Dinant is on the banks of Meuse which is in Belgium. Invasions and wars have been an integral part of the town. But, amongst the pain and the misery the people of Dinant are reminded of a musical instrument that got them joy in moments of bitter history.

There are a few products that are famous for the town of Dinant. Divavderia; a hammered plate which was made of yellow copper and brought the town great wealth is just one of them. The couques de Dinant is a hard ginger bread and is made out of barley flour and honey. The third is a brass instrument.

November 6^th, 1814 was the day Antonine Joseph was pronounced son to Charles Joseph Sax. He was called Adolphe in the later years and had 11 siblings. His life and history of music changed when King William I of Lowlands appointed Adolphe to the music instrument manufacturer. He was commissioned to make instruments for the band which will be used by the army of his new kingdom.

From his father, Adolphe had developed an idea about structure shape and nature of brass and woodwind instruments and as early as six years old he could successfully drill a clarinet’s body. His father himself had modified the design of a horn tremendously. Thus, his son found it just natural.

Even though it was invented long back, the bass clarinet design was patented only when Adolphe Sax was twenty. He had left schooling and his diverted energy brought in money for the family.

In the year 1841, Adolphe Sax shifted to the beautiful city of Paris. His work on instruments continued and they were exhibited three years later. Defeating all his competitors, his examples drew in many people who were interested to buy and know more. The saxhorn as it was famously called led to the invention of the flugelhorn, which is used in concert bands and orchestras. The modern day euphonium too has its roots in the saxhorn.

Another of his inventions was the family of saxotromba. Even though they did not have a glorious fate as the saxhorn, these instruments were used for a few years after their creation in 1845. The structure of these instruments was that of a valved bass which was narrower bore as compared to a saxhorn.

The saxhorn crossed borders and oceans because of its sheer excellence. Even today the structure remains close to its original form. The brass band movement was a result of Adolphe Sax’s advances with the Saxhorn.

Next up was the clarinette-bourdon around the 1840s. This was the unpolished version of the contrabass clarinet. It was only after the clarinette-bourdon, that Sax invented the saxophone which he is so famously known for. It was patented in 1846 and was used extensively in orchestras and concert bands. His job as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire was secured because of his range of saxophones which included the sopranino and the subcontrabass. These designs were on black and white but they never actually materialized to be a part of the orchestra instruments.

Even after his invention and spread of the Saxophone, he continued to produce and invent more instruments. Success has its price and Sax had to literally pay it as his rivals brought him to bankruptcy twice. Once in 1856 and then in 1873, they attacked his legitimacy of his patents.

Through 1853 to 1858, he suffered and eventually recovered from lip cancer and finally died in 1894 in Paris.

- Nikita Gupta

The second model in the series was the Xperia X2 launched in September 2009. It was launched as the successor to the Xperia X1. It was an upgrade over Xperia X1, boasting of features such as a 3.2 inches touchscreen with a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The Xperia X2 also boasts of a whooping 8.1 megapixel camera with that features up to 16x digital zoom. The new and improved panel system also made this smartphone very popular.

However, the newest addition to the series is the Xperia series is the Xperia Pureness. The Xperia Pureness is a radical new addition which promises to change the way cellphones are viewed at, forever. The Xperia Pureness enjoys a radical transparent display of 176 x 220 pixels. This transparent luminous display is a standout feature of the phone as never before has something like this ever been attempted.

An upcoming Xperia model is the Xperia X10, supposed to be released in 2010. The Xperia X10 will be the first phone in the Xperia series to run on the Android 1.6 operating system. It is supposed to have a responsive touchscreen of 4 inches which is a pretty large display. It also carries forward the 8.1 megapixel camera along with various other features, which will come to light once it is launched widely.

With the Xperia series, Sony Ericsson has tried to bring about a change in which smartphones are perceived at in the industry. Previously, the notion about smartphones was, though they contained a huge array of features, they were large and bulky. They were not looked upon as ‘glamour’ phones, the vast bulk most of them had did not endear to those who wanted style. However, Sony Ericsson wanted to change the notion, they wanted to show that there could be a perfect match with style as well as features. The result is the Xperia series which oozes style but does not lack features. It has pretty much all the features a normal smartphone has, like QWERTY keypad, WiFi connectivity, touchscreen but also is designed in such a way, that it looks attractive. Whether they have succeeded or not is still up to debate.

