Holi celebration in Nepal (with photos)

March 05, 2015: Holi, the festival of colors is being celebrated in our country Nepal. As the celebration falls on two days (consecutively in Hills and Terai), the fiesta is celebrated today in the northern side of the country (Hill area) and tomorrow in the southern plains called Terai. Though Holi has come from ancient hindu religion festival, marking the death of Holika as triumph of good over evil, the festival is now equally popular among other communities/religions mostly inside Asia. Holi is also known Phaagu, derived from the month Falgun as the festival falls on the same Hindu month of Vikram Sambhat (B.S.). In this festival, people put colors to each other with extreme joy and fun. Youths and children even throw water filled "Lola" (Ballon or plastic) among themselves and to people in the road, even a week before the main day but nowadays such kinda celebration is getting rare as the government discouraged the action with stringent rules. People also get high with eating bhang (Ghotta) and dance with the music. The festival is also seen as a means to promote unity, brotherhood among the people. Let there be colors, let there be love and harmony among all the people on the earth.

Here are some photos taken today during Holi.

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Turkish Airline flight accident at Kathmandu Airport leaves thousand stranded.

March 04, 2015: Turkish Airlines plane flying from Istanbul had a big accident at TIA (Tribhuvan International Airport) runway this morning. The plane skidded and went off the runway, towards the grass field and stopped, after the collapse of front landing gear. There were no many major damage to the 224 people aboard, but the nose of the plane jolted in the ground and side gear exploded, making it difficult to take out. The accident could have hit the building or the oil tank nearby, resulting at a disaster, Thanks to the cleverness of pilot or good luck that saved from a big loss. The flight is still at the runway as TIA do not have some special equipment to take it out due to which officials are forced to close the airport for indefinite period until they could take it out. At first there was crowd at the terminal, expecting the airport to resume soon but now it is known there is no such crowd as officials have issued a press statement for the closure till 4 pm tomorrow. Thousands of people are also known to be stranded at several foreign airports.
Dikesh Malhotra, President of IMS (official Distributor of Samsung Mobiles in Nepal) was one of the people aboard in the plane. He and his father were returning back to Kathmandu from Barcelona, after attending the Samsung Galaxy S6 launch at Mobile world congress, when they survived a plane crash. He happens to share the pictures and video (that went viral in social media and even online portal posting the same photos) of the incident after getting off the plane.

Kantipur TV reports that TIA officials have already asked for support from foreign countries and they also said that a separate equipment from Mumbai will land here tomorrow morning to use it for taking the plane out from the runway. As it is known that it will take 4 to 5 hours for the removal of the plane (after taking the fuel out), it seems the only international Airport will be closed for at least tomorrow. Lets hope the officials use every means to open the airport as soon as possible. A probe will tell the reason behind the accident later, but TIA management should be prepared for every worst/emergency condition that may occur, with necessary tools and equipment in hand.

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Samsung unveils Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge at MWC

March 2, 2015: Samsung, the Korean Giant, is the top phone maker in the world, probably in Nepal too. The Korean firm though being the top first handset maker, has lost significant sales volumes in the year 2014. There are many thoughts who forced them to come up with new innovations in whole range of phones to keep the top spot, as the competition is now rife with Apple standing firm (with iPhone 6 sales) and rise of Chinese firms like Xiaomi, Meizu, Huawei for cheaper mid range and Flagship devices. Samsung has upped the ante by unveiling the two awaited flagships: Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge in an unpacked event at this years MWC (Mobile world Congress). 

The two devices are of similar high end specs with all the features that make it flagship, but S6 edge is having the curved edge, fewer grams lighter and higher battery capacity. Samsung S6 is a 5.1 inch all metal phone powered by 64 bit Exynos octacore processor (two quadcore of 2.1 GHz and 1.5 GHz), having 3GB RAM (DDR4) and latest version of OS (Android 5.02). The 5.1 screen is of Super Amoled technology having bright and vivid display, with higher QHD resolution (2560 X1440, 577 ppi) as compared to its predecessor S5. Both the devices are sported with better and faster 16 MP rear and 5 MP front camera, having superior quality images (even in low light), along with features like Auto Real Time HDR, Smart OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), and IR detect White Balance, which is more enhanced by the direct access "quick launch" feature. Apart from the high end feature, Samsung has focused on the design and looks, being impressed from similar metal smartphones (like iPhone 6). The Glass encase both in the front and back has Corning Gorilla Glass 4, making it look premium and feel comfy. Additionally the curved edges on both sides in S6 edge makes it look different (appealing to many but not to me) and the first smartphone to have like that (Others to follow suit?? depends on how it sells in the market). Some of the features that disappeared with this new flagships are the non-removable battery/back, water resistant feature and microSD card slot, that may disappoint many. Though rumor is also something resulting most of it to be true, the removal of Samsung touch wiz happens to be false. 

I feel the battery capacity of 2550 mAh (2600 mAh in Edge) seems to be insufficient for such LTE enabled flagship but their better power efficient and fast charging technology, needs to be proven from public to back up. The phone also supports wireless charging feature that is available in the industry, promoting it to be universal from now on. Quick Contact in the edge is one of the new features for the S6 edge for some tricks. The phones comes in basic storage of 32 GB, along with 64 GB and 128 GB variant. The phones are known to be available on sales from April 10th with price ranging from USD 800 to 900 ( NRs 80,000 to 90,000) but the official prices are not yet out. With the phones, Samsung has also launched new payment platform "Samsung pay" to counter Apple pay and Google wallet.

