Gadget Guru: Home Automation, iPad Mini, Microsoft Surface and more

This episode of Gadget Guru, we take a look at the rumour round-up for Apple's iPad Mini, which is expected to be unveiled on October 23. Also on the show, review of Microsoft's new tablet, the Surface, Home Automation solutions from Control4 and the new app on the block - Rdio.

Here is the full transcript of the show. See the video of the full show here.

Vikram Chandra: Hello and welcome to Gadget Guru where, this week, we are going to take you through home automation; and in fact, that's where Rajiv is right now. Rajiv, you really are trying to set up somebody's home and you think it's going to continue to work after that?

Rajiv Makhni: Well, Vikram and everybody, there is Gadget Guru land, I am very hopeful it's going to work; but the adventure and the quest I am on today is actually very, very big. I am in this fantastic home theater. Every single thing in this room, a living room, a bedroom, curtain, security, watching a movie, television, everything has to be controlled by this. Yes, just this, an iPad. I can control it in many ways, an iPad, an actual remote control built for all of this. And you can control your entire house with it. Will all of that work? Well, that's what we are about to find out. But first, all the news from the world of gadgets.

Vikram Chandra: All right. So, home automation is one of the things we're going to be taking a look at. Also, what you need to do with digitization, just around the corner. That and a lot more. 

STREAM OF LAUNCHES IN OCTOBER BY APPLE, GOOGLE, NOKIA

According to the press invites floating around the net from Apple, the Cupertino giant is all set to reveal something exciting on October 23rd. The long rumored iPad Mini is the first name on the minds of people along with rumors floating around that there may be a new MacBook to show as well. Look for a rumor roundup on the iPad Mini in this episode.

Normally, this would be a statement that will be a detriment to any product, but Samsung has managed to walk away smiling from the Apple/Samsung case in the U.K. when the judge declared that Samsung tablets were not as cool as the iPads. Apple has also been forced to run ads saying that Samsung has not copied the design of the iPad. For anyone keeping score that's another one in favor of Samsung, so far.

And as if October wasn't jam packed with events, Google now has an announcement to make on October 29th. Though they have been vague about the details so far, Google is calling it an Android event. So, it could be interesting to see what Google has in store for us. The rumored LG Nexus 4 could be one of the phones, so could the leaked supposed Sony Nexus phone. If this proves to be true, this could fuel the rumors that there are multiple Nexus devices in the works to be true. Another thing of note is the fact that Google has kept the event on exactly the same day as the Windows Phone 8 launch. Whatever happens, this is turning out to be the month of tech.

Nokia has had another disappointing earnings call following last year's dismal performance. The decline in revenue is not surprising since the older Windows phones were confirmed to not get the Windows Phone 8 update. Add the fact that Nokia just showed off the Lumia 820 and the 920 without any release date made this an expected earnings call. Stephen Elop, chief executive officer of Nokia, has gone on record saying that having spent most of the quarter explaining to the U.S. population about the great innovations that are coming in the fourth quarter, one could reasonably expect that would impact sales in the third quarter. Let's hope that the fourth quarter is as great for Nokia as it hopes to be.

FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL

Vikram Chandra: All right. Now, you're watching Gadget Guru. The gadget most people are most attached to, well, some would say it's their phone; the others will say it is their television. Now, if TV is something which you really love and you are in one of the four metros, and you haven't yet got a digital box, then you probably need to worry because in just a few days you could start losing a lot of your really, really favorite shows because digitization as you know is around the corner. First of November is when it's been mandated for in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Last two cities maybe a little more problematic than the first two. But in any case, getting a set top box or a digital box is something you should really be thinking very seriously about. What does it mean, what do you have to do? Well, you have one of two choices, you can go to your existing cable operator and say look, I need a set top box. And he'll just come and give you a set top box, which enables you to continue to watch television but in much better quality, lots of choice, nice EPG and all of that. Or your other option is of course to go to a DTH operator, go to a Tata Sky, Airtel, Dish whomever you like and ask them to come and put a dish and give you DTH. So, those are one of the two options you need to exercise. If you haven't done so yet, I have to say you're really cutting it fine. Rajiv, have you done it?

