Blog | Shweta Taneja

July 8, 2013June 16, 2016

How to be invisible online

In an age when we’re slowly losing our privacy, here’s what you can do to hide your tracks

The days of privacy online are fast coming to an end. In April, the Union government quietly began rolling out the Central Monitoring System (CMS), a one-stop surveillance service that will monitor not only your cellphones (voice calls, SMS, MMS) but also your online activity (social networking sites, browsing content, and possibly more).

Much like the PRISM surveillance programme run by the US government (which collects the personal online information of its citizens without informing them), the CMS can bypass mobile companies and dig directly into phone calls, texts, emails and social media activity. PRISM was largely unknown to the public until a whistleblower disclosed the details recently after fleeing to Hong Kong.

“If the government wants to track certain people for the security of this country, that’s not the problem,” says Delhi-based Anja Kovacs, project director of the Internet Democracy Project, which researches on and advocates online freedom. “The problem is that there’s no clarity from the government on who can see what all of this private information about you. Who can access your information? Under what circumstances and why?”

By law, all cyber cafés in the country are already supposed to keep a log on who you are and which sites you visited while at the café. Even activity on private Internet connections is tracked by your Internet service provider (ISP), which is legally bound to share it with government agencies if requested.

“Ideally all of us should have a choice to be anonymous. What if I have some embarrassing sexually-transmitted disease on which I am talking to a doctor online? I am not doing anything illegal but it’s embarrassing for me if someone finds out about it,” says Kovacs. There are times when you don’t want anyone, be it your ISP, the government, the media, your neighbour, your spouse, or Trojan Horses to peep into what you are doing. For those times, here’s how you can become “almost” invisible online.

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Create a private network

Who doesn’t like the word free? It’s quite tempting to use free Wi-Fi on your smartphone while waiting for that flight or having a cup of coffee, but it’s far from safe. Data sent across a public Wi-Fi is usually completely unencrypted, so to spy on you, people only need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as you.

To avoid this and still use the free Wi-Fi, install Hamachi, which creates a Virtual Private Network (VPN) between two computers via the Internet. Once installed, you can connect to your always-on home computer through the public Wi-Fi and then visit any websites securely.

Hamachi is free and works for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Stash the cookies

Cookies are those tiny little logs that websites dump on your computer every time you visit them. With these on your computer, the websites can then track your activity on their pages and sometimes (as in the case of the Facebook “Like” button or the Twitter “Follow” button), even track your activity on other websites. These cookies can be blocked with a simple plug-in DoNotTrackMe.

DoNotTrackMe is free and can be used for Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

Clean it all

Begin with a clean chit by deleting all the temporary files, history and cookies indices your usual Internet browser might have stored about you. All in the name of better service or quicker loading. CCleaner is the ultimate broomstick that will wipe away all the flotsam from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and log files from both Windows and Mac PCs.

CCleaner is available for Rs.1,593.63.

Tidy up the torrents

Every time you’re using torrents to share files, the ISP can track your name, and also track where you’re downloading the files from. If you’re downloading anything personal in nature, then it’s best to add protection by using the BTGuard, which is a proxy server and encryption service.

The BTGuard uses a virtual fake address to funnel your Internet traffic through another server, so that it cannot be traced back to you.

BTGuard costs $6.95 (around Rs.415) a month or $59.95 for 12 months.

Keep the firewall up

You might be protected and anonymous to your Internet service provider (ISP) and hide your computer’s identity, but simple Trojan Horses can grab those documents from right under your nose and send them off to someone else. The solution is a Firewall, a necessary evil for today’s connected times. Either Avast or Clamav will protect your computer from trojans, viruses, malware and malicious threats.

Avast Antivirus works for Windows and Mac and Clamav works for Windows. Both are free.

Encrypt emails

When you send an email to someone, its plain text passes through servers across countries, making copies. Which means that anyone who can access any of those servers can read the message. Companies monitor the emails sent by employees and governments monitor the emails sent by citizens. The most problematic are phishing networks which might be able to abuse private message content sent in an email.

All this can be checked if the message is an encrypted one, not plain text. The easiest email client for this is Mozilla Thunderbird—an email client like Microsoft Outlook, but with better security. With an Enigmail extension, it lets you encrypt the email by clicking a little key icon on the lower right of the Compose windows.

Mozilla Thunderbird is free and works for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Use a Web-based proxy

Just like your home, your computer has a unique address called its Internet Protocol or IP address. When you log in online or open a Web page, this address goes through your Internet service provider (ISP) to the website you are trying to log in to. Both the website and the ISP use that IP to track your activity. A Web-based proxy creates a virtual address for your computer so that your real IP address remains hidden when you are online. Proxify (Proxify.com) is a paid, one-click install system for Windows or Mac or Firefox browsers which encrypts all communication and hides your IP address. If you don’t mind advertisements, there are many online Web-proxies you can use to get a virtual IP address.

For a list of free online services head to Free Proxy (www.freeproxy.ca). But do remember that any proxy website you use may be able to see and store your user names, passwords, credit information, etc. Or, in some cases, even read your email. Because of this, a paid service is generally a safer option.

Proxify is available for Rs.2,400 for three months.

First published on Jun 25, 2013 Mint. Read the complete article here.

June 19, 2013June 16, 2016

Monsoon-proof gadgetry

From phones that work underwater to cloaks that will protect your devices in a deluge, we’ve got you covered

The skies rumble ominously. You look up in terror, knowing that this rain is sure death for the little black gadget in your hand. With panic, you hide your smartphone, coming between it and the rain, wiping its screen clear of tears.