With the specs, looks and reviews from pundits, the S6 and S6 Edge keeps Samsung alive for the competition in the high end market (wary of premium looks and features) but need some more innovation to compete with the cheaper Chinese firms.

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SECEN organized a workshop on IPv6 transition.

Feb 23, 2015: SECEN (Society of Electronics and Communication Engineers Nepal) organized a workshop on the issue of new IP addressing scheme (IPv6) transition. The workshop entitled as a "The number game: 128 bits for Keeping the internet going and growing", was presented by one of the SECEN executive member, Er. Krishna Prasad Bhandari who is working as Deputy Manager in Nepal Telecom. KP sir presented the idea of what the IP addressing scheme is right now: IPv4 and the reason to change addressing scheme to IPV6 sooner or later. He clearly mentioned the game behind the limitation of the current addressing scheme, the challenges for the transition to IPv6 and the way ahead. As we know the future of communication is in the development of connected devices and IoT (internet of Things) that was coined a long ago but coming to reality with 5G, billions of devices like sensors, wearable techs, smartphones, and much more things around us that will come to the network, needs a unique identity to keep it connected, for which the transition to this new addressing scheme is mandatory. IPv6 can provide identity for huge no of devices (that is more than enough for the ones we have foreseed) with  higher 128 bits (as compared to 32 bits in IPv4). SECEN President Er. Lochan Lal Amatya also expressed the idea of smart cities to be interlinked with this new addressing scheme. He congratulated the presenter and IPv6 certified engineer Kshitiz Shrestha with whom he has conceived of organizing a separate technical session. He even assured of continuing such talk/ interaction in the future, at least once or twice in a month. This sort of interaction promotes discussion among similar professionals to make a concrete voice for the issues around us, and lobby with the policy makers/regulators to cope with the technology. As NEA (the home to all engineers of Nepal) is continuing the talk program on regular basis, such event from SECEN will create additional platform for more in depth discussion on issues of information and Communication technologies. I must appreciate SECEN and the executive committee for organizing such event. I assure I will be there for more of such events.

Here are some pictures that I took in the event.

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Meizu on the rise!! M1 note and M1 gets sold out in seconds.

Its not Xiaomi now when somebody talks of a phone maker that you have never heard of. 2014 was the year for Xiaomi which just toppled Samsung as the top handset maker in China and it will continue to grow this year too, but another handset maker will join them for similar exponential rise in the no of sales in 2015. I am talking of Meizu, the Chinese handset maker (already in the top ten list) which is creating a big buzz in the tech world with its MX series flagship and the recent phablet M1 Note. Such cheap and powerful devices are getting more popular with flagship features and build quality. The buzz garnered $590 Million investment from e-commerce Giant Alibaba that enables them to get more recognition both locally and internationally. Meizu has gone international way before Xiaomi gets in the light but Xiaomi grew fast to be the tech giant in China, leading to more recognition. As Android is the dominant operating system in this region, Chinese manufacturers are opting to use Android Skin or customized interface like MIUI from Xiaomi, Flyme from Meizu, Emotion from Huawei and many alike. Apart from Android skin Flyme, Meizu is known to use Alibaba's YunOS to power its smartphones. It is also speculated that Meizu will launch a phone with Ubuntu OS in MWC 2015, most probably a all new M1 note. 

Meizu store in Huaqianbei, Shenzhen, China

Meizu M1 Note and M1 phone:

M1 note, the latest offering from Meizu, is a 64 bit MediaTek MT652 Octacore processor powered phablet with 5.5 inch 1080P IGZO display, 13 MP/5MP shooter, and 3140 mAh battery. The dual SIM 2G/LTE device looks similar to iPhone C, with ditto set of colors (green, pink, white, yellow and blue).The phone has 2 GB RAM, dual tone flash feature in camera and FDD LTE (the variant that is supposed to land here in Nepal after licensing from the regulator). As already mentioned, the device supports the latest version of its own Android skin, Flyme 4.2 (based on Kitkat). Marked as an direct competitor to Xiaomi Redmi 2 in affordable and entry level smartphone range, the phone price is 1000 RMB ($160) in china which is a little higher than Redmi2, but with all better hardware and performance. The light phone (145 gm) is made up of plastic and has 16 GB/32 GB memory space with no SD card slot. 

Meizu has even released another version with 5 inch display and Snapdragon 615 processor. Dubbed as M1, the phone has 1 GB RAM/ 8GB Memory space, SD card slot, Single SIM with LTE support and 2500 mAh battery. Most of the other impressive features and looks are similar to M1 Note where M1 phone does not have this dual tone LED flash. The phone is priced at CNY 700 ($112) in China but it will cost more in the stores other than the official one where phone gets sold out in a matter of seconds.

Ever since I heard of M1 note, I thought of owning it, especially the blue colored one. As I have already asked my friend who is going to China for a month, to bring the phablet for me, it will take a month to have it in my hand. If I find the performance of the phablet to be impressive that is on paper now, then I will definitely entice more of my friends and blog readers to be "proud owner of Meizu". A month to wait!!

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