Rajiv Makhni: Okay. Now, that's a good question Vikram. Have I gone for digitization? Of course, in fact I think I've been on the digital platform for what, some 18 months. And you know what's the best part? It's not as if this is being forced upon you. The very fact that you go on to this completely new platform, the clarity, the sound, the picture, HD, everything changes. I don't know why anybody--forget the five metros--anybody would not want to be on the digital platform.

Vikram Chandra: Incidentally, there has been a period of accelerated switch off already, so some of the movie channels have already gone off in analog television in some of the metros. Same is true with the news channels. Actually, you probably will find it tough to watching this particular show on analog in most of the metros out there so-- but if you haven't acted on this just yet, you need to really go out and do so fast because the last thing you want is to be caught up in last minute panics and last minute lines.

But let's just quickly take you through some of the options for you to go digital in the metros, in case you haven't done so. And by the way, if you are not in one of the four metros, which have the deadline of the 1st of November, you probably should still start thinking about it. Other cities kick in from the 31st of March and then over a period of time the whole country is going to go digital.

DIGITIZATION OPTIONS

In just a few days TV viewing is going to change forever at least in the big metros like Delhi and Mumbai. Cable operators will stop providing old style analog signals from the 31st of October and you will need a digital box to watch TV in the metros. If you haven't made the transition yet, then here is what you need to do. Option one, is to ask your cable operator for a digital set top box. The operator will offer you a number of packages to choose from. Do ensure that your favorite channels such as NDTV are available. Option two, is to go for DTH services. Leading DTH operators like Tata Sky, Airtel and Dish TV can quickly get you connected. And some of them also offer high-end services like the ability to record TV shows for later viewing. Don't wait for the last minute rush. You need to act now.

HOME AUTOMATION

Vikram Chandra: Moving on from digitization to home automation. Now Rajiv, you did say you're going to be wiring up somebody's house and making it completely automatic. Are you sure the person knows what you are about to do and what he is in for and how is he going to have his curtains pouring coffee on his face early in the morning?

Rajiv Makhni: Time for our top cover story, home automation. Now, you know, at one time, this used to be rocket science, today it's become really much simpler. But you can do very complex things with it and that's what I am going to demonstrate today. We are here in an area where I am going to demonstrate almost four or five different kind of rooms, a lounge, a living room, a home theater and many different kind of things are also going to be demonstrated. And like I said, I'm going to do it all on one single iPad. Just with this iPad, I shall control it all. The best part is, most of it does not even need any control. Everything is automated. I will give you an example. Suppose you're in a home theater or even in your own bedroom and you want to watch TV, what all do you have to do? You have to put on the lights, or shut them, go draw the curtains or open it. Then you have to go put on the TV, go to the right channel; or go to your Blue-ray player or a new movie streamer. In this, it's a single button. Press it, and when you press play, the lights will dim down, the curtains will actually close, it will go to the right channel, it will actually set the input right; everything will be automated. So here is a demonstration, then I will show you exactly how it works. (See Video here)

Home automation demo number 1: Where am I, in a typical living room, right? I mean, you have a sofa, you have a nice lounge system out here. What do you not need? You don't need to see speakers, you don't need to see technology, wires, cables, but you still want television and music around, right? So, how do you do it? You do it with home automation. Now watch, right in front of me is just a wooden cabinet. And do you see any speakers at all, nothing. But now watch the magic. I am in the living room. I go in to watch, and I go into plasma television and see what's happening there.

So, I got you started very easy with home automation, time to step it up to a whole new level. Now here's a room which, in India, almost all of us have. This is a hybrid room, it could be a study, it could be a lounge, it could be a TV room. Now, I am going to show you how you can make this one room into multiple rooms with the press of a button. So right now, I am here, a TV behind me, I am watching TV or I am listening to music or I could be reading. I can control almost everything including the light, for instance, I want the light to completely go off. I just press one button, it's gone. I want it to come back, I press two buttons out here, it's back again. So, all I did was press a button, lights off, lights on, you can have scenes, for example, a party scene where all lights are working in a particular way. Maybe a night scene, where you only want a romantic kind of a feel and music comes on, those are easy. Here's the really amazing part. What if I want to change this place into a home theater? So remember, I pressed only one button - the lights are actually going to dim out, the screen comes down, the projector fires, goes to the right input and your movie starts.