Thus, the Xperia series from Sony Ericsson is seemingly aimed at the business-class consumer who likes a touch of glamour. All the phones in the series have been designed very well and seem to invoke glamour in anyone who uses it. The innovative looks combined with the hard features make this phone extremely popular. The release of the Xperia Pureness with a revolutionary luminous display promises even more to make the series even more popular.

- Angikaar Choudhury

According to Sony Ericsson, the Xperia Pureness is more a ‘work of art rather than technology’. As mentioned before, the transparent display attracts most of the attention as it is probably the first time this has been attempted. Coming to this feature, the Xperia Pureness display screen is fully see-through with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and dimensions of 1.8 inches. It is a monochrome display, which indicates black and white.

However, there is no camera, nor a QWERTY keypad or browsing options. It boasts of 88 MB of internal memory, Bluetooth A2DP connectivity as well as a USB port.

Another unique feature of this device is the unique concierge service which transforms into a truly elite phone. The phone comes equipped with a 24-hour concierge service, with a team on hand to provide support for all lifestyle requests. In layman terms, this indicates you have a personalized service of offices all over the world that can help you for common tasks like booking a movie ticket, reserving a restaurant. This truly is a novelty, in the cellular industry! It also boasts of a quadband GSM radio which gives it worldwide roaming capabilities while equipped with a NetFront browser.

However, the Xperia Pureness has still in come for a bit of criticism. The phone has a huge price tag, something which puts off a lot of critics. Most critics have pointed out that they do not mind paying extra for features but except for the transparent display, the Xperia Pureness really has no big feature to boast of. Without a camera or a QWERTY keyboard, certainly the price may seem a bit high. However, it can be argued that the Xperia Pureness is not a ‘normal’ phone like others. Sony Ericsson has purposely given it a high price tag to give it certain exclusivity.

Thus, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pureness is not really a cell-phone but more a work of art. It is a collector’s edition, a cellphone for the connoisseurs and the ones who like the nuances. This phone is for those users who do want to be bogged down with technology and prefer to keep things simple, albeit in a glamorous way. With the high price and the features in hand, the Xperia Pureness looks to appeal to a niche market.

- Angikaar Choudhury

The QWERTY layout is the most used modern-day keyboard layout on English language keyboards and typewriters. This layout was first designed by C.Latham Sholes in 1874 and sold to Remington in the same year when it first appeared in typewriters. It soon became the standard layout for all typewriters and is now used by almost all electronic keyboards.
As mentioned before, QWERTY is now a common standard layout for all keyboards. However, with the advent of portable devices and the need for communication, QWERTY keypads are becoming a common feature in mobile devices and wireless telephony.

Various mobile devices nowadays are equipped with full QWERTY keyboards. Alongside QWERTY keyboards, they are equipped with operation systems with their own processors as well as RAM to almost function as mini-laptops. They are called ’smartphones’. These smartphones have been aimed at the corporate and the office consumer. It is to enable him to carry around a portable device which can emulate the task of a laptop. The small size of smartphones as compared to laptops makes it more appealing to the office user.

However, it is not only cell-phones which boast of QWERTY keyboards. Various other electronic devices have recognised the ease and durability a QWERTY keypad brings and have strived to make QWERTY keypads a part of them. One example are ebook readers. Basically, ebook readers are devices which allow the user to read e-books (electronic books) in a simple, controlled way. They try and replicate the actual experience of reading a book, as far as possible to the real thing. A lot of ebook readers have QWERTY keypads now. QWERTY keypads, like other input devices, help the user interact with the device.

The QWERTY keyboard has now become a must for all smartphones. The QWERTY keyboard has various advantages. It allows fast messaging and texting, it also allows easier navigation. A QWERTY keyboard, as compared to a numeric keypad, makes a cellphone more than just a phone, it allows the phone to function as a mini-laptop. It has made phones much easier and more compact. It has allowed smartphones to branch out with more and more features.

There are various QWERTY phones available in the market now. A very popular one is the Blackberry. Another very popular QWERTY keypad phone is the PalmOne’s Treo 600, popularly known as the phone which kick-started the trend. The Nokia E61i and the Motorola Q were also popular. Recently, Nokia’s E-Series of phones has launched one smartphone after another, all having QWERTY keypads and all aiming at the business user. Even the Nokia N-Series has a few QWERTY keypad enabled smartphones.

