The ‘much awaited’ tag has never really been attached with the year-end FIFA releases. When you have two FIFA titles (the other being FIFA Manager) released every year, the hype doesn’t really build up. But FIFA 08 promised to be different. And different it was!!

In the year 2007 came Konami’s Winning eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 07 which made FIFA 07 look really passé. FIFA had to do better. FIFA’s developers have shown tremendous improvement in the gameplay as well as the player modeling. Let’s take a closer look at what FIFA’s latest installment has in the offing for those hardcore soccer enthusiasts.

What’s new: A truly next-generation ball-striking engine has resulted into better passing, more precise long balls and accurate shots on target. Here even ball spin, pressure from defenders, player attributes spice up the game. The ball doesn’t stick to the player as in previous versions (therefore you probably can’t just run through defenders and score goals at will). A much improved AI lays greater emphasis on good passing. Team formations plays a very big role in winning matches. You probably need some basic knowledge on how to counter your opponents formations. So it’ll probably take a couple of games to get into that winning streak (even if you are playing Italy v/s New Zealand!!). Another noticeable feature was the ability to create custom team formations. All teams have their original formations as in real life. It was very pleasing to play with Barcelona’s trademark modified 3-5-2 formation. You can actually place players anywhere you want.

You can now take full control of your goal keeper. Did a striker just run past your defenders? You still have the option of manually controlling the goalkeeper! Another added feature is the ability to make through passes. You need not always pass to a point where your teammate is present. You can just pass the ball into void and have another player reach to the spot and take it further. Really useful when you are outnumbered as a striker.

‘Be a Pro’ is probably the most exciting feature this game has to offer. Start with a player and have him rise to fame with the game teaching you all the way through. Each match has certain tasks listed out. A defender can have objectives like ‘Win 10% tackles’, ’50% successful passes’ etc. listed out to him before the match. Defenders, midfielders and strikers all have different tasks to perform.

But then everything isn’t rosy here! One look at PES 2007 makes you wonder, “What have EA been doing all year??” Here’s a small comparison between FIFA’s Thierry Henry and PES’s Thierry Henry. (Both the images are my screenshots from the games played on the same rig).

(Psst: Here’s an actual photo of the French bald wonder)

As it is clearly seen, Pro Evo Soccer 2007 clearly has an edge over FIFA 08. Even the grass looks livelier! It’s players even show various emotions whereas FIFA players don’t. Key layout has changed (again???). The ‘Manager Mode’ is the same as of the 2007 edition. Gets really boring after a couple of seasons. With the PS3 and XBOX versions of the game you can create and execute signature moves. With the PC version, the developers decide to totally give it a miss (how rude)!!!

AngadSodhi dot Com Verdict: The FIFA 08 version is very analogous to Windows Vista. Vista is a step ahead of Win XP but not as good as Mac’s OSs! Put FIFA 08 and PES 07 head-to-head and the winner is obvious (hint: begins with a ‘P’ ). Hopefully FIFA Street 3 can live upto the hype it is generating!!!

AngadSodhi dot Com Rating: 7.9/10

The W890i, yet to be launched, is Sony Ericsson’s latest addition to it’s repertoire of ‘walkman phones’. What makes the phone so hyped-up even before it’s release anywhere in the world is a really impressive spec sheet released by SE on their site.

Let’s take a look at what the phone has to offer:

• Size: 104 x 47 x 10 mm
• Weight: 78gm
• Screen: 240X320 px, 262,144-colour TFT
• Memory: 26MB internal memory, 2GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) bundled!!

Other Features:

• A 3.2 MegaPixel camera!
• 4X digital zoom
• RSS feeds
• A2DP – Music from phone to headset over a wireless connection
• MegaBass – enhance Bass frequencies
• PictBridge – print straight from your phone
• SensMe – Listen to, and create, playlists of songs sorted according to the mood of the music.
• TrackID – Record a few seconds of a song and get track details sent to your phone in seconds.
• FM radio also supports TrackID feature!!
• Mobile Blogging
• Video Blogging
• 3G
• Video Conferencing
• Subscribe to Podcasts

Available Colours: Sparkling Silver, Mocha Brown.

I on angadsodhi.com would like to have a small competition here. We have taken a look at the phone, now it’s time to predict the price! Please leave your price estimate, either in INR or Dollars, below as a comment along with your name. The competition is active only until SE hints at it’s price. (duh!!)

The person with the closest bid gets . . . . . . . . just a special mention on this blog. (Obviously you don’t expect an undergrad Engg student to be giving out prizes, do you??)

In my last post I had shown a preview into the portrait of the lovely Emma Watson using only 1s and 0s. This form of art is called as ASCII art.

Here’s another example. The Batting Maestro (who got out on 99 again today!!) Sachin Tendulkar in ASCII art.

Is it very difficult to create ASCII art? Actually yes if you decide to do it on your own, but child’s play if you use converters available freely on the net. What I’ve used here is one of the best and most user friendly among the ones that I’ve laid my hands upon.

www.text-image.com is a brilliant site that can do the job within seconds. It also gives you three varied options namely

Though the B/W ASCII mode and the Matrix mode are not as impressive, the HTML mode is really good.

Here’s another example of good ‘ol Hollywood hunk George Clooney. This picture has high contrast and a high level of detail. But the script ofn the site does a pretty good job!!

Note: Make sure you are using a resolution of atleast 1024 X 768. My site looks best at this resolution!!

