB of flash storage, Iris Pro graphics and is available at Apple Authorized Resellers at INR 1,59,900. A second model with a faster 2.5GHz processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz), 512GB of flash storage and dedicated AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics is available at INR 1,99,900.

Apple also introduced a cheaper and lower-spec’d 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display. The new model with a 3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and 1TB 7200rpm hard drive is priced at INR 1,59,900 in India ($1999 in the U.S.) while the top-end model with 3.5GHz processor and 1TB Fusion Drive is priced at INR 1,79,900 in India. This model has undergone a price cut in the U.S, now available at $2299 instead of $2499. I have been eyeing the Retina 5K iMac for myself to upgrade my old 2011 iMac and was actually hoping Apple would release better hardware at the same price.

The company has also (surprisingly) released a iPhone Lightning Dock today, available for $39 in the U.S or INR 3,200 in India.

The Force Touch trackpad is now available in the new MacBook, 13″ MacBook Pro and the 15″ MacBook Pro. I am hoping Apple will also release a Magic Trackpad with Force Touch sometime soon.

May 19, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Airtel 4G Trials Launched in Mumbai

Airtel on Saturday officially rolled out 4G LTE trials in the Mumbai on Band 40, 2300MHz using the TD-LTE technology. The company has previously rolled out its 4G services in 23 other cities and over the weekend, it has also added Chennai, Hyderabad & Vishakhpatnam along with Mumbai to its list.

Existing and New Airtel customers with 4G compatible mobile handsets can upgrade their existing SIM cards to newer 4G U-SIMs for Free by visiting any nearest Airtel gallery or by ordering one from their website at http://airtel.in/4g. You can also check whether your handset & SIM are ready for the 4G network by visiting this page and entering your mobile number there.

(more…)

May 19, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Apple’s Second Quarter Results for 2015

Apple has announced its quarterly results for Q2 2015 and as is expected of them, they’ve had an outstanding quarter. In the second three months of 2015, Apple announced that it has sold 61.2 Million iPhones, 12.6 Million iPads and 4.6 Million Macs towards a total revenue of US$58 Billion.

The company made US$13.6 Billion in quarterly net profit and now has a cash balance of $194 Billion. In the year-ago quarter, Apple posted a revenue of $45.6 Billion and a net quarterly profit of $10.2 Billion.

It’s interesting to note that Apple’s biggest market segment outside of the Americas was China, which overtook Europe this quarter. Apple generated $21.3 Billion in the Americas, $16.8 Billion in China alone and $12.2 Billion in Europe, followed by $3.4 Billion in Japan and $4.2 Billion in the Rest of Asia Pacific.

April 28, 2015 ✚ Permalink