Movie Review: Skyfall

Cast:Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Berenice Marlohe and Albert Finney
Director: Sam Mendes

Agent 007 James Bond on the 50th anniversary of it's franchise portrays lost youth, acceptance of middle-age and even death.

Skyfall starts off very much in the mould of an action film - basic plot of chasing bad guys with an abundance of crash, bang pyrotechnics, car chases, motorbike chase on roof tops, explosions, hanging from buildings and etc.

Half way through I thought this was going into my top three Bond films list, but suddenly all the plot potential goes out of the window and I could think of three Sean Conneries, three Roger Moores and even a Timothy Dalton above it in the list.

The first scene establishes the premise of the mission - James Bond (Daniel Craig), an MI6 agent, trying to retrieve a computer disk that contains the secret identities of embedded NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) agents. In the process, while fighting the baddies on the rooftop of a train, Agent 007 is shot. He falls into a waterfall and is assumed dead.

Strangely he survives the fall.

Meanwhile, his superior M (Judi Dench), the head of MI6, writes his obituary.

But then Bond returns to London when he realises that his nation is in danger. After failing in his fitness test, he is "declared fit for active service" and is put back on the case.

Craig as Bond is believable sans his sex appeal. There is warmth in his demeanour and banter. Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan's script constantly reminds us that Bond's physical prowess is on the wane, but his verbal sparring, both with M and new foe Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), a former agent turned vengeful computer hacker, is nimbler than ever.

Bardem's performance as a flamboyant pansy villian makes him the oddest Bond villian ever.
 

Despite master technicians at work behind and in front of the camera, one is left feeling disappointed. I can only guess it was because they tried to do too much.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins beautifully captures the world's most exotic corners - Istanbul, Shanghai, Macau, London and Scotland. But the pace of the shots canned by Mendes and Deakins, does not augur for an action film. It ends up almost like a noir film.

However, one-liners are pretty snappy and offer a chuckle once in a while.

Skyfall is not a perfectly structured film. It starts off at a fast pace and by the end it drags.

The last sequence is unbelievable and hence makes this film strangely ineffectual.

McLaren 12C Art Car

Sweet mother of AWESOME. This is the work of German tuner, Hamann Motorsport, which has decided to doff its hat to BMW's Art Cars with this rather tasty McLaren.

It's called the memoR, it's got a carbon body kit, one-off 21-inch rims and what its builders describe as an "opulent explosion of colour." Hamann adds: "The refined two-seater will transform ugly streets into palatial catwalks, clothing its passengers in magnificent haute couture." Erm, right

Only thing is, we're not entirely sure why Hamann - which is pretty well-versed in pimpifying BMWs - went with the McLaren. Suppose the old McLaren F1 had a BMW engine, so there's a distant link there...

Best not over-think it. Just click on the pictures and tell us this - do you think it looks more like Jeff Koons' BMW GT2,  Andy Warhol's BMW M1 or Jeremy Clarkson's 635CSi...?

Apple's iPhone 5 makes strong India debut

Apple's latest iPhone - thinner, lighter and with a 4-inch screen - went on sale in India on Friday with a starting price of 45,500 rupees.

The iPhone 5, which Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook said was the "fastest-selling" phone in history, sports a 4-inch "retina" display and is 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S.

The 16 GB model of the new iPhone will sell for 45,500 rupees, with the 32 GB version priced at 52,500 rupees and the 64 GB model available for 59,500 rupees.

The iPhone 5 is being launched in India more than a month after hitting store shelves in the United States. The gadget will be launched in 100 countries by the year's end in the fastest global rollout for an iPhone.

Despite the phone's premium pricing compared to other high-end smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, dealers in New Delhi said they were fielding more queries for this iPhone than for previous versions.

Two Apple resellers in New Delhi said all their existing stocks had been sold out in advance bookings.

"Response is very good. Our first stock is already booked, still we are getting bookings," said Vikas Malhotra, store manager at iWorld.

Although Apple's products are not as popular in India compared to western countries, the brand is steadily gaining traction among affluent professionals who don't mind paying a premium for the iconic products.

In a change from previous years, the iPhone will be available in retail stores and not just through Apple's carrier partners.

Battle of the bulge - Micromax A100 vs Spice Mi-500 vs iBall Andi 5c

A world where mobile phones are getting bigger and tablets are getting smaller has seen the rise of a new category of devices. At first considered Frankensteins of the mobile computing world, phablets became cool with Samsung Galaxy Note's success.

Recently, we've seen a bunch of new devices trying to make a mark by appealing to those looking for large screen devices, minus the stylus. We look at three such devices that attempt to woo the budget-conscious - the iBall Andi 5c, Micromax Superfone Canvas A100 and Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500.

Build/ Design
The Micromax A100 is a clear winner in this department. The curves of the A100 fit well in hand, thanks, no doubt, to the slightly smaller profile compared to the other two devices. While none of the three devices scream "cheap plastic" (the Spice comes the closest), the overall finish of the Micromax ensures it stands out from the rest.