QWERTY keypads are not only physical components, they are also digital. Every feature of Windows nowadays has a virtual QWERTY keyboard which can be used with the mouse. This is done to help the user in case his/her physical keyboard is malfunctioning. Various smartphones use touchscreen QWERTY keyboards. Touchscreen QWERTY keyboards help serve an important advantage, they ease the bulkiness of a cell-phone and make it slimmer and thus more portable. Also, touchscreen functionality is added to the cellphone. The Nokia N97 is very popular for using this interface.

Thus we see that the inclusion of the QWERTY keypad in cellphones has heralded a new revolution in the cellphone industry. With this new invention, everyday, cell-phone manufacturers are pushing the envelope and innovating.

- Angikaar Choudhury

The Nokia N97 Mini has been upgraded extensively from the Nokia N97. The Nokia N97 Mini weighs 138 g which means it’s easy to slip it into the pocket. The display resolution is 640 x 360 with a screen size of 3.3 inches. It also has a 5 megapixel camera equipped with Carl Zeiss optics and double LED flash, together with a front-facing camera for video calling. Other features include 8 GB of internal storage, 128 MB RAM, GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 Functionality and a full QWERTY keyboard.

The QWERTY keyboard can be accessed by sliding and tilting the top screen. Compared to the Nokia N97, the D-pad has been removed so it is much easier to use. The buttons are more responsive than the Nokia N97. The size of the spacebar has also been increased. The Nokia N97 Mini is based on the Symbian S60 5th Edition Operating system and has full capability for Handwriting Recognition, Wi-Fi access and tools to write and view documents.

As already mentioned earlier, the Nokia N97 Mini is a downsized version of the Nokia N97 which is more expensive. Hence, a few features may be missing. The front screen of the phone contains the Menu key, the Call Key and the end key. As the Nokia N97 Mini is also a touchphone, normal fingertouch is used to communicate with the phone. The keypad may take some time to get used to but after some time, one gets used to it. The rear side has a small metal cover which helps it become slimmer and makes it more solid. However, the camera does not contain a lens cover which makes it more prone to damage.

Regarding the software aspect of the phone, kinetic scrolling is an important feature of the Nokia N97 Mini. The interface is quite fast. The touchscreen feature is responsive. The screen uses TFT technology which shows vivid colours indoor but is prone to blacking out outdoors. The hinge mechanism used to reveal the QWERTY keyboard is robust and very seamless. The screen can be tilted very easily without much of an effort. This allows the phone to be used like a laptop. The sides of the phone has a screen lock key, a micro-USB port, twin speakers, power button, 3.5 mm audio jack, volume/zoom buttons and a camera shutter key.

The rear of the Nokia N97 Mini uses a stainless steel battery cover which helps to make the phone much slimmer. Thus, the phone feels good when carrying it in the hand. The Nokia N97 Mini uses the 1200 mAh BL-4D battery promising a standby life of 320 hrs and talk-time life of 7 hrs 10 minutes. The phone also supports music for upto 32 hours.

Summing up, the Nokia N97 Mini is more a ‘younger brother’ to the original Nokia N97. It may do without some of its older sibling’s features but it is priced more cheaply. With the large array of features available including touchscreen recognition, QWERTY keyboard and 5 megapixel camra, it is a safe and sturdy bet to buy.

- Angikaar Choudhury

The Nokia E75 has two keypads, a QWERTY keyboard as well as a numeric keypad. The QWERTY keyboard can be slid out from the side. The keyboard is solid-looking and chrome-framed. The QWERTY keyboard can be handled quite securely. Once the Nokia E75 is slid open to reveal the keyboard, the user is in for a very satisfying textual experience.

The front side of the Nokia E75 contains the numeric keypad, the screen and other functions. An ambient light sensor and a video-call camera are situated on the front panel of the Nokia E75, on either side of the earpiece. The numeric keypad contains a D-pad, used for navigation. The Call and End keys are situated on the two sides of the D-pad. On the left side of the phone, the microSD slot and the miniUSB port are situated. The right side of the E75 contains the volume keys, a voice command shortcut and the camera key.

The back of the Nokia E75 is extremely stylish and sleek. The battery is covered with a steel cover and opaque plastic. The loudspeaker and the 3 megapixel camera lens are also located here. The LED flash and a self-portrait mirror is located next to it. The Nokia E75 is equipped with a 1000 mAh BL-4U battery, promising upto 280 hours of standby and 5 hours 20 mins of talktime.

The Nokia E75 is basically a business phone, a phone aimed at the corporate industry. Hence it enjoys good connectivity with Class 32 GPRS enabled allowing a speed of 177.6 kbits/sec. The phone is also WiFi and 3G enabled. It runs on the Symbian S60 OS with a 369 Mhz processor. The Nokia E75 also has GPS enabled with a software called Nokia Maps which helps in finding directions.

