GoPro, with power
Everybody seems to be talking of GoPro these days. The photography magazine I was reading sought to explain the concept to desk photographers. Another windsufer friend mentioned enthusiastically about its potential in adventure sports.
California-based GoPro, Inc. (formerly Woodman Labs, Inc), is a US corporation that develops, manufactures and markets high-definition camcorders. These are often used in extreme-action video photography.
But there’s more: They are compact, lightweight, rugged, and are wearable or mountable on vehicles. The cameras capture still photos or video in HD through a wide-angle lens. Users can configure the degree of remote control or intervention required.
It’s history is interesting too. Company founder Nick Woodman, started the company after a 2002 surf trip to Australia where he had hoped to capture quality action photos of his surfing, but could not because amateur photographers could not get close enough, or obtain quality equipment at reasonable prices.
His desire for a camera system that could capture the professional angles inspired the ‘GoPro’ name.z Woodman initially raised a portion of the money for his company by selling bead and shell belts for under US $20 out of his VW van and later, fashionable camera straps. He also received over $230,000 in investment from his parents.
A quick search shows Amazon.in selling this product on its site for something like Rs40k. Or a little less. There are also some other options, and quite a few accessories.
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Money, simply?
So what do these services have in common — PingPay from Axis Bank, Chillr from HDFC Bank, Pockets from ICICI
Bank and KayPay from Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd? Well, if you didn’t guess, all allow you to send money to anyone with a bank account as long as you know his or her mobile number, email address, or if that person is your friend on Facebook or a follower on Twitter.
As Vivina Vishwanathan pointed out in the Mint, “How would it be if you could transfer money from your bank account to someone else’s without knowing the recipient’s account details, not even the account number? It would be convenient, to say the least; no writing down long-winded account numbers, Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) and whatnot.”
This does seem to have implications for how we do business. As Vishwanathan notes, “Ping Pay by Axis Bank allows you to send, ask for and receive money via Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, email and SMS.”
You can send a maximum of Rs 5000 per day, with a total of (maximum) 10 transactions. Sounds good? Each bank has its own peculiarities, of course, and style of working.
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Smartphones and kids
You may agree. Or then, you might not. But muslimvillage.com has this set of ten reasons why you shouldn’t had a smartphone to your children. It says:
It alters the parent-child relationship.
It limits their creative minds.
It causes them to get less sleep.
It doesn’t give kids the time to reflect or learn about the consequences of their actions.
It impedes their ability to learn.
It causes an addiction.
It has a negative impact on your child’s mental health.
It indirectly causes obesity.
It causes behavioral problems.
It desensitizes children to violence.
Then, there’s the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper which carried this title recently: ‘Want to be content? Stay away from social media’.
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MP3s and more
Turns out that my son, who’s 12, wanted an MP3 player. Normally he doesn’t demand for things, so one thought of obliging. The Zebronics Node MP3 Player is a reasonable option.
It describes itself as: “Sporting a lightweight and compact design, the Zebronics Node MP3 player barely makes its presence known providing you the ultimate music experience. The smart microSD card slot lets you use this player as a card reader too. The device features a clip design that you can use to clip it on to your shirt.”
It depends an external memory to store its music. It offers earphones, an micro SD card slot, card reader, USB cable. But it has no built-in memory. Available at Flipkart.
Rs 290 plus Rs 50 more for freight. Plus your external memory would cost a couple of hundred rupees more.
