Gulf News Article: Digital Technology boosts Education

This is the article from my column that appeared in Gulf News yesterday that talks a bit more about my week at HBS. Hope you guys enjoy it!

I am currently in New York as I write this, having returned from a brilliant week spent at the Harvard Business School (HBS) in Boston. Having been there for a similar course three years ago, I was familiar with the set-up of the place, the astounding level of its faculty and the immense amount of work required in preparation for the course. Known for its case-study methodology, a week at Harvard means about a month's worth of spare time of a phone book-sized reading material that I had printed, highlighted, made notes on and digested. I headed there with my spiral-bound case book and thought I knew exactly what to expect till the opening session made me realise a subtle change in my surroundings — in three short years, education had gone digital.
As the days went by, it was easy to see the subtle changes the executive education arm at HBS had made to keep up with technology and to promote a paperless learning space. While paper had been relied upon to previously rate the faculty and class discussions at the end of each day, these were now emailed to us. A huge file with the bios of other course attendees had welcomed me to the course three years back. These were now replaced with a USB flash drive that was given to us at the end of the course, that in addition to the bios, had vCards of each of the attendees.
The drive also contained all slides from the presentations made by the professors in class so that instead of taking notes, we could focus on the intense discussion being held, because CEOs or not, HBS professors do cold calling upon students, and paying attention is not optional!
While all of this is standard upgradation you'd expect from a tech-friendly school, what really hit home is the level of tech sophistication shown by my fellow course attendees. Notepads and pens had been almost eradicated and replaced almost exclusively with iPads and in some cases, styluses for those who wanted to still "write" notes instead of typing them out. Pen-shaped devices like the Pogo stick or the Bamboo stylus by Wacom are popular choices for those favouring this method of input, whereas a whole host of note-taking apps on the iPad are available, the most impressive being one called "Noteshelf".
The app has the ability to write text in a larger space and then shrink it down to a size more comfortable while reading, which is a great way to solve the problem one has with printing the material handwritten on any other app only to have your writing unnaturally large on paper. Also while I'd stuck to wasting trees and highlighter ink in an effort to read the course material, a surprisingly large number of fellow classmates had stuck to their iPads to read their cases too.
While I'm fine with reading entire books on my Kindle with ease and even moving to online subscriptions of my favourite magazines on Zinio, I do so only for books that aren't available in the bookstores or publications that are either too expensive or too outdated on the newsstands in Dubai. When it came down to reading hundreds of pages worth of study material on which I'd want to scribble and make notes on, the thought of using an iPad had honestly never occurred to me!
Ahead of the curve
With all this move towards technology in class, it was only fit then that one of our cases was based on the popular magazine, The Economist, its popular iPad app, and how it's handling the shift of edited news going towards the online space. The magazine is a great example of how traditional media will move going forward, and the publication already seems ahead of the curve in terms of merging technology with quality edited news content.
Also fittingly Apple announced its iBooks Author app and plans to revolutionize the textbook industry during the week I was at HBS. A fortnight back I would have been one of the naysayers who would have said technology is fantastic, but I doubt digital form of studying will ever replace the interaction one requires with a textbook to really absorb the written word. Now, given that most of my classmates were all probably in their 40s and early 50s and not exactly in the age bracket of what you'd call early adopters, I realize that I would have had to eat my words.
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You can check it out on the Gulf News website here
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The Guide to customized Gizmos and Gadgets!

Did you guys happen to check out my article in Gulf News yesterday?? My column has been finally christened with a picture!

So my latest article for Gulf News was about customizations. Most of you have seen pictures of the products I've customized, but for those that haven't, I'm going to stick in pictures of some of the stuff mentioned so you get a better idea of what they look like. Do check out the companies I've talked about.. they do some fantastic stuff!!


Recently a friend of mine took a look at a personalised toiletry bag I had with my name custom-embroidered on it and joked that I should make a collage of all the things in my life I had personalised. I didn't realise how bad my obsession for customised items was until she pointed it out! I had the (what I consider) basics, like my towels at home and custom letterheads, to the bit more extravagant, like my zippy sports car having my name engraved on its side step that can only be seen when the door is ajar. I've always liked to have things that stand out and are different, and my love for gadgets obviously means that almost every product I have is customised in some way to make it unique and "mine".