All that gadgetry, all the chips and the delicate units, everything that cost you thousands of rupees, will turn to junk if those few drops of water hit it.

The monsoon has stopped being fun. Or has it? We list gadgets that can not only bear a few drops of rain but also jump into the pool with you.

Olympus Stylus TG-2

Tough weather screams for a tough camera to record it. The Olympus Stylus TG-2 is a mini tank of a camera which can survive in -10 degrees Celsius temperature, a fall of 7ft, and a weight of almost 100kg on it. It can also survive 50ft underwater.

The camera is meant for rugged, adventure hogs who love to be outdoors, be it rain or storm. It comes fitted with a high-speed, bright lens which allows good pictures in low light and high-speed action shots without blurring.

Plus, it comes with an inbuilt GPS and e-compass to throw some statistic on that perfect shot. And with 12 MP resolution and 4x optical zoom, you will get many good macro pictures as well.

Rs.22,999, at Olympus dealers across the country. It will start selling in July.

Stash Shorts

Become rain-ready by stashing all your precious gadgets into the ultimate waterproof pocket created for a pair of shorts. Stash Incorporated tried to raise funds to make these shorts through the online funding platform Kickstarter.

While the project couldn’t raise funds, the shorts got a lot of media coverage for their patented waterproof pocket, and the company was able to raise the money independently.

Stash Incorporated is now producing and dispatching these shorts. The pocket is attached to the interior of the shorts and is closed with a sealproof cap.

$69-75 (around Rs.Rs 4,000-4,350) per pair, at Facebook.com/StashIncorporated. Shipping charges extra.

Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite

If you love to read in the rain, the Waterproof Kindle is the thing for you. Waterfi, the company behind the waterproofing, sells a waterproofed version of the Kindle Paperwhite which will make it safe even 210ft under water, forget a few or more splashes of raindrops as you sit in the rain and read.

The Paperwhite Kindle is one of the most advanced e-readers out there, with a backlit screen with which you can read in the sun. It has eight weeks of battery life, built-in Wi-Fi and space for about 1,100 e-books.

Waterfi adds a whopping $80 (around Rs.4,640) to the bill to coat it with its patented dual protection, which insulates it against corrosion and water, but then, you can take it anywhere, from the pool to the ocean.

$219.99 on Waterfi.com; $35 extra for international shipping.

Aquapac Wet and Dry Backpack

Keep all the electronic stuff safe and sound in this waterproof backpack. The bag comes with internal pockets, a key pocket, and external pockets to keep a bottle.

The fabric is TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) coated with taped seams so water cannot seep in, even if the bag is submerged.

It also comes with an internal pocket so that you can separate dry and wet things (or dirty and clean things) if required.

Rs.3,990, at www.outdoortravelgear.com .

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE ON THE LIVEMINT.COM WEBSITE

May 29, 2013June 16, 2016

How to keep your gadgets cool

Like you, your gadgets too fry in the heat. Here’s how you can keep them cool

It was March and financial consultant Dilip C.G. was riding his Royal Enfield in Mumbai when his new iPad, strapped to the petrol tank, shut down with a warning: “iPad needs to cool down before you can use it”.

Shocked, he parked his vehicle and tried to switch it back on. The iPad was scorching hot to the touch and would not respond. “I felt stranded,” says the 33-year-old, who was using the iPad for maps, and to record his road trip. “I had no choice but to wait. Thankfully, it came back on after it had time to cool down in the shade.”

Dilip was lucky that the iPad’s built-in heat sensor shut it down—otherwise, his expensive device would have become useless.

“Gadgets are designed to run at a certain temperature,” says Bangalore-based Anandaroop Bhattacharya, a PhD research scientist who designs thermal management systems for electronic devices. “As you use a device, its temperature tends to go up, till it reaches a certain limit. Any higher than that and the delicate circuitry in the CPU will melt.” For most devices, an ideal operating climate is 0-35 degrees Celsius. In summer, since temperatures are already soaring, overuse of smart devices would mean they reach the overheat limit faster.

It’s for this reason that laptops come with fans to cool them—something you can’t exactly fit on a smartphone. Bhattacharya suggests shutting off the Wi-Fi, 3G and multiple apps and sticking to your phone’s basic features whenever possible. “If your phone’s outer casing becomes hot to touch while talking, it’s time to give it some rest,” he says.

What are the other things you need to know? Read on and find out.

Keep it dust-free. Dust particles cause the device to heat up faster by clogging ventilation. Open up your device once in two months and clean up the interior with a clean cloth. Clean up the battery area, the back cover and the hidden corners. In a laptop, don’t block the cooling vents with anything.

Seek shade. If you think it’s too hot to stand in the sun, it’s the same for your device. Direct sunlight heats up your device and can easily damage the components. So when you’re in the car and using the phone’s speakers, for example, don’t leave the phone in direct sunlight on the dashboard, keep it in a pocket instead.

Flush out the background apps. Social networks and other apps constantly connect to the Internet to push notifications on your devices. These apps use RAM even when you are not around your phone. That in turn causes the phone to heat up. To keep your phone cool in summer, switch off the automated background tasks that your phone might be doing.

Disable battery hoggers. Everything that drinks up the battery life of your device will cause it to overheat. That includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G and 4G connections. When not in use, switch them off. Get inside, in an air-conditioned space, and then use the phone’s battery-draining features.

