I Have A Dream by Rashmi Bansal

Have A Dream is the story of 20 idealists who think and act like entrepreneurs. They are committed to different causes, but they have one thing in common: a belief that principles of management can and must be used to achieve a greater common good. These stories say one thing loud and clear change starts with one person, and that person could be someone next door. Someone like you.

The book is of three types of people, “RAINMAKERS”, “CHANGEMAKERS”, and “THE SPIRITUAL CAPITALIST”. ‘CASTE AWAY‘, ‘THE SOUND OF SILENCE’, ‘THE HUNGRY TIDE’, ‘TEACH A MAN TO FISH’, ‘THE NAKED TRUTH’, ‘THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR’, ‘SOUL FOOD’ and ‘LEAD KINDLY, LIGHT‘ are awe-inspiring stories. With references, and section titled ‘ADVICE TO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS’, the author has reflected upon individual characters wonderfully.

The book is a mixture of people who dream big, live in it, and innovate to achieve it. It runs across various social issues, and finally achieving it. One of the best collections of social enterprises where the motive is to do good and not charity. ‘CASTE AWAY’, it was conceptualized to realize Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a “Clean India”.

‘What do you do when a courier man comes to your doorstep? Just sign to collect your parcel and that’s what initiated the idea for Dhruv Lakra, a young man to start “Mirakle Couriers” An incident in a bus journey made Dhruv realize deaf people can be employed too. And the best point was a courier company where the customer need not communicate verbally. “Just sign to collect your parcel”. Wow… ‘SOUL FOOD’, with stories of Akshaya Patra, where they serve meals to many schools, is the one of the best.

The author’s effort to make the book simple, thoughtful and innovative is commendable. With inspiring examples of brilliant writing, this book is a perfect read for any youth entrepreneur. I am sure the book fulfils the aim of aspiring entrepreneurs.

‘The more you give, the more you will get back.’ Now, it is your turn to buy one for you to get more from this awe-inspiring book.

Rashmi’s second book, ‘Connect the Dots’(Click to get the review of this book) focuses on non-MBA entrepreneurs. It has also been a bestseller, selling over 100,000 copies. Her third book ‘I Have a Dream’, on social entrepreneurs, published by Westland is releasing in June 2011. Rashmi is co-founder and editor of JAM (Just another Magazine), India’s leading youth magazine. She writes extensively on youth, careers and entrepreneurship on her blog: Youth Curry.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1i

The Xperia X1 is a new phone from Sony Ericsson powered by Windows Mobile 6.1. It has amazing build quality and is smaller than I expected from seeing the press shots and other reviews. The X1 is somewhat of a prodigy. It brings an intriguing Panel interface to the world of Windows Mobile, plus a slick design and arc-sliding keyboard. Sony Ericsson is calling the X1 a “game changer” – throwing unseen marketing might behind the device in hopes of getting attention from those from the entire smartphone community

Hardware

The first thing you will notice is the truly great build quality of this device. Having had other HTC devices mainly made from plastics this is a classy build with nice metals and solid feel.

Yes it does have a 3.5mm headphone jack which is very useful when you just want to plug in regular headphones. The Xperia comes with a nice set of in-ear noise suppressing earphones which come in two parts, main lead with a mic and female 3.5 so you can plug in either the supplied headphones or your own expensive one.

Here is the fish Panel. It’s simple, but simple on purpose. It gives you the date and time. The gray fish will turn red when your battery is low. The small orange fish will turn gray when the sound is turned off. The large orange fish will turn gold when you have an unread message. And there’s a fourth fish that only comes on the screen when you have a missed call.

This is the slick multimedia Panel that is completely finger-friendly, and has great animations that is somewhat reminiscent of Windows Media Center.

This is the FM radio Panel. You can only use the FM radio through the Panel – there is no program for it elsewhere.

This is the FM radio Panel. You can only use the FM radio through the Panel – there is no program for it elsewhere.

Here is the Google Panel from where you can initiate a Google search or use their other services. Calling up this panel to do a search is slightly faster than opening up a browser through the Start menu.

If you hit the left button on the bottom, or swipe your finger left, you get the application launcher. This is all customizable.

CAMERA

Here is a macro shot using the selective autofocus. The colors are vibrant and the object in the foreground is very much in focus.

CONS

Poor one-handed usability
Choice of Panels is currently scarce
Recessed screen traps debris
No case/screen protector included
No voice recognition software
microSD slot is under battery cover
Lacks an accelerometer

For more Sony Ericsson Mobiles click here

Nikon COOLPIX P500 Digital Camera

The Nikon Coolpix 500 has set new standards with the ultrazoom which stands at 36x, currently the largest in the class and well past the 26x zoom of the P100. But while Nikon went long on the zoom multiplier, they went wide on the lens.

The P500 is a virtual twin of P100 on the outside – size and weight are very similar but the new camera packs some new hardware over and above that bigger lens. Resolution of the backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor jumps to 12.1 megapixels from 10.3 and there is a new EXPEED C2 dual image processor, a first for the Coolpix line (and a harbinger of things to come with the pro DSLRs, I think – see if the D4 and D400 don’t carry dual processors when they appear later this year).