It all started off with one of the first computers I ever bought— The Apple Power PC laptop that came with what I consider an ingenious USP — changeable covers. The laptop itself came with probably half a dozen designs that you could swap out, but I chose to customise it further with cut-out pictures, and christen it "Gianni" after my then favourite designer. Embarrassing in hindsight, but forgivable since I was probably 15 then! A lot of people, especially women, like to differentiate their products by buying a particular laptop over the other because of the colour, or having special cases and or trinkets tied to their mobile phones to make them stand out. Recent years have seen high end fashion houses make special accessories targeted towards these fashionistas with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs et al, all making covers for the iPad and cases for several smartphones.

There are other companies that I've used over the years to customise my products further, depending on the look that I'm going for and the amount I'm willing to spend to make that particular item stand out.

When JLo became a chart sensation and bling was "in" I'd found a company called Crystal Icing (www.crystalicing.com) online that I'd used to add some sparkle to my phone. I was using a windows-based phone back then, and had sent in the physical device to be covered up with rhinestones with a face of Marilyn Monroe on it. Since BlackBerry and iPhones seem to be the most popular device of choice these days, the company no longer requires you to send in your phone to be crystallised, but has the option for you to purchase covers for the devices. I recently purchased an iPhone 4 cover from them and am pleased with their quality of work, as they have the option to use the tiniest of crystals on the device.

Colour and glitter
Another company that successfully transforms your gadgets (among other things) into stunning jewellery-like objects is the UAE-based Jake and Gigi (www.jakeandgigi.com). Michelle Roberts, the owner of the brand, has a knack of putting together Swarovski crystals along with larger vintage embellishments to create items that are a smorgasbord of colour and glitter. With styles ranging from the Audrey Hepburn-inspired to the more muted angelic theme to dozens more, Michelle designs to suit almost every palette. If however you don't find what you're looking for, she is able to work with you or use items that you may already have to custom create an item that suits your mood. I had sent in a Tarina Tarantino "pink head" pendant to her some time back, which Michelle pulled apart and incorporated into a Blackberry cover she did for me. 

Sorry about the picture quality.. is a very old photograph!

A few years ago a friend of mine gifted me a BlackBerry Curve in a bright orange, as was customised by another company based out of America called Colorware (www.colorwarepc.com). Not only did the phone look suitably funky, it looked like it was a limited edition piece and I used to literally have strangers coming up to me to ask me where I got it from. While Colorware isn't cheap (my friend was very generous) they are to gadgets what the company Fab Design is to cars. I recently used them to customize a Macbook Air for myself that I knew I would use for a few years to come. While ordering from them, you have the ability to either send in the item (for US customers only), have them ship you the parts (available for certain products) or buying a new item custom done. With a computer, you're able to colourise each part of the computer separately and have a rainbow of colours on the item if you so choose. Since they are, in essence, pulling apart the machine and replacing its outer facade, I was quite nervous to see how my laptop would turn out, but I was absolutely thrilled with the end result, especially the colours used which are as bright and vibrant as promised.

 Ever since I started my blog and had a custom Avatar created for it, I've had an obsession of trying to get that image on absolutely everything I possibly can. It was only natural then that I'd try to get it onto all the gadgets that I surround myself with every day, and since I change them so often, needed to find a cost effective way to do it. After a bit of researching I found the company GelaSkins online (www.gelaskins.com), which allows you to buy gorgeous skins for a host of devices, or even customize your own. They allowed me to make custom decals very inexpensively for all my gadgets, and I can honestly say I've been blown away by the results! They're very easy to apply without any bubbles coming in during the application process, they don't leave a sticky film behind upon removal, and neither do they start to peel off after time. I even customised a skin for my Macbook Air that I'd bought from Colorware, to be able to customise it one step further. The skins can be even personalised with a photograph or a whole collage of them, or you can choose one from the literally hundreds of designs available.

 I feel that just like clothes, the gadgets I use are a reflection of who I am and I absolutely abhor the idea of being just like every one else. If you like to stand out from the crowd too, hopefully this will give you some ideas to make the every day things you use stand out- just like your personality.
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You can check out the article on the Gulf News website here
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My tribute to Steve Jobs...

As carried by Gulf News today, on Page 44.

