Droids (short for androids) were once fictional creatures. They were mechanised robots possessing artificial imagination and, according to one definition, “capable of self-contained locomotion”.

In films like Star Wars they made for good companions, were expendable, mathematically precise and did jobs that were considered too menial by their masters. Because they stuck around for so long, they established an emotional connection both with their creators and movie audiences.

In various versions of Star Wars, both in print and on film, droids were being put to different uses — assassin droids were used by bounty hunters, medroids specialised in surgical interventions, protocol droids worked on diplomatic missions, so on and so forth. There were even nanny droids tasked with the responsibility of babysitting children. These are my impressions of droids, which may seem pretty old-fashioned to the latest generation of mobile phone enthusiasts.

Consider the Motorola Droid  phone for instance, which will be launched soon and is already being touted as the first real challenger to the iPhone 3GS. Now, it is a real droid, except that it does not come with self-contained locomotion. It just fits into your pocket and goes wherever you do. According to early reviews, both devices are almost evenly matched when it comes to appearance. What the Droid really seems to score highly on is Navigation. The Google Maps app with Navigation, plus the voice recognition facility, seems to give it the edge in this department. 

Droid also wins when it comes to touchscreen display, multitasking, it has a better quality camera and improved lock screen facility. Where it can’t beat the iPhone  3GS is in the Apps Store (that’s hard for any Smartphone manufacturer), the browser (according to reviews, its pageloads are faster) and customisation.

From what I can gauge, the real Smartphone smackdown will begin once the Motorola Droid hits the market.

At the moment, I am completely taken up by Lose It, a new calorie intake calculator for the iPhone. 
It tells you how many calories each meal has and ways to burn them off. For someone like me who 
constantly needs to be reminded how much that chicken tikka could add to my girth, this is an invaluable application.

However, while it will still take time to decide the winner of the Smartphone war, the way we watch television is definitely going to change with IPTV. The system allows a digital television service to be delivered through broadband access networks instead of relying on radio frequency, satellite signals or cable television formats. What it really means is that the IPTV platform combines the virtues of watching television and surfing the web in such a way that the viewer not only gets to decide what he is watching, but how. It brings a never-seen-before level of interactivity and, more importantly, gives you choices you never had before.

(At first Anshuman resisted the idea of being called a geek, but then he realised it was the only language he could speak. Mail him at anshuman@khaleejtimes.ae)