Regarding multimedia, the Nokia E75 also has several features to help the user. It has a built-in music player capable of playing MP3/WMA/WAV/RA and other formats. There is also a video player. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF documents can also be opened and edited. The E75 has a built-in 3.2 Megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus.

Thus, the Nokia E75 is a powerful, sturdy smartphone brought out by Nokia. It is another welcome addition to the popular Nokia E-Series of phones.

- Angikaar Choudhury

The Nokia 7705 Twist has till now, been released only under the Verizon Network in September, 2009. It is a CDMA phone and does not support GSM functionality. The phone is relatively light weighing 98 g with dimensions of 69 x 69 x 15 mm. The Nokia 7705 Twist has various features like a full QWERTY keyboard, a 3 megapixel camera with flash and digital zoom, mp3 and mpeg4 playback as well as built-in memory of 256 MB.

The front of the Nokia 7705 Twist contains the 2.4 inch QVGA TFT screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. An interesting feature of the Nokia 7705 Twist is the small hole at the bottom right of the front panel. This hole is actually the hinge on which the Nokia 7705 Twist revolves. It is called the “Contact Ring” and can be customized to light up in six different colours whenever there is a text message or a phone call. This hole can be also used to hang the phone from a belt or even a keychain. This innovative design of Nokia is an outstanding feature of the Nokia 7705 Twist.

Below the screen is a square toggle with a Central OK button. The buttons on both side of the square toggle are touch sensitive. The twisting mechanism is easy and robust. The Nokia 7705 Twist can be easily twisted to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard. The top row of the keyboard contains contains shortcut keys like SEND, TXT Composer etc. Beneath lies the keyboard. The keys are easy to press and slightly raised to make it more useable

On one side of the Nokia 7705 Twist, the microSD slot and the 2.5mm stereo headset jack are located. The other side has the volume keys and the USB charging port. The third side has a wrist strap and the speakerphone grill. The Nokia 7705 Twist is excellent for messaging as it can handle SMS, MMS as well as Instant Messaging. It has an interesting interactive mode called Habitat Mode which shows a user’s callers as avatars.

The back side of the phone is polished and has stylish looks. The 3 megapixel camera lens is located here along with the flash. The Nokia 7705 Twist has a 860 mAh battery which claims a life of 4 and a half hours talk time and 13 days of standby time.

Currently, the Nokia 7705 Twist is only available on the Verizon Network in the US. A minor disadvantage is that it is a CDMA phone and is thus not functional on GSM networks. However, with this radical new design the Nokia 7705 Twist supports, it proves to be extremely popular with the new-age crowd. The Nokia 7705 Twist with its design is sure to give its user stares on the street.

- Angikaar Choudhury

The Axiotron Modbook has been touted as the one and only tablet Mac in the world. It is basically an after-market modification which converts an Apple MacBook into a slate-style tablet computer. The Axiotron Modbook was released in 2007 amidst intense hype rivaling the popular Apple iPhone. It has proved to be very popular.

The top segments of an Apple Macbook like the keyboard, the LCD screen and the iSight camera are removed. A glass screen cover, a new LCD screen, a sensor board, the original iSight camera and a chrome-plated magnesium shell are then installed. Thus, an Apple Macbook is converted into an Axiotron Modbook.

As the Modbook is based on the Apple Macbook, the specifications of the gadget are pretty similar. The Modbook uses an Intel Core2Duo “Penryn” CPU which has a power of 2.0 ghz. The Modbook also boasts of 2 GB DDR RAM, 120 GB Hard drive and an NVIDA graphics card. The display size is 13.3 inch. The display is fully-touchscreen compatible making it very user-friendly. The display of the Axiotron Modbook is very pressure-friendly and touch-sensitive, making it a pleasure to use. There’s also a GPS receiver which is very useful for finding directions.

Connectivity for the Axiotron Modbook is also well-developed. Two USB ports are included as well as a Firwire port. There is an integrated Gigabit Ethernet port, a WiFi option as well as a Bluetooth option. The standard Modbook also has space for one primary SATA hard drive which supports upto 500 GB and an ATA optical drive. A different layer called “ForceGlass” is added to the display to make it more responsive. Input is done through the onscreen keyboard.

