His home is his theatre

GIZMOGEEK

, country director (service practice) for Sun Microsystems India, has been an ardent iPhone fan. When he is not idolising the iPhone, Valluri secretly aspires to hack golf sites so that he can procure himself some free golf equipment.

What's the geekiest thing you've ever done?

I have a passion to build home theatre systems. I build my speakers, amplifiers, cross-over networks... I simply love the home theatre system that I put together at my home, all by myself. I have also assembled four computers and built a multi-terabyte digital file server for videos and music.

Have your gadgets ever come to your rescue?

When my son was hospitalised, I purchased air tickets and mailed them to my relatives, who were at my son's bedside the next day without me having to leave the hospital room even once. All this was organised and taken care of with the help of my iPhone.

If you could, whose computer would you hack?

Given the fact that I am an avid golf player, I would hack the website of golfsmith.com or tgw.com "" one-stop shops for golf equipment "" and order all the premium golf stuff for myself.

What is your coolest gadget?

My iPhone, for three reasons "" it picks up the orientation (in terms of vertical or horizontal) of how it is held and displays pictures accordingly. Then, it is smart enough to adjust display brightness according to ambient light for optimal viewing.

And lastly, it has a proximity sensor that cuts the display when it is held to the ear "" this prevents the ear from getting warmed up, and saves the battery. I also adore the Rubber Band feature, which can zoom and resize pictures with just a finger touch.

Name an ultra-expensive gadget that you have bought or would like to buy in the near future.

In addition to an expensive Yamaha Digital surround-sound amplifier that I gifted myself recently, I would like to buy the 1080P HD projector and a Sony PlayStation 3 that can also play BluRay-format discs.

Name an application that you haven't yet mastered, but want to.

I would like to master the Adobe Photoshop application. Though I have played around with it, I have not spent enough time with it. I have 4,000-odd negatives, which I would like to scan digitally and restore. It is very difficult to preserve them.

A perfect geeky gift for you would be...

A Canon EOS-1D digital SLR, a pro-quality digital camera with 18-megapixel resolution.

If you could, what kind of dream gadget would you invent?

I would love to build a B&W Nautilus speaker and a Krell amplifier, although it's an impossibility from a practical viewpoint.

Is there a gadget you regret not buying when the time was right?

Apple iPod, which I bought much later.

How do you get the maximum juice out of your gadgets?

iJuice, an iPod accessory, provides battery backup to both iPhones and iPods. I use iJuice when I fly long-distance.