So today's been a quick look at home automation at its simplest level, but remember you can do very complex things with it automatically. Even more importantly, it's becoming easy, it's becoming very, very simple to execute and it's becoming cheaper. So do take a look it -- this is something that you may want for your house. How does it work? How do the lights know how to go off when your television comes on? How does a projector know when it's on or off? How does it go to the right input? It's actually very simple. I'm going to try and quickly show you how that works and remember we will come back to this story again when I'm going to take you through one of the most amazing home automation systems you can ever have.

CONTROL4HOME AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS

So now you have seen the magic of home automation that gives you the power to control your entire household with a touch of a button. Let's have a look again.

It all starts at the Control4 module, a very benign simple little box inside which beats the heart of all this complex wizardry. This is the box that talks to everything in your house. It all starts with an internet cable. This guides all the information to other lights, devices, curtains, projectors, screens, etc. Everything is hooked up from here onto the internet network, as everything is on this as a mesh bridge. One internet cable goes to your live box and the other to all your entertainment devices thus everything in your house becomes intelligent. The control tool box then can be controlled with a custom remote with wall switches, or even with an app on your iPad or android device through your WiFi network. Your outdoor light switches on automatically every day at 6:00 p.m., your curtains close every day in the evening and open in the morning, your TV goes to your favorite channel and your projector screen comes down all on its own. The future is here.

APPLE IPAD MINI

Vikram Chandra: Okay, now let's move to something really, really interesting - the iPad Mini, which many people believe is just about to be launched. As with the iPhone 5, there is actually a pretty decent rumor industry out there telling us exactly what we can expect, from lightning ports to the size of 7.85 to the possibility that there will not be a camera in its back. Why Apple would do that, I wouldn't know; but that's one of the rumors out there. So let's just quickly take you through the rumor roundup for the iPad Mini.

RUMOUR ROUNDUP

Apple has had the unique luxury of creating a category, which meant they choose the rule of the game, making it easier for them to dominate. There have been quite a few tablets that have tried to challenge the iPad and failed so far. Ironically though, the tablets which finally seemed to be making a dent in the iPad category are smaller and lighter like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7. So what does Apple do now? Apple's answer unsurprisingly would be to enter the 7-inch category themselves; hence the long-rumored iPad Mini. The Mini, like its name suggests, is the smaller cousin of the 10-inch iPad and will feature a 7.8-inch screen, according to rumors, with pretty much the same inert as the iPad 2. The big question here will be whether it will closely resemble the iPad or an enlarged iPod in looks and the other question is will it feature retina display? It might; since retina displays were on the iPhone before the iPad, but Apple may just choose not to go with it. The pricing here will also be an important factor as $200 seems to be the standard at which the 7-inch devices are priced at. It may also include the new lightning connector and Nano Sim slot but there are strong rumors suggesting it may be WiFi only. Of course, we will know the full details once October 23rd rolls about or we may know nothing at all.

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES

Vikram Chandra: Welcome back to Gadget Guru. Well we're just a few days away from the launch of Windows 8 and of course we are going to be featuring that at great length right here on Gadget Guru. But, Surface, which is the tablet that Microsoft is coming out with, is also something that's been attracting a certain amount of attention and we are now starting to get some details about it. Here's a quick look.

NEW TABLET ON THE MARKET - SURFACE

Tablets are a category that Apple bought back from the dead or invented depending on how you look at it. They have dominated the tablet category now with the iPad; but now, with fresh contenders washing up Apple's shores, that domination will seemingly cease to exist.

Let's look at one from Microsoft, the Surface. Microsoft has been building a lot of hype on their Surface for a while now. It's their first foray into the tablet space and the early press leading up to it has got a lot of people excited. It's easy to see why. The device itself looks quite stunning, made with a material called VaporMG. The casing is durable, light and has a watch-like finish. Coupled with the fact that it will run Windows 8, it has given Microsoft a lot of eyeballs in years leading up to October 26th. There will be two versions of Surface at launch, one with Windows RT and one with full version of Windows 8. The Surface with RT is built from the ground up for ARM devices and Windows RT will not have support for legacy apps. An easier way of understanding this would be saying that it will run only Windows 8 apps compared to the full version and will not run app designed for the older version of Windows, whereas the full version will support both.