Fans have hailed the Axiotron Modbook as the perfect companion for designers, architects and artists. It is very easy to draw directly on the Modbook with the pen and save it. It allows all designers to create digital art on the go. The Axiotron Modbook is a tablet PC very helpful to the design industry.

The Axiotron Modbook Pro is the successor to the original Modbook. The Modbook Pro offers newer features, faster access and speed to the user. It is supposed to be released sometime in 2010 and is claimed to be the fastest tablet PC in the world. It is also constructed from an Apple MacBook Pro.

The Modbook is designed from aluminum giving it a nice, smart feel. It will include Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 , Bluetooth, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot and digital audio. The Modbook Pro is supposed to be the first device that will allow both pen and touch input simultaneously. The user can use both his stylus and his fingers. This truly is a revolutionary hallmark. The Modbook Pro also enjoys a 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with an NVIDIA graphics card.

There is intense hype for the Modbook Pro which promises to revolutionize the tablet PC market. The popularity of the original Modbook attests to the fact that small is in.

- Angikaar Choudhury

An artificial cooling medium in 1748 was first developed by William Cullen of the University of Glasgow. The process created interest only in the scientific community as there was no apparent interest in applying the medium to use in commercial or home applications. However, it wasn’t until a better part of the century had passed someone applied the basic principles discovered by Cullen and created a design for a refrigerating machine.

In 1804, an American inventor by the name of Oliver Evans created a design but no working prototype came into the scene until 1834. It was at this time that a refrigeration machine that can be considered to be the precursor of the modern refrigerator was built by Jacob Perkins. The first practical refrigerator was designed by Gorrie, a physician in the United State in 1844. He built a working unit that was based on the design of Oliver Evans. This was created the as a means of cooling the air in amenities that were set aside for patients that were diagnosed with yellow fever. Therefore, a lot of people credit Gorrie as being the one to invent the refrigerator.

It was Carl von Linden who discovered and patented a modified method of liquefying gas in 1876, because of which the process of manufacturing refrigerator models became commercially viable and practical. Making use of gases like ammonia, sulphur dioxide and methyl chloride, the new refrigeration process was what became the standard for cooling agents until late in the 1920’s. The need for a more stable element for cooling was felt by the manufactures when a number of accidents related to the use of these known substances. This need led to the improvement of Freon, which was the standard gas used in cooling agents for a large part of the 20th century, until the leakage of the substance was linked to damage to the ozone layer. In fact, these environmental issues led to the ban of the very effective (Freon) refrigerants. The introduction of Freon was responsible for the expansion of the refrigerator market during the 1930s.

- Nikita Sarin

• Many phone calls can be answered at the same time
• Incoming voice messages can be stored in personalized mailboxes which are associated with the user’s phone number
• Received messages can be forwarded to another voice mailbox
• It enables to send messages to one or more other user voice mailboxes
• A voice introduction can be added to a forwarded message
• Voice messages can be stored for future delivery
• It enables users to make calls to a telephone or paging service to notify the user a message has arrived in his/her mailbox
• It provides message notification by a special dial tone, SMS, or using Caller ID signalling.
• Different callers are treated with different message tone.

NEED OF VOICEMAILS:

Voicemail messages are stored on hard disk drives. Messages are recorded in human voice similar to how music is stored on a CD. If a user wants to retrieve messages, he call the system from any phone, logs on using touch tones, and their messages can be retrieved immediately. Multiple users can retrieve or store messages at the same time on the same voicemail system.

• In the early 80’s and 90’s the cost of making phone calls was decreased and business communication was done by phones.. Usually only 1 in 4 phone calls result in a completed call and half the calls do not require a conversation. This happens because of difference in time zone, being away on business, etc, or if they were at work, they were on the phone, away from their desks.
• One of the advantages of a voicemail is its ability to forward calls. If a person does not answer his phone, calls are forwarded to another extension, presumably someone like a secretary who can take the message.
• Suppose an outside caller, Samir, calls someone in a company, Prithvi. If Prithvi’s phone rings “no answer” or “busy”, the PBX will forward the call to the voicemail system. The voicemail system needs to be told that Prithvi’s phone is the one that the call is being forwarded to so that the voicemail system can answer with Prithvi’s personal greeting. Once a message is left, the voicemail system leaves a light on Prithvi’s phone. When Prithvi returns to his desk and calls the voicemail system he is presented only with the messages in his personal mailbox even though thousands of messages belonging to other people are stored on the same system. Once the messages are played, the voicemail system signals to turn off light on Prithvi’s phone.

- Ankita Ashesh