Wait before you store. Many a time, we hurriedly switch off the laptop or tablet and put it in the bag without waiting for it to cool. This traps the heat which the running laptop is generating in the padded cell instead of releasing it into the air. This small action hurts your battery life as well as your device. Be it a tablet or a laptop, make sure it’s shut down completely and is cool to touch before you pack it away.

Switch it off. It might be a machine but it still needs rest. You don’t need your phone, tablet or laptop to be on while you are sleeping. Give it an hour’s rest or switch it off for the night. It reserves power and gives the circuits time to cool down.

DON’T

Leave it in the car. A car parked in the sun without the air conditioning on is the easiest way to kill your smart device’s battery. The heat that collects in the oven-like, closed car can make your touch screen unresponsive, drain its battery and in extreme cases, even toast the battery. If there’s absolutely no choice, open the windows of the car 1mm so that the hot air inside can escape.

Hug it and sleep. Your body generates heat. Enough heat to warm up your device. Don’t keep your phone stuck to your body all day long. It heats up the phone and it might not be too good for you either.

Keep it on your lap. The heat generated from a laptop can be really uncomfortable on your legs—and worse, with a laptop, your clothing might end up inadvertently blocking the vents, causing the device to heat up even more quickly. Instead, keep your devices on cool, flat surfaces like tabletops. Increase the gap between the table and the laptop with a coaster or two. This will ensure that your device gets fresh air on all sides while you play.

Use bulky protective cases. Shockproof and waterproof cases may not be heatproof. They might save your phone or tablet from getting damaged but they act like overcoats in the summer for your phone. Leather, plastic prevent your phone from breathing, overheating it. For summers, get a cover in fabric that breathes.

Read the complete article on the Livemint.com website.

April 17, 2013June 16, 2016

Time to augment your world

Augmented reality apps raise the bar by putting a virtual layer of information over your real world.

You see the Taj Mahal, point your phone at it, and facts about it come up on screen. Or, through the screen, virtual spaceships and robots can dance in your empty living room. You can also take pictures with them.
Augmented reality (AR) puts a virtual layer of information over your real world. It supplements your everyday life with information, images, sounds, and other sensory information from your device.
It’s been around for a while now, but we’re still figuring out how to use it. Google Glass has given us a glimpse of what could be possible with augmented reality when brought straight to your vision, without the need to hold up your phone. Microsoft has patented augmented reality glasses that will enhance sports and live events with streams of information directly beamed in front of the user’s eye (including action replays).
But till these devices are available, here are some of the AR apps you can use on your smartphone.

HP Live Photo
Send a postcard with an embedded video using this app—you can print a photograph that comes alive when someone holds their smartphone over it. To do this, you need an iPhone, a video and the HP Live Photo app, and an Airprint-enabled HP printer. Choose the video and then pick a frame to print, using the app. The app prints it with a marker, so that when the image is scanned by another iPhone with the app, the video will play.
Free, iPhone only.
BallStrike
Combining fitness with AR, BallStrike makes you kick and punch virtual balls, keeping you fit. Once the app is installed, stand in front of your device’s front camera and you’ll show up on screen, along with your surroundings. Just make sure the room’s well lit, there’s enough space for free movement, and you stand at a distance from the device.
The screen will fill with colourful balls, and you have to hit them—each hit is worth points, but you have to avoid obstacles like bombs, so you’re going to have to twist, turn and jump to hit every ball. The app detects motion using the camera, and uses that to calculate the calories burnt after each of the 12 rounds. It can also take pictures of the game that you can share online later.
Free, on iOS; Android and Windows Phone 8 versions are coming soon.
Reading Lens
Reading Lens is a simple AR app that helps people who need reading glasses. If you’ve forgotten your glasses at home just pull out your phone and point it at the text you want to read—the app will automatically enlarge the text, and can even use the phone’s flashlight as a lamp in case the lighting is poor.
$0.99 (around Rs.55), on Windows Phone 8.
Nasa’s Spacecraft 3D
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa’s) Spacecraft 3D is amazing. First it lets us see live images sent by the Curiosity rover on Mars. Now, it takes AR a step further, letting you imagine you are the captain of one of the spacecraft Nasa operates across the solar system. Choose from Curiosity on Mars, Grail on the Moon, Cassini on Saturn, Juno cruising to Jupiter, Dawn cruising to Ceres, or Voyager, which plans to leave the solar system. Once you have decided which one, print an image of Nasa’s AR Target on a piece of paper and point your device camera at the target.
On your screen, the paper will turn into a spacecraft that you can control. See the robotic explorers, raise and lower one of their robotic arms, manoeuvre the high-gain antenna, and do other fun stuff. To add to the fun, the app has an option where you can take your photograph with the spacecraft by putting yourself in the picture.
Free, on Android and iOS.
Ingress
A game created by Google, Ingress is about a war between two factions, the Enlightened and the Resistance. You have to choose your side at the beginning of the game. Once you have, your immediate environment and space (you could be anywhere in the world) becomes your gameplay. You have to physically reach a public space which is designated as a portal. The portal could be held by you or your enemy. If it’s an enemy spot, you hack into the portal and make it yours. As you play, your phone directs you to the portals through GPS and leads the way with pointers and maps.
The objective is to collect objects around you, tap sources of energy or capture enemy territory. As a player you can send photos of locations to Google to be included as a portal, but there’s no guarantee that it will be, so you might not have many currently in your city to start playing. But it’s an exciting new game nonetheless. Ingress is in closed beta right now. You can request an invite at Ingress.com. It will be available for free on Google Play soon.
Free (limited availability for now), on Android.
Read the complete article in HT Mint.
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Live-browse your world
Most of the existing AR apps have fun uses, or are very helpful in highly specific scenarios, but they don’t change your day-to-day life. Apps like Wikitude and Layar, which can change your life, are being developed, but not too many people know about them yet.
If you are in a new neighbourhood or exploring a new city, instead of using Google to find something to do, look through an AR browser and you will find restaurants, monuments, hotels and other places of interest. Apps like Wikitude, Layar, Junaio and Nokia City Lens throw live information on your device’s screen. All you need to do is to point your camera in a certain direction and everything, from a coffee shop to an ATM, will pop up on your screen.