The Micromax A 100, like the iBall Andi, has the power button on the right, which makes it rather convenient to use for a large handset. We didn't find the top placement of the power button on the Spice particularly handy, given the length of the device. The Spice handset has the volume rocker on the right, another odd choice, compared to the Micromax and the iBall Andi, which have it on the left. All three devices come with a Micro-USB port - the Micromax has it at the bottom, while the other two at the top, next to the audio jack.

The iBall Andi is the only device that comes with a physical home button, flanked on either side by capacitive touch Menu and Back buttons. The Spice goes all capacitive touch with same button options, whereas the Micromax A100 goes the all-virtual route, with Back, Home and Recent Apps button appearing at the bottom of the screen at all times (except when you play full-screen video). Picking any one of the three based on style of buttons is down to personal preference.

At 168 grams the Micromax A100 is no featherweight, but comfortably lighter than its two competitors. Overall, it's our pick in this section.

Winner: Micromax A100

Hardware/ Performance
The Spice Mi-500 packs a dual-core 1GHz processor that gives it a clear advantage over the other two phones that are powered by single-core processors. The benchmarks as well as day-to-day usage observations were in line with this fact.

While none of the phones suffer from any lag during typical operations, the Spice does a great job of handling everything thrown at it. Though all three phones ship with 512MB RAM, the Spice Mi-500 required fewer reloads of the page when going back to a tab while having multiple tabs open. The Spice is also faster at loading heavy web pages. The touch performance of all three phones is at par.

All three phones are dual-SIM standby, which of course means while you are making a call on one number, the other will appear unreachable.

Winner: Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500

Display
The Spice and the iBall handsets feature identical 12.7-cms displays with WVGA resolution (480x800). Micromax chose to cram in a few more vertical pixels, going with a FWVGA 480x854 12.5-cm display, a resolution seen in some of the recent Xperia smartphones, amongst others.

The extra pixels ensure that the A100 can boast of a 16:9 display (great for watching videos), compared to 4:3 resolutions that the other two offer. Further, since the A100 comes with virtual buttons, the extra vertical pixels ensure that the effective available pixels (480x782) aren't reduced considerably.

As far as display quality and colour reproduction are concerned, the Micromax A100 fares the best. Images appear sharp and crisp (but not artificially so), and the viewing angles are pretty good. The iBall Andi display is next in line by doing an average job on all fronts. The Spice Mi-500 is let down badly by a poor display - the colours appear washed-up and viewing angles are extremely limited.

Winner: Micromax A100

Software
All three handsets come with pretty much stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, though Spice has applied a few tweaks of its own. Each handset comes with a few bundled apps as well, but nothing's that likely to influence your buying decision one-way or the other.

Camera
All three phones come with identical 5-megapixel rear shooters with autofocus and LED flash but the performance is visibly different. While the Spice and the Micromax cameras do a pretty decent job, the iBall Andi camera is a disappointment.

The Spice beats the Micromax in colour reproduction and image quality outdoors, while the Micromax just about edges the Spice under low-light conditions (both with, and without flash).

However, there's a flaw with the Micromax A100 camera. All images clicked with the phone in landscape mode appear upside down. Of course that's easily fixable by rotating the images, but it's a big annoyance no doubt - not everyone's familiar with batch-editing tools for photographs, and we can imagine poor souls having to rotate each image manually. Thankfully, the bug is limited to images only, since videos appeared upright, no matter how the phone is held.

Strangely, Micromax refused to acknowledge the problem- even though there are multiple reports of this problem out there - and tried to pass it off as a "bug with ICS"!

Winner: Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500

Battery
Big screen need big batteries, and all three phones deliver, with the smallest battery in the lot being the Micromax, that has a 2,000mAh one. However, it does a good job of keeping up with the Spice that has a 2,400mAh battery, and both the phones had pretty similar battery usage patterns in day-to-day tasks. The iBall Andi guzzled up its 2,300mAh battery faster than the other two.

Tie: Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500 and Micromax A100

Verdict
If you've made it this far, it would be pretty clear that it's between the Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500 and the Micromax A100 for the overall winner. While the Spice performs better and has a slightly better camera, the Micromax is better looking; a more natural fit in the hand and has a better display. There's nothing to choose between the two as far as the software and the battery life are concerned.

Let's throw the prices into the mix. The Spice Stellar Horizon Mi-500 retails for Rs. 12,499 while the Micromax A100 is available for Rs. 9,799. So is it worth spending 2700 rupees extra to get a phone that offers a better multi-tasking experience but an average display? If you can afford it and find that the Spice handset snuggles into your hand, go for it.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg sells $7.4 million worth stock

Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and two other executives at the social networking company sold millions of dollars worth of stock this week as restrictions on insider trading expired.

Sandberg netted about $7.44 million by selling roughly 353,000 Facebook shares on Wednesday, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday. Sandberg still owns 18.1 million vested shares of Facebook stock, according to the filing.

Facebook General Counsel Theodore Ullyot and Chief Accounting Officer David Spillane also sold millions of dollars worth of shares this week, according to filings. All the Facebook executives' sales were part of pre-arranged stock trading plans.