                                              Jobs, an action man driven by dreams
In our generation there are a few key moments and events that people will always remember where they were when they received news of a certain, usually tragic, event. News of Princess Diana's death and of the Twin Towers being hit are the two most obvious, and I dare say a lot of people will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the demise of Steve Jobs.
My moment came when I was woken up by a text message by someone requesting a quote on Steve Jobs urgently for Gulf News. "In what respect?" I wrote back. Surely, I thought still half asleep, they meant they needed my reaction to the iPhone 4S that had made news just the day before. "Steve Jobs passed away and we need your reaction urgently please!" came the response.
Unfortunately, drafting a quote with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, trying to convey in a few words what this man whom I'd never met but yet had been such a guiding force in my life, is how I'll always remember the moment.
Logging on to Facebook and Twitter, I found a lot of others feeling the exact same sentiment. Almost everyone's status updates were about Jobs and the pages were littered with his quotes, especially the one from his famous commencement speech given at Stanford University. Many had changed their profile pictures and everyone spoke of him in the same way with the words "Creative genius", "game changer" and "Visionary" being thrown about a lot.
Cultural icon
Steve Jobs counted as one of the two people in the world I'd most have loved to meet (prolific writer Vikram Seth is the other). Moreover, as known to everyone who knows me, I'm a die-hard Apple fan and was a closeted one for many years before our business relationship with them became official. But yet, while Apple WAS Steve Jobs, to say that Steve Jobs was Apple will be totally missing the point about why a lot of people met the news of his passing with tears in their eyes. What makes the man one of the few (and quite possibly the only) businessmen in history to be looked upon as a cultural icon has, in my opinion, very little to do with Apple at all — it is about what Steve himself represents.
He single-handedly revolutionised not only the computing and animation industry, but gaming, music, the TV and movie industry, and with the iPad, set his eyes on the publishing world. I believe that there is a certain type of man out there for whom success is predisposed in their DNA as failure for them is just not an option.
I believe Jobs would have been a game changer in whatever he decided to do — luckily for us, it was technology innovation that most captured his interest.
Jobs used the slogan ‘Think Different' on Apple ads in the ‘90s, and I believe it was more his personal mantra that he incorporated in all aspects of his life, and continued to do so long after the company ditched the slogan. But to make him sound like a superhuman cartoon figure is also unfair, as Jobs was also quite the tough task master and I dare say we're going to see lots of stories and books over the next few months that claim to expose his darker side. His tyrannical demeanour with his staff is legendary, as was his short temper and sometimes outright arrogance. His Mercedes Benz without plates, usually parked in a handicap parking spot points to a man who also didn't think it important to bother with trivial things like laws. Or clothes apparently, as his now iconic Issey Miyake mock turtleneck, Levi's jeans and New Balance sneakers combo proves. But this Plutonic figure had little regard for the way others viewed him, and truly lived life on his own terms.
The singular most important reason that I've always idolised Steve Jobs is because, for me, he represents, no personifies, an idea that dreams do come true — his life is testament to that. He taught the world with his actions, not just with words, that one man can make a difference. Showed us that while sometimes plans go awry, we have to have faith and know that in the end, if we remain true to ourselves, things will work out OK — or as he put it, the "dots will connect". He was the embodiment of an idea of how a lot of us wish we could be — supremely intelligent, passionately focused with an incredible zest for life and living. No, Steve Jobs was not just Apple... He was so much more.
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To find the article on the Gulf News Website, click here

NEWS!!! My Gulf News Column!!

A few weeks back I got an offer that I just couldn't refuse- To write a column for Gulf News!! A few of you might have already seen my first column for the magazine published last Saturday, while a few of you may have seen my tweets about it. You guys already know that writing is my passion which is why I maintain this blog and sometimes I have the pleasure absolute thrill of seeing my name in print! Unfortunately this time around I am in New York and haven't been able to see what my column looked like. I got a tweet from someone about the article while I was out at dinner with friends and was so excited that I could FINALLY announce the news that I'd been holding in for so long- I'm a GN columnist! I came home late that night and had my Mother and sister send me photographs of the article in the paper. Silly I know, but I wanted to see where the placement was and what it looked like, etc. I'd handed it in before leaving and had no clue about when they would run it and what it would be called. Honestly, I'm quite fuzzy on the details still and have just been told that it will run on the last Saturday of every month. Look out for that in the main paper, and of course if you miss it you can always read it over here.
Turns out they were impressed with my review of the Blackberry Playbook and wanted to use it as a review for the paper. Since I didn't just want to polish it up for the paper, I wrote it from scratch so if you've read the first one, you may want to re-read this one again. I'm terribly excited about this new opportunity and hope you guys find my articles interesting month on month!
This month's article is entitled, "A true iPad killer on the prowl"