Read the complete article in HT Mint.

April 11, 2013June 16, 2016

Look in coworking spaces for soulmates

Be it guidance, inspiration, contacts or greater efficiency, people who work out of shared spaces tell us why this is the best option for them

Summer Starr, of the NGO Reality Gives, has retained her co-working membership at Bombay Connect. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint.<br /><br />

When Ramesh Kumar V. moved his start-up from Salem, Tamil Nadu, to Bangalore, he chose to work from Jaaga rather than renting an exclusive office. “I want to expand, find more clients and build a network for myself,” he says. “What better place for me than a space that works as a start-up ecosystem and has a ready community of people who are doing new and interesting things?”

Jaaga is a co-working hub which rents out space and infrastructure to artistes, designers and activists.

Within six months of shifting, Kumar has expanded his team to four people, found clients and learnt how to run his business efficiently. “Two of my clients are start-ups working out of Jaaga. For one of them, I did a project in exchange for contacts,” he says. Now, he has found funding too for his enterprise thanks to the people he met at Jaaga. Even though it tends to get noisy and the Wi-Fi is slow on weekdays, he doesn’t mind.

Connect to chat

It’s networking with others like her that makes Summer Starr go back to Bombay Connect, a co-working space in Mumbai for NGOs and social enterprises. Starr worked out of Bombay Connect three years ago, when it was known as Bombay Hub. As the executive director of Reality Gives, an NGO that collaborates on projects for underprivileged communities, Starr now has her own office but has retained a membership to the co-working hub. “More than space, which I don’t really require now, I get to connect to other social organizations as part of the network,” she says.

Through various workshops and events, Starr has met social entrepreneurs in marketing, technology and finance. Over a few months, her NGO has also collaborated with two other social enterprises, thanks to the people she has met through Bombay Connect events. “You feel like you belong to this group, like they have the same problems as you do, and that they can help,” she says.

“This community-focused new model is working way better for us,” says Ricardo Goncalves, community engagement manager, Bombay Connect. The co-working space has a robust community of social entrepreneurs and NGOs. Even though the prices for membership per person per month are high (from Rs.999 for just attending events and being part of the online community to Rs.7,200 for unlimited access to events, the community, meeting rooms and a space), the place is full, with at least 50 members working from there at all times. All because of the community it attracts and the calendar that is chock-a-block with events and workshops through the year.

Increased productivity

Film-maker Ritu Bhardwaj says sharing an office has made her efficient. “Working alone is boring. You tend to procrastinate, get frustrated and a little too comfortable in your pyjamas,” she says. After a disastrous year of trying to work from home, Bhardwaj hired a workstation for Rs.4,500 a month at the BMS Business Centre, a shared office space in Connaught Place, Delhi. “Though all of us in the office are independent workers, I still have a sense of belonging,” she says. Since the space has a diverse set of people—from legal experts, to corporate trainers and start-ups, among others, the learning never stops. “We constantly give advice to each other, bounce off ideas, and talk about our experiences,” says the 27-year-old.

Brijesh Bharadwaj, co-founder of Web start-up Tune Patrol (that sells indie music online), agrees with Ritu Bhardwaj. Bharadwaj has been working out of Jaaga with two colleagues since January. “There’s an energy in the space. All of us are young, have ambition and great ideas. We see other start-ups working hard and try and work harder than them,” he says. The little bit of competition and comparing notes keeps Bharadwaj on his toes at all times.

Extra zing

Shalini Singh runs the public relations (PR) company, Galvanise PR, which has offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad—both are shared with other start-ups. “I could have rented an exclusive apartment as an office for the same money, but I prefer to share offices,” she says.

Singh says sharing space with people of a similar age but from different professions boosts team morale and keeps the space lively and energetic. It also helps her team of four—most of whom are in their first jobs—learn new things. For example, no one in her team is technically inclined, but since they sit with technology start-ups, they have learnt how to solve laptop issues and work their way through a presentation. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. “My team interacts and learns from different kinds of people doing things other than PR, and I don’t have the headache of running office infrastructure,” she explains.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Don’t sign up blindly. Go through this checklist before you say yes to a co-working space.

Take a trial run: Try the space to see if it’s a good fit for you. Most co-working places have options to work for a day or a week. Make use of that.

Check the noise level: Some spaces are quiet, some have loud music and constant chatter. If you cannot work in noisy places or vice versa, you will not be a good fit.

Look at other members: Co-working is meant for networking. Are the people near you in age, do they belong to your industry or are they at the same level in life (say, start-up)? If yes, you have found your soulmate space. If you aim to network through co-working, see what kind of activities, events and workshops the place holds….

Read the complete story on HT Mint website.

April 1, 2013June 16, 2016

Share ship: How coworking works

Small co-working spaces are mushrooming across the country in a bid to cater to new-age entrepreneurs and freelancers

Earlier this year, Shitij Malhotra, who runs a small children’s education firm in Delhi, converted his office to The Studio, a co-working space where people from different professions can gather and work from.

