Track your activity, affordably
Check out the Xiaomi Mi Band. This product from China is drawing some attention from the Indian gadget blogs, simply because it is “ridiculously cheap”, affordable and quite efficient.
As we saw recently in these columns, an activity tracker is a device for monitoring and tracking fitness-related metrics — the distance you walk or run, calorie consumption, and sometimes even heartbeat and quality of sleep. These also come in the form of applications, devices that are synced wirelessly to a computer or smartphone, or wearable technology.
The Mi Band from Xiaomi comes in the last category. But what makes it different is its affordability. Instead of being priced a few hundred dollars, one can talk about it in terms of a single thousand rupee note.
BGR.in, reviewing the product, the product “almost felt non-existent while sleeping”. Its strap didn’t earn praise, but the product as a whole was praised as being solidly built, and one of the “prettiest activity trackers”. Lots of other good features for a price of just Rs 999.
Another insight: “What the Mi Band impressed me the most is how accurately it tracks my sleep. It does not need any user intervention to put it into sleep mode and it invariably and accurately determined the time I went to sleep and when I woke up. It also told me about how long my deep sleep lasted, which, though difficult to prove scientifically, was corresponding with how fresh I felt after waking up.”
Even more interesting: you can even configure the Mi Band to vibrate whenever there’s an incoming call!
Giving an (in)sight
Here’s news of a nice product, and what’s nicer is that it has been customised for India itself. eSpeak is an Open Source software speech synthesizer. It aims to help the visually-challenged and works for a number of languages. Works on both GNU/Linux and Windows.
Till recently, eSpeak had only a few Indian regional language dictionaries where exception words, those that do not follow the general pattern of pronunciation logic, were not fully defined. A systematic approach to redefine the rules based on studies and research with different phoneme pronunciation was needed. That’s where the Bangalore-based Mahiti.Org, which develops tech skills for the development sector, stepped in.
Its work required integration of linguistic and soft skill; pronunciation rules analysis and translating them into phoneme specific conditional rules and exception is the task. Mahiti developed eight Indian regional languages for eSpeak – Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Manipuri, Sindhi (Devanagari), Oriya and Telugu.
Says Mahiti.org: “The pronunciation of vowels, consonants, numbers, and consonants with diacritical marks were verified with native speakers and language experts. The basic dictionaries with common pronunciation rules for these were then defined.
“Exceptions like ordinal numbers, antique symbols, or those that did not follow the general inherent vowel pronunciation rules were researched and added to the dictionaries. The regular update on refining pronunciation rules and addition of exception words make a richer language library on eSpeak.”
Currently, eSpeak works — to different degrees — with Assamese (basic pronunciation defined), Bengali (basic dictionaries plus 125 exception words compiled), Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi.
Says mahiti.org: “Inspite of variations in dialects the Malayalam in eSpeak has been accepted by a number of organisation, engaged with visually impaired community.” For Telugu, the complex pronunciation of joint words issue was revolved. Hindi pronunciation of nasal words were also perfected.
Going InFocus
“It’s the best phone for a starter, and all you actually need,” my techie friend Fritz mentioned when we met up in town the other day. Which made me curious enough to go and search for the InFocus M2 which he was talking about, which comes from the American company from Oregon and owned by the Chinese American tech entrepreneur John Hui.
Google and quickly enough you find it offered at a price of Rs 4999. Plus free delivery, cash on delivery, EMI availability, and more. And it’s specs? 8 MP front camera, 1.3 GHz Quadcore Mediatek, 10.6 cam HD display, 1 GB RAM/8 GB ROM, 8 MP rear camera with flash, 2010mAh Li-Ion battery, dual sim, 3G and a year’s warranty.
The topic of this phone came up because of my complaint of a lack of space to install apps. The InFocus M2 packages itself as “your business companion”. It says: “Pre-loaded with complete business suite including Google Services, email and document viewer, this is your business companion on-the-go. Reply to a mail thread, view a PDF and do not let anything stop you from being at the top of your work. Add to this a compact design that is meant for single hand use.”
Incidentally, in 2013, InFocus began offering budget high-specification smartphones in China and Asia (China, Taiwan, India, Cambodia) in partnership with FIH Mobile Ltd., the handset manufacturing arm. Most recently, Infocus has introduced successfully their M2 3G and M330 models into India market in the Spring of 2015.