So have fun creating ‘ASCII art’ and don’t forget to tell people you heard about it on angadsodhi.com!!! Cheers..
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It is long past the time when cell phones were just communicating devices. At a time when the midrange wagon on the cell phone express is the buzziest, I was firm on staying onto the low-end wagon. I was firm I didn’t need a smartphone. But needs and wants are meant to change. Particularly speaking, the change is always on the ‘increasing’ side. One look at the majestic S500i, and I did jump into the 10k wagon. A look at these pics would tell you why:

Looks and Build Quality
While the build quality can be a matter of concern over a period of time, the looks are simply astonishing. Can’t think of another phone that can match the looks of the S500i. Since the phone is supposedly ‘inspired by nature’, SE has taken extreme efforts to make this phone special. The phone flaunts some flashy lights at the sides, a la 3220, except that they look much more classy! The phone comes to life during an incoming call. You have a default theme which changes according to the time of the day and the current season. I’ll be writing a special post on it soon. I’ve bought the phone amidst speculations that the aluminium keys crack on use!! But I’ve had the phone for a month now and (bless my stars!), the keypad’s still perfect. SE replaced all faulty phones and the new ones don’t crack.

Audio Output
The earphones provided with the package aren’t the ones provided with the walkman phones and I must say they don’t sound as good either. But you could always upgrade those. The phone manages to squeeze a speaker under the circular navigation keys! This helps deliver sound in all directions. Another breakthrough innovation in design!!

Connectivity
The phone has Bluetooth v2.0 and it also supports A2DP. This means you could pair it with stereo wireless headsets and also play music through another BT device with speakers! SE also packages the regular USB cable.

Entertainment and Multimedia
The inbuilt music player is very similar to that of the walkman phones. The ‘Play Now’ is an added feature which allows you to download music, ringtones and stuff in just 3 clicks. All regular games do play on the S500i but none of em make use of the lighting effect on the phone. We’ll have to wait for SE to release games customized for the phone.

Salient Features

• Set 5 different alarms at a time.
• Customize the lights. i.e. choose a particular colour for individual contacts, choose whether the phone lights up during an coming call when it is in silent mode etc.
• Video Ringtones
• Separate tone for individual callers.
• Voice Dialling
• Voice Answer
• Flight mode
• RSS reader
• 2.0 MP camera with video recording.
• Flash Support for themes
• Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support (up to 2 GB)–14MB Internal Memory
• 240×320 pixel, 262.144 color TFT screen (looks really awesome)

Now the –ves:

• Aluminium keys feel brittle.
• Small key size could cause problems to some.
• Not a 3G phone. No EDGE.

The Package contains:
Phone, USB cable, manual, charger, SE PC suite CD, HPM-62 handsfree kit.

Price:
INR: 11,000/-

Colours Available:

• Mysterious Black
• Ice Purple
• Contrasted Copper
• Spring Yellow

Conclusion:
This phone is all about bling. Tailor made for the youth, it is sure to make heads turn. With little or no negatives, it is sure to be the next big thing!!!

Links:

• Official S500i Page
• Official S500i Demo on YouTube
• A nice demo video I found on YouTube. Must see for all

I give you some more pics to drool upon:

Director: Sajid khan
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics: Sameer
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan, Vidya Balan, Boman Irani.

A look at the promos tells you that the Sajid Khan’s directorial debut ‘Heyy Baby’ promises to be a laugh riot. But one glance at the people comming out of the theatre after watching the movie could make you dizzy. If you expect people to be murmuring ‘cho chweet’, wrong again! Puffed red eyes, red noses, wet handkerchiefs say it all. More than being a comic flick, the movie touches everyone’s heart. Even if touching movies like BLACK didn’t make tears stream down your cheeks, Heyy baby will surely do!!!

One fine morning our three ‘foxes’ Arush, Al, Tanmay find a little girl on their doorstep with a note which claims the baby to be their daughter. Initially none of the trio want to claim her their daughter and decide to abandon her on someone else’s porch just as someone had left the baby on their porch. But in a sudden turn of events they realise their mistake and actually fall in love. But just when all’s rosy, the mother(Vidya Balan) takes her baby back!!!

No points for guessing the end of the story but the way Sajid puts it is simply fantastic! The movie begins with a sizzling track featuring 20 of our most beautiful divas!!! Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora, Amrita Rao, Amisha Patel, Diya Mirza… you name her, Sajid’s already put her in! I’ve heard it cost them 1.5 crores just for the opening number!!

My Rating: 6/5

One extra for the cute baby (take her away and the movie still gets a 5 on 5)

+ves:

• Really cute baby.
• Great chemistry between the trio.
• Almost entirely shot in Australia.
• Great one-liners.
• Really cute baby. (did I mention this before??)

-ves:

• Absolutely none.

A must watch for all ages!!!

For those of you who’ve got bored of using the ‘Hrithick’s and the ‘Emma Watson’s as their profile images, help is at hand. ‘At hand’??? At your fingertips I should say! It is now possible to create custom images at the snap of your fingers.
Custom images??? What’s that you might ask? Well, take a peek –

The harder way to do it would be to search the net for photoshop templates and edit em yourselves using photoshop. Really a tedious task if you ask me. But then there’s the smarter way. The ‘imagechef’ way. Take a look at imagechef.com.

www.imagechef.com is one of the rare sites that does it so well. It lets you create really cool custom images in a jiffy. No software required, No photoshop skills required!!! All you need is your dab of creativity and let the chef conjure up some great images!
Your options are basically divided into these categories:
•Animated
•Fun
•Friendship
•lolcats
•bling
•characters
•license plates
•flags
•work
•signs
•music
•sports
•zodiac
•other
Won’t discuss each category in detail though.

The advantages of using custom images are enormous:

You could express you current mood –
.

You could let people know your interests –
.

Let your loved know of your love –
.

Or you could just have fun!
.

Then there’s some girly stuff too:
.

With an added dose of creativity, you could grab some attention too……
.

So go ahead and let your creativity fly. And when heads turn, tell them you read about it on www.angadsodhi.com!!!