“I have only four people in my firm right now and it got quite lonely,” says Malhotra. “With others coming to work here, there’s more energy, more people to bounce off ideas with, and a chance to increase your network,” he adds.

The concept of co-working, or the idea of people from different professions working out of a common office, has been building up for the last two years, with places like Moonlighting in Delhi, Bombay Connect in Mumbai and Jaaga in Bangalore, but it seems to have gained critical momentum in the last few months.

91springboard and The Studio in Delhi, The Playce in Mumbai, CoworkInGoa in Goa, Coworking Chennai in Chennai, Bangalore Alpha Lab in Bangalore—all these spaces have come up in the last six months. Malhotra says these spaces do more than just share office facilities, which is something that large business centres like the international chain Regus, BMS Business Centre in Delhi, Golden Square in Bangalore and others already offer. For an individual, both shared offices and co-working spaces cost a similar amount to rent—anywhere between Rs.2,500-8,000 per desk per month, depending on the city, the area and the type of space. What makes a difference is the space itself. “Shared offices are about paying for a desk, getting Internet, a receptionist and an address,” says Malhotra, “whereas a co-working space offers a feeling of a community. It’s an informal place for people who are just starting out, who are doing their own thing but also want to network and help each other out.”

Gargi Shah and Shekhar Gurav, founders of The Playce in Mumbai. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint.

Gargi Shah, co-founder of The Playce in Mumbai, thinks the trend is the outcome of an exponential increase in the number of entrepreneurs, freelancers and people who work on independent projects, and who are looking both for a cheaper place to work from and a sense of community. Shah herself co-founded The Playce when she was looking for an office to meet her students. She bumped into the other co-founder of The Playce, Shekhar Gurav, who wanted an office for his small enterprise in online education. Together, they convinced the owner of a 5,500 sq. ft space in Mumbai, got him to join as a co-founder, and launched The Playce in November.

“We have started this space for people like us who end up working out of coffee shops and bedrooms,” says Shah. She feels that other than becoming more efficient and disciplined because you are going to an “office” space every day, a co-working space also helps you to meet others like you, generate new ideas, and explore different perspectives. “When you bounce off new ideas with someone else, it helps you figure out what you want to do more,” she explains.

Focused on the community

The key idea behind many of the co-working spaces is the need to create an interactive community, and a co-working space goes out of its way to encourage communication. 91springboard in Delhi, for example, has huge informal seating space in its 10,000 sq. ft office with a cafeteria, which has beanbags, games and many corners for a chat over coffee. The idea is not to just offer a desk and high-bandwidth Internet but also a community-focused collaborative environment to encourage the start-up ecosystem. “The entrepreneurial community in Delhi is pretty active but scattered, which is where our space comes in. We don’t only offer a desk, but a membership that will help you to work and interact with others on a business, creative and technical level,” says Anand Vemuri, partner, 91springboard.

This co-working space also offers in-house services that include executing a lease, registering a new company, executing agreements with clients, managing accounts, filing taxes, picking up and delivering invoices, public relations, etc. Other than that, it also offers funding, incubation and direction to select start-ups. “Rather than from co-working, our profits will come when we help some of the start-ups we have funded succeed through the incubation programme,” Vemuri explains.

Like 91springboard, Dutch designer Marlies Bloemendaal, who plans to open Ministry of New in Mumbai in the beginning of May, hopes to offer services like setting up a company, sourcing the right manufacturer, finances, image management, marketing and legal advice aimed at expats or foreigners who want to start shop in this country. “Since I get approached often by newcomers into the country, I thought why not use that to cover the huge rent of this beautiful space?”

It was the studio itself, a quiet, elegant space in the middle of Mumbai in Lalbaug, that made Bloemendaal think of co-working. At Rs.25,000 per month per person, her space doesn’t come cheap, but Bloemendaal is not aiming at freshers. Rather, her target is companies, entrepreneurs, designers, architects from India and abroad. “We are a bit of boutique,” says Bloemendaal. The high-end co-working space will have an open kitchen area, a bar, and Italian coffee. Though she’s yet to open, a line of possible members, ranging from a London start-up, a journalist from Barcelona, Spain, and two architects from New York, US, to graphic designers from Delhi and Pune, have already shown interest.

The next step after opening is to let out the space for small events like exhibitions, lectures, pop-up shops, unplugged music sessions, etc.

Events play an important part in bringing the community into the space and gathering co-workers. The Playce already does all kinds of events, ranging from an all-night hackathon, a music session, to a workshop on cognitive behavioural therapy, to attract different people. More than a focused approach on the kind of community it wants to build, the three co-founders are more or less letting the people who come visiting decide what kind of crowd should be invited in.

“There aren’t many models around us to emulate, we are taking it as it goes,” says Shah. Since the third co-founder owns this space, they save on the rent cost. “We have around two years to experiment and see what it will become.” Meanwhile, word-of-mouth and community-driven events have given them 40 regular (day-wise or week-wise) co-workers in four months.

Evolving culture

The Studio in Delhi. Photo: Pradip Gaur/Mint.

According to Gunasekar Rajaratnam, who is set to launch a co-working space for friends in Chennai this week, sharing space and gossip is fast becoming an evolved work culture. “The idea is not only to share an office but to share your skills, pitch in support to each other when needed and collaborate,” he says. Right now he has one other co-worker and aims to bring in four-five regular co-workers through friends and word-of-mouth so that they can create a professional family to share infrastructure costs, skills, goodwill, time, social capital, a cup of filter coffee or a joke.