Pre-order pricing for the Surface with RT starts at $499 without the touch cover. Though we suspect people will opt for the $599 deal with the touch cover, a potential problem here with the pricing seems to be taking the iPad head on. While that is perfect, many expected the price to be lower especially for the RT with limited support to apps and the young app ecosystem at launch. The touch and type covers are also pricey and start from $119.

The verdict is still out on whether Microsoft will succeed with Surface, but they have made a good start, although dampened a bit by the pricing. Still if Microsoft can build a consistent app ecosystem with both the versions of the tablet, they may have a winner on their hands.

SNAP JUDGEMENT

Vikram Chandra: Moving to Snap Judgment, we have a product that I think is really, really interesting. It's the deejaying console, if you like, of the future, or at least of the present. It has got two docks. You can put two iPods or two iPhones into it and you can mix between the two. Of course, I suspect it has the old connectors, so if you're using lighting, you've got a problem.

Shaina Kumar: This week on Snap Judgment, you have technology at its innovative best, where we have something to get that party started, another one to catch your favorite moments and then a phone that's all set to find space in your pocket. So let the fun begin.

PHILLIPS MINI HI-FI SYSTEM

This Mini Hi-Fi system has a twin deck rotatable docking systems for playing and charging your iPod or iPhone, has MP3 link for portable video playback. It also comes with MAX sound for instant power boost, 300-watt speaker dock, which features 5.25-inch woofers and 2-inch tweeters. The DJ app can be used only for iPhone or iPod.

So you have a near DJ in the house today. Well, with this, just anybody can become one. This has digital sound control, so you can very well optimize your settings, you can mix dynamic lighting in it for dancing to the beat and then there is a DJ application for scratching and mixing music. So, quite an interesting gadget we have here.

NIKON S800C

So the music certainly pleased me. Now let's see if this camera can also click. The Nikon S800C has a slender body, has a 4.8-inch touch screen which is smooth, runs on Android 2.3, has good built-in connectivity options and instant sharing is quite easy. It also has GPS for geo tagging. The OS still needs to be customized.

Though it is a good-looking camera; its biggest drawback is that the response time is slow, limit on the OS but the fact of the matter is that this camera still needs a lot of work.

So the camera, in my view, needs some finishing touches.

MTAG 351

Let's see if this phone can find some space in my pocket, the MTAG 351. This phone looks sporty, has a 3.5-inch smooth touch screen, runs on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, has a 3MP back camera, and a front VGA camera. Games at times become slow because of the processor.

This phone here looks solid, fits easily in the hand and the touch isn't that bad either. So a decent phone but then if you're not very fond of CDMA, then you might want to consider other phones in the market in the same price range.

THE PLANET OF APPS

Vikram Chandra: Welcome back to Gadget Guru and let's move to our App Section now. Something which causes me a great deal of angst is that some of the best music streaming services out there like Pandora don't really work if you have the apps in places like India for whatever reason; they think it's going to help in piracy or they don't have licenses, you just can't get them to work in proper apps in India. But I'm sure you can, if you do all sorts of funky things like getting behind a Hotspot Shield or a VPN; though for most people, it's really tough to get it to work. New services keep on coming out and keep on getting launched. Let's see if any one of them can perhaps be a little easier to use. Here's another one, Rdio.

APP REVIEW: RDIO

This week on Apps, an app that allows you to carry your favorite part of a webpage wherever you go and another one that helps you discover new music.

Ever wandered on to a site and wanted to save a portion of it that contains information you might want to use in the future. Well, now you can. Create account, log in and clip away. Take portions of the website you might want to use later and your box account is automatically updated with the information for you to access on the move. You can then use the bookmark clip feature for easy clicking if you're using the Safari browser, a fantastic app that helps you get the information you need quickly.

Rdio is an app that helps you discover new music on the go, even when you have no internet connection. With access to over eighteen million songs you're bound to discover something that you like. You can even follow along in all the activity from the people you follow on the app to see what music they listen to. With the vast category of music both new and old, there's a lot where to choose from.

(This episode of Gadget Guru was aired on October 20, 2012)