The sales are the first by Facebook's senior management following the company's high-profile initial public offering in May.

The world's No.1 online social network became the only U.S. company to debut with a market value of more than $100 billion, but has seen its value plunge more than 40 percent since then on concerns about its long-term money-making prospects.

Shares of Facebook, which were priced at $38 in the IPO, closed Friday's regular session down 3 cents at $21.18.

The flood of shares set to hit the market as insider trading "lock-up" provisions expire in several phases have added to the pressure on Facebook's stock.

Roughly 230 million shares of Facebook became eligible for trading this week, as trading restrictions for employees expired. Another 800 million shares will be eligible for trading on November 14, significantly expanding the "float" of roughly 692 million Facebook shares that were available for trading as of September 30.

Facebook's 28-year-old chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has committed to not sell any shares before September 2013.

Ullyot sold slightly more than 149,000 shares on Wednesday and Thursday, collecting $3.13 million. Ullyot has an additional 1.27 million in vested shares.

Spillane sold 256,000 shares on Wednesday, more than half of his vested shares, for proceeds of $5.4 million. Spillane had more than 863,000 Facebook shares, including unvested shares, according to a filing in May.

HTC DLX leaked: 1.5GHz processor, 12-megapixel, Android 4.1

Long-time HTC developer 'Football' disclosed via Twitter the detailed specs of HTC's upcoming smartphone called DLX. There isn't much known about this device yet but if rumours are to be believed then it is likely to be named the One X 5 or the DROID Incredible X.

According to @Football4PDA, who's is becoming quite popular with such leaks, the 5-inch HD display smartphone (phablet if you please) packs in a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 1.5GB RAM. It will be seen running the yet to be released Android 4.1.2 and will come with 16GB internal storage.

As per the leaked details, the HTC DLX will also sport a 12MP rear snapper and a 2MP front camera as well. it is expected to come with a 2500mAh non-removable battery. HTC is officially yet to reveal anything related to this device, including pricing and availability.

First drive: the Infiniti FX Vettel Edition

What do we have here then?

It's an Infiniti FX Vettel Edition, named after the two-time F1 champ. The trail goes like this: Red Bull Racing use Renault engines. Renault is shacked up with Nissan. Nissan owns Infiniti, which therefore gets to glue its stickers on Vettel's racing car. And as part of the deal, they get to use his name on a road car.

So it's a lean, featherweight racing homage, then?

Absolutely not. It might be slathered in real carbon fibre, but this is still a large, luxo SUV. The brochure tries to convince us it's the ‘perfect sports car', which is blatant nonsense. It weighs over two tonnes.

Tell us more about this carbon fibre.

It's the real deal: hand made and baked in a small autoclave, like it would be in an F1 factory. Many hours go into each bit, and the rear wing costs a lot on its own. Infiniti asked Mr Vettel to shape it, which is why the front wing looks like the wavy one from his racecar and the rear diffuser incorporates a central F1-style foglight.

Sounds expensive.

A regular FX costs quite a sum. This one is nearly twice as much, and that's before you add the rear wing. The material cost of the carbon takes care of some of the premium (it's all over the wing mirror and interior console too). There's also a new exhaust worth an extra 30bhp and many decibels, plus new and slightly lighter wheels. The seats are re-trimmed in Alcantara with purple stitching and super-Seb badges. Every buyer gets an iPad so they can track the build process of their car. And Infiniti will throw in an unspecified but hopefully excellent experience, depending on dates and availability. Early buyers got a few laps of a circuit with Mr Vettel himself.

So what's it like to drive?

Brutish. The 5-litre V8 now boots out 420bhp versus 390bhp in the normal car, and the new exhaust batters the air like a distant Chinook. It's 20mm lower and a bit stiffer than usual, so there's marginally less slop through corners. The carbon bits are actually functional, so there's five per cent less drag and 30 per cent less lift. But you'd have to be going massively fast to notice it, because mostly, this still feels like a monster. It's more agile than a Range Rover, but doesn't feel as sharp as a Porsche Cayenne GTS. And it's wide: on the narrow cols above Monaco, we were permanently paranoid about grating all that lovely carbon on an Alp.

Hmm. But what if I really, really like Mr Vettel?

Then this is the car for you, you big show-off. So move fast before they sell out: only 150 will be made, 50 of which will come to Europe with 15-ish of those for Britain. Oh, and Mr Vettel will get the first one. It's an impressive thing to look at, and anyone with a passing interest in cars will enjoy the noise and spectacle of it all. Otherwise, it's hard to take it seriously. Especially at that price...

The numbers: 5026cc V8, 4WD, 420bhp, 520Nm, 9.18kpl (combined), 307g/km C02, 0-100kph in 5.6 seconds, 250kph max

The verdict: It's loud and amusing, but a bit of carbon fibre dressing does not transform this into a sports car. It might be named after an F1 champ, but it's a world away from his Sunday wheels. 5/10

The rival: Porsche Cayenne GTS