Bangalore-based software entrepreneur Ahimanikya Satapathy has opened up his small office to co-working for similar reasons. To help out technology start-ups, Satapathy has been running a meet-up group in Bangalore called Bootstrap Bangalore for about a year. Opening up an office to help out start-ups was the natural next step. In December, he opened Bangalore Alpha Lab, a co-working space, in his own office. “I see lots of people who want to start on their idea, but haven’t been able to and I want to help them,” says Satapathy.

His space is only open to start-ups and that too if he finds them comfortable to work with. “I have been offered more rent by travel agents, call centres and a lawyer, but I have refused. This is not a business for me. I just want to utilize the extra space in my office for something worthwhile,” he explains.

For most of the people who have opened up co-working spaces, it’s not about making a profit. The focus is more on meeting interesting people and creating a space where everyone can thrive. “You hope that you might break even eventually,” says Malhotra, “but at the end of it, running a co-working place doesn’t make much financial sense. Most of us are not doing it for money but to create an innovative space. You need to make sure the space is open at all hours, the infrastructure and supply needs never stop and you eventually end up spending more time and money on it than you get out of it. But you do it, well, because you want to.”

CO-WORKING SPACES IN YOUR CITY

DELHI

91springboard

It has a 10,000 sq. ft place with an open layout that seats 150. High speed Wi-Fi and conference rooms are for members only. A huge cafeteria-cum-hangout space, with unlimited tea/coffee, is meant for networking or events. It’s open only to entrepreneurs and start-ups. Membership starts from Rs.3,999 for 12 days and goes on to Rs.6,999 for 30 days’ use per person. A day’s use costs Rs.499.

Visit: 91springboard.com

Moonlighting

This cooperative villa in south Delhi has a section for work and some rooms to stay. You get a desk, Internet, printing and scanning facilities, and a kitchenette. They also prepare lunch on request. Your résumé will be screened before they say yes. This comes with a fee of Rs.6,000 per month or Rs.950 for four days’ use.

Visit: Moonlighting.in

The Studio

It has a working hall with dedicated space as well as a casual set-up and small conference room. Designed for 15 people, The Studio already has around eight regulars. They are looking for individuals or start-ups to join in. The charge is Rs.5,500 a month per desk with Internet.

Visit: www.facebook.com/coworkingdelhi

MUMBAI

The Playce

With 5,500 sq. ft of space in Mumbai, The Playce already has 40 co-workers ranging from journalists to tech start-ups, social entrepreneurs and programmers. It can host 120 people at a time and provides work desks, cabins, conference rooms, a seminar hall and a game room. It also has a kitchen and a coffee machine…

Read the whole article on the HT Mint website

March 28, 2013June 16, 2016

Terror strikes back with Holi

It made me feel giddy and all ‘holi’ writer-like on Holi yesterday when a Blue Dart courier arrived at my door with a colourful book. Called Celebrate! Holi, the book is an anthology of fiction, activities and legends about the colourful festival of Holi by Hachette India. I have written one of them.

When the editor contacted me in November last year on her plans to make this anthology, I warned her that I can write on Holi but it has to have a supernatural angle to it. After all, I am ‘self-claimed’ fantasy author and it wouldn’t be proper of me to write anything without my ghosts in it. The editor agreed and so the story Terror Strikes Back which is about spring and water balloons was written in the December cold of Delhi. The story is about this meticulous boy who is a self-acclaimed water balloon expert in his colony. That is till he is challenged to target the mysterious Pagla Miyan, an old man who is never seen in daylight and is rumoured to be a vampire who might also like eating kids. I had a blast building this story and laughing while I typed away in a winter balcony. You can buy a copy of Celebrate! Holi on Flipkart or contact me if you are curious about the story.

March 27, 2013June 16, 2016

Great gadgets for the traveller

Whether it’s a computer-in-a-wristband, a fleece jacket with 23 pockets or a sound system that uses solar panels, these gadgets can add that extra zing

StormFly

This nifty device can work wonders for travellers who have to go without Internet’s cloud services and miss the computer back home. StormFly is a handy computer-in-a-wristband which comes with storage space and a bootable open-source OS based on Linux. All you need to do is find a system (most PCs and Macs should work) and plug in StormFly in its USB port. The device will show all your application programs and files. When you are finished using it, simply plug it off and shut down the computer. There will be no file leftovers in the computer you used. Since it’s encrypted, the stored data can’t be accessed by anyone else if you lose the bracelet—a beautiful orange-colour wristband. StormFly also offers cloud back-up of your wrist-computer. The product was successfully funded by crowdsourcing website Kickstarter recently and will start shipping in April.

$59* (around Rs.3,200) at Stormfly.nowcomputing.com.

CamelBak All Clear

This 750ml water bottle not only stores drinking water but also zaps all bacteria using UV technology, powered with a USB cable connected to your laptop. An extra pre-filter ($15) will make sure that all the flotsam and sediments are caught and trapped and you get clean, healthy drinking water on the go. The smart bottle will tell you when the water is ready to drink with an LCD display on the cap.

$99 at Camelbak.com.

Oakley Airwave

Track your descent analytics, incoming calls or text messages as you ski down a slope. The Oakley Airwave is a statistics-full ski-goggle with sensors, including an accelerometer, barometer, GPS, Bluetooth and gyro. As you slope it downwards, the goggle displays all kinds of statistics, including altitude and temperature, on the right-hand side corner of your vision, somewhat like the Terminator all those years back. If you don’t feel futuristic enough, get back online after your descent and see a detailed, second-by-second analysis of your course. The gadget visor comes with Oakley’s promise of moisture-wicking, anti-fog technology, triple-layer polar fleece foam for comfort and glasses that filter out the ultraviolet rays.