Probably not since the time of Moses have tablets been as talked about as they are today. Apple kick started the trend with the iPad and since then every IT and consumer electronics company seems to be launching what it hopes will be the iPad-killer. While others have tried to make their mark in the smartphone market, it remains one with two clear winners — Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry. It would then only make sense that the two successful players translate their learning for their tablet devices and that is exactly what they have done.
When RIM sent over their BlackBerry PlayBook for me to review a few weeks back, my hands quivered with excitement as I unboxed the device. Would the product be able to live up to its hype? After all, I could not think of another product launch in recent history that had been as hotly anticipated as PlayBook's. I turned on the device and paired the PlayBook with my BlackBerry phone and updated my BBM Status to "On the PlayBook"… within minutes I was bombarded with questions about how the device was, what I thought of it etc., and after each question came the inevitable one — How does it stack up against the iPad? I figured that to do a review of the PlayBook and to not compare it with the iPad would be a futile exercise. Yet, could I successfully compare two products that were as different as, well… Apples and BlackBerries?
Going back to my first point about both companies staying incorporating learnings from their smartphones into their tablet devices, you may remember that when the iPad was first launched it was accused of just being an iPhone with a larger screen. Turns out the killer-feature of the iPhone had not been it's shiny screen at all, but it's ease of use Operating System and it's App Store.
With literally tens of thousands of magazines, journals, games, and music apps available on the iPad App store today, it is no doubt that the killer-feature of the phone has transcended itself into being the killer feature on their tablet as well. When the PlayBook however got launched, the same tech reviewers got a bit thrown off — A BlackBerry tablet without native support for email and BBM?? Yes folks, you heard that right, in case you hadn't already heard it before!
Unless you are using a web-based application for email, you cannot get push email on BlackBerry Messenger to work on your PlayBook without a BlackBerry phone. "But the Killer feature of a BlackBerry is its push email and BBM!" you may scream. Really? Is it?
BlackBerry still remains the number 1 choice of smartphone in the corporate world not because of its safe and reliable looks and ability to have real-time group chats. Privacy has always remained the company's killer feature and keeping that in mind will make you truly appreciate the PlayBook and its design and features. On installing an app called "BlackBerry Bridge" onto your phone and syncing both devices via Bluetooth is a job that takes under two minutes and allows you to access your personal data, including your push email and BBM conversations on the larger PlayBook screen. Leave your phone in the other room? Your Tablet can't hook up to it and you can say bye to your email connectivity too.
The good news? Lose your PlayBook and nobody else can connect to your email without your phone or your contact list on BBM. This may lead you to the conclusion that a PlayBook without a BlackBerry is like having a Porsche without an engine. Not true. With the inclusion of a fantastic browser, an App Store, built-in support for Word, Slide and Presentation to go and two cameras facilitating video chat, the PlayBook is a fabulous device on its own.
Another USP of the BlackBerry smartphone among business travellers is the Global Roaming tie-ups the company has with various service providers the world over. Loving your 3G iPad in your home country? Crazy high roaming rates will render your device useless without Wi-Fi when you're travelling. Heard critics moaning about the PlayBook being Wi-Fi only? Sync it up with your BlackBerry phone and enjoy unlimited global and international use using your existing plan at no extra cost!
The device itself is about half the size of an iPad, and I actually like the keyboard a bit better than that of Apple. The PlayBook also has Flash, which allows you to view a lot of websites that you wouldn't be able to on the iPad.
Overall I find the PlayBook has received a lot of negative reviews with focus being on what it cannot do with little credit given to what it actually can. While the PlayBook remains an excellent device on it's own, if you're a current BlackBerry owner, especially one who travels a lot, my personal advice is this — the PlayBook can't be beaten.
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You can find the article on the Gulf News Website here
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