The 3.0-inch LCD monitor gets a big resolution boost to 921,000 dots and there’s an additional zoom control (called the side zoom control) located on the lens barrel. Full HD video returns and a new shooting mode button lets you access continuous frame shooting or other specialized capture features like Best Shot Selector without resorting to internal menus. Internal memory jumps to 102 megabytes and the camera accepts SD/SDHC/SDXC memory media. Nikon includes a camera strap, rechargeable Li-ion battery, AC charging adapter, USB and AV cables, lens cap, printed quick-start manual and CD-ROM software with each camera.

AC charging adapter? Yep, the P500 continues the P100 practice of having to charge the battery in the camera, and you probably already know what I think of that arrangement. Nikon also makes an external charger. And while we’re on the subject, how about a complete printed user’s manual, not a quick-start manual with the complete one relegated to the CD-ROM?

The P500 succeeds the P100 and the P100 proved a nicely capable camera. Let’s see how the new kid on the block measures up.

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

One of the most enigmatic personality of our times, Steve Jobs, and a great leader has his life written on page in this book. Steve Jobs was a complicated man, and he meant different things to different people. Many loved him, while others hated him, but almost no one disrespected him. What Walter Isaacson’s masterful biography reveals is that both the true believers and the cynics got Jobs wrong.

The book is structured into three main sections. In the first section, Walter Isaacson, the author of the book, explores the how Apple began, the computer company Jobs founded with former partner and fellow tech-whiz Steve Wozniak. This section documents the rise of Apple and Jobs’ eventual ouster from the company. It goes on to describe how Jobs reinvented himself as one of the instrumental leaders of the world-famous Pixar animation studio.

The next section of Isaacson’s volume is about Jobs’ triumphant return to Apple after the company purchased Jobs’ NeXT brand. It was at this time that Jobs regained his position as Apple’s CEO, and began introducing the lineup of Macintosh computers that would take the world by storm.

In the book’s third main section, the story of Apple’s resurrection under Jobs is fleshed out by detailing Jobs’ involvement in introducing the world to the iPod, iPad, and other amazing innovations.

The book does not flinch when it takes a look at the man behind so many wondrous creations, and it describes Jobs’ successes in as much detail as his failures. Although the book is fascinating, reading it leaves one with the impression that the story of Jobs could easily fill another 600 pages. But no single volume could ever paint a complete portrait of the life and times of Steve Jobs, on this account Isaacson’s book succeeds in many ways.

You can buy it from here.

Spice MI-310

Spice has certainly jumped with both feet into the Indian mobile market with the launch of its Mi-310 Android based smartphone. The company has come a long way from making entry-level phones in a very short period of time, to making quality devices of this nature. We recently reviewed the Huawei IDEOS U8150, and the price of Mi-310 beat it by a grand and a half, let’s hope it’s not only the price that’s better with this one

Design and Build Quality

The bar designed Mi-310 is a simple phone to look at with a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, there is a track pad at the bottom of the screen and designated keys for volume and camera, a micro-USB port at the bottom and a 3.5mm headset jack on the top at the centre. The power off/ sleep button is small and is placed on the left of the headset jack on the top, you could miss it as it fuses exceptionally well with the black border that runs along the side of the entire device. After locating it the first time, it was simple to operate and use on a regular basis without missing it. In addition to this, there are four designated touch sensitive buttons at the bottom of the screen being home, menu, back and search like there are on most Android phones. For some reason the middle two buttons (menu and back) light up brighter than the two on the extreme ends, this can be distracting on the eyes. Or, maybe this could be the case with the review sample we received. The mic is on the face of the phone itself, not under as in the case of most mobiles out in the market, it actually did help in the clarity of the call.The phone comes in a single color: brown, though this may not be the color of choice for me.

Features
Interface
The Mi-310 is powered by Google’s Android 2.2 FroYo and as with all Android based devices the functionality of this phone is simple yet, very admirable. It has been fitted with a 3.5-inch capacitive HVGA screen though there is a slight lag and can sometimes be a tad bit frustrating while playing games or typing. There are five different home screens which are customizable through press, drag and drop. There is a slight stuttering while browsing through the different home screens which happens on an occasional basis and while it’s not often it can still be a bit bugging at times. Multi tasking on the Mi-310 is good as it runs the last eight apps quite seamlessly without slowing down or shutting down any of the recent apps.

Camera

The 2 mega pixel rear facing camera is nothing to boast about, it performs on an average basis. The picture and video quality is much better in a bright setting as compared to low light areas.

Performance
The call quality of the Mi-310 is excellent; there was no stuttering, call drops, or disturbances even in areas where there was low cellular reception.

Connectivity
So now with 3G being supported on almost all carriers in India; this is a feature that can hardly be overlooked. Along with 3G there is also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 for data transfer and connectivity purposes.

Miscellaneous Features
With the built in Android Market app the amount of apps available are extensive; With the GPS and AGPS functions on the phone, you can perform functions such as location tracking or directions tracking. It is a little impossible to get lost with this phone except get lost into it.

Verdict
This is a phone that has excellent value for money and with its Android based operating software it is a strong recommendation for people who are just entering into the Android world. However, even though I strongly recommend this phone, it still should be noted that it is an entry-level smartphone as far as Androids are concerned. If you’re on a somewhat tight budget, the Mi-310 should definitely be your first choice if you are looking for a touchscreen phone.