$599.95 at www.oakley.com.

Scottevest Fleece 7.0

The Fleece 7.0 is a warm, fashionable fleece jacket which comes with a whopping 23 different pockets for all kinds of electronic gadgets. There is the Quick Draw pocket, which allows you to access your smartphone on the go through a see-through fabric in the side pocket, so you don’t even need to take the phone out. Another trick addition is a hidden pocket for a tablet, a pocket for eyeglasses made of a soft cloth, and a zippered pocket for travel documents. Then there are pockets for a bottle, camera and pen. In case you forget what is where, there’s a map of every pocket. Aren’t you already wishing it was cold enough to wear this?

$160 at www.scottevest.com.

Contour+2

Taking the rage of live action cameras a step further, the Contour+2 is a cylindrical-shaped camera that lets you record up to 120FPS videos in four different modes, including 1080p HD. It comes with a handy on-record switch, a 270-degree rotating lens, a laser beam to show you the direction of the camera, a waterproof case and a huge variety of mounts. If that’s not enough, it ensures that you record all the statistics, whether you are rafting or in the sky, with a built-in Bluetooth and a GPS receiver which can track speed, elevation and distance. Connect it to a smartphone to adjust camera settings and to preview your shot. Since the audio jack is external, expect good voice quality too.

$399.99 at Contour.com.

BioLite CampStove

There’s nothing like hot soup on a camping night out. Replace the tiresome work of making your own campfire with a swanky orange-coloured BioLite CampStove. The stove comes with low fire output in less than a kilogram of weight and uses the twigs you collect, instead of gas or petroleum, to cook. While the food’s cooking, the stove can also recharge your phone, light and other USB-chargeable devices.

$129.95 at www.biolitestove.com.

Eton Rugged Rukus

Rukus is a Bluetooth sound system meant to be taken outdoors with you. It uses solar panels to power the speakers, and to charge a lithium battery so you can use it indoors too…

Read the complete article at Livemint.

March 20, 2013June 16, 2016

Beam me up, in HD!

You have a movie on your smartphone and want to stream it on your television and watch it with friends. Six months ago, the only option you had to do this wirelessly was to go with a branded ecosystem. And there too it was a handful of choices—you needed the right receiver and the right device to make it work. There were a few open-source technologies which tried it, like DLNA by Sony, but they didn’t really catch on in the phone-to-TV market.

But ever since late 2012, when international standards body Wi-Fi Alliance announced Miracast, an open standard to stream wirelessly to your TV, several new devices have been launched that allow wireless streaming. With even Intel adding Miracast to its WiDi technology, the choices for wireless streaming are fast becoming varied. If you’re an early adopter interested in getting your hands on this technology, here are some devices to start streaming your HD movie from your phone wirelessly, now.

Apple TV

Though Apple TV is much more than a device to stream wirelessly, its AirPlay capability is one of the main reasons for its success. The device attaches to your HDTV with an HDMI cable (not included in the pack). Once attached, you need to put both your smartphone and Apple TV on the same Wi-Fi network. Apple will automatically pair any other Apple devices it sees on the network. An icon for AirPlay appears automatically within the video app you are seeing the movie on. All you need to do is click that on your smartphone and the HD video will start showing on your TV.

Like: AirPlay, Apple’s display streaming system, works smoothly and is easy to set up.

Dislike: It works perfectly with Apple’s built-in apps, but many popular third-party apps don’t support it yet. This is changing, but for now you’re really constrained by your iTunes library.

Supports: iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch 2 or later, which are running iOS 5.

Cost: Rs.8,295 at Apple Premium Resellers across the country.

Actiontec ScreenBeam Universal

The device, one of the few open ones, lets you connect both with Miracast- and WiDi-enabled devices. Once paired, you see the screen of your smartphone reflected on the big one. The good part is that ScreenBeam creates a dedicated wireless display connection to your HDTV so it doesn’t require an existing wireless network or even line of sight, and you can use it without a router. The box comes with a receiver, an HDMI cable, a software CD and a user guide.

Like: Actiontec has included a USB transmitter for older laptops that are not Miracast-compatible. If you don’t have Miracast you can still use the device by downloading the software and installing it on your laptop.

Dislike: You need to update the device software to connect it to Miracast-enabled products. For that, you need to email their customer support and wait for them to send you the update. Not intuitive or easy at all.

Supports: Miracast-enabled smartphones.

Cost: $79.99 (around Rs.4,345) on Amazon.com. Shipping charges extra.

Netgear Push2TV PTV3000

Push2TV is a dedicated accessory for wirelessly streaming content from other media to your TV. The device is only slightly bigger than your phone and doesn’t need an extra power socket. It can be plugged into your TV’s spare USB port to power up. Once you connect the device with an HDMI cable to your TV and switch on your Wi-Fi, hold the side button for 3 seconds so that it can come into Miracast mode. Then reach out for your phone and change your Display settings on phone to switch on the Wireless Display. Now select Netgear and pair.

Like: The pocket-sized device comes both WiDi- and Miracast-ready, which lets you pair it with a wide range of devices.

Dislike: Since the technology (Miracast) is quite new, there are slight issues in connecting the box with your smartphone. Expect updates and tinkering before complete success.

Supports: Miracast-enabled smartphones, including Samsung Galaxy S3, Note II, Note 10.1, LG Optimus G, Google Nexus 4 and Sony Xperia’s various models above Android 4.0.4.

Cost: Rs. 5,632 on eBay.in

HTC Media Link HD

Media Link is an exclusive device from HTC to connect its smartphones to your TV. It supports full mirroring, which means you can see whatever’s on your phone displayed on the big screen. The set-up is easy and to connect all you need to do is make a three-finger swipe gesture on your smartphone. To stop sharing, do a downward three-finger swipe. It’s way cooler than a click. There’s a slight lag in what shows on the screen versus what’s on your phone, but that should be fixed in future updates, and doesn’t matter for movies anyway.

Like: It allows you to multitask and use your phone even while the movie you are streaming is on in the dual screen mode. It also doesn’t put much strain on the smartphone’s battery life.

Dislike: It works only with HTC devices and that too only high-end ones.

Supports: The HTC One series.

Cost: Rs. 4,215.99 on in.mobilefun.com

Read the complete story on Livemint website.

March 15, 2013June 16, 2016

Why are ebooks so expensive?

It’s a question that came to me and a friend over coffee when we started to discuss Flyte, the newly launched ebook section of online Indian giant Flipkart. Ebook is not a physical book, it’s not printed on paper, it does not take more money to produce more numbers. It does not need distribution channels which eat off a big cost pie of the publisher. It does not need retail space to be sold. In other words, producing ebooks brings down production, distribution and storage costs for the publisher.

Right? Readers would assume so. For them, ebooks are just another medium but doesn’t exactly mean they own a book. Once you as a reader buy it, you cannot share it with someone or resell it if you don’t like it. In a way as this New York Times article states: You have only rent it from an Amazon or iTunes or Flipkart and your rights on the product are severely limited. You cannot resell and it’s gadget limiting and app-dependent. Logically, if the reader was just renting a book, the ebook’s price should have cost something like a library’s book rental cost – atleast half of the cost of a new book.

Then let us look at what it costs to make an ebook. Most Indian publishers, even the ones who have MNC counterparts, outsource their typesetting work (What is typesetting) to a third-party where plates are made digitally and then a physical final converts into a physical book at the printing press. Since the work is outsourced, the final typeset plates might have been deleted from the printer’s computer or put into raddi . So even if the editors and authors exchange drafts of Word documents and emails, the final version of the book (the typeset one with spacing, font setting and other stuff, etc) is not there in the hand of a publisher, especially in the case of older books, which have already been published say five years ago.

Since most of Indian publishers, especially in non-English languages are still producing books in outsourced press, to convert those into ebooks, they have to incur costs on getting them converted from paperback to OCR (optical character recognition) and then have it professionally proofread for scanning errors. In case they don’t have display rights or digital rights, they might have to procure them. This is a huge roadblock for many smaller traditional Indian publishers.

Then there are new costs associated with producing ebooks. As a New Yorker article put it:

“E-books are cheaper to produce, by about twenty per cent per book, because they do away with the cost of paper, printing, shipping, and warehousing. They also eliminate returns of unsold books—a significant expense, since thirty to fifty per cent of books are returned. But they create additional costs: maintaining computer servers, monitoring piracy, digitizing old books. And publishers have to pay authors and editors, as well as rent and administrative overhead, not to mention the costs of printing, distributing, and warehousing bound books, which continue to account for the large majority of their sales.”

Another article in Huffington Post sums up the costs that it takes to produce an ebook from a publisher’s perspective.

1) Software to create an ebook – Adobe Indesign (One copy costs $699), Photoshop and other softwares to create and edit. Going digital in other words.

2) Cost of hosting the ebooks – maintaining servers themselves or paying rental for third-party hosting service

3) Paying hefty royalty to the new retail giants – “Amazon keeps a bit over 30 percent of every book, because it also charges a “delivery fee” above and beyond the percentage it makes. B&N keeps about 35 percent. Google kept 48 percent on my last report.”

4) More royalty to the author (somewhere between 15-25 percent).

Both New Yorker and Huffington Post’s articles are from old-style publisher point of view. When faced with ebooks, old publishers are panicking and even resorting to illegal measures. In the USA last year, book publishers S&S, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins were sued by the Justice department for colluding to raise ebook prices. Out of these three (S&S, Hachette and HC) coughed up money and gave them back to the US customers who had bought up ebooks from 2010-2012. The USA scene happened because publishers were afraid that ebooks will kill the traditional market practices. Some of the publishers were following the traditional market pricing as they simply were in deep sea—not knowing how to proceed in the ebook market.

The Indian market is still nascent. Most Indian publishers shy away from ebook markets citing piracy fears and the fear of the unknown—technology. This fear converts itself into a new cost, a new way of thinking, a new business model. Copying what you were doing traditionally is not enough to keep you afloat. And they are being pushed by demand from readers who have tablets in their hands and want to see the book on various mediums —different ebook devices, audio, print. This generation likes to be served on individual plates. Their way or the highway.

How does one bridge the gap between the MRP that a publisher wants to put on an ebook vs what the reader is willing to pay for it? Maybe a traditional publisher will come up with a new business model which cuts costs. Or maybe we will see exclusive ebook-selling publishers sprouting around us. The Indian publishers need to drastically change their business models, figure out their costs and see the writing on the wall, that they have to change with this paperless times. Else perish.

As for authors, especially people like me who are just starting in the career of creative writing and storytelling, the more mediums I can get to my reader to read on, the merrier for me. Till readers are coming do I care how they read that particular story? I hope the publishers catch up to this reality soon.