Why wi-fi is fine

GIZMOGEEK

Experimenting with the various products that he sells is Subrotah Biswas's favoured modus operandi for impressing people around him. He is country manager, SAARC and India, for Logitech, and be it adding some oomph to a party through music streamed over a wi-fi music system or getting a universal remote control to operate all the gadgets at home, Biswas does it like a geek.

Have your gadgets ever come to your rescue?

Squeezebox, a music-streaming system, was really handy during a recent party. I did not want to disturb speaker settings and since my music collection was on my laptop, I also didn't fancy people handling my laptop.

The Squeezebox was the answer, as it allowed me to stream all my music from the laptop to my speaker system wirelessly through wi-fi. On top of that, when I wanted a different kind of music, Squeezebox streamed in a few Internet radio music stations.

Name one funky application you had fun experimenting with.

Experimenting with the Skype application on my iMate phone was real fun.

What's your coolest gadget, that you like to show off?

That would be my most recent acquisition, the Harmony Universal remote from Logitech. Mine is a house with two small children and a pertinent problem used to be locating remotes. So, it was always a challenge to operate the home theatre, TV, set-top box, et cetera.

Harmony helped me replace all my other remotes and it comes with features that can define an activity. Now, I just need to press "Watch Movie" and automatically my DVD player switches on, connects with the 5.1 speaker system, and the TV shifts from cable to video mode.

Any gadget that you regret not buying when the time was right?

On the contrary, I have always regretted buying a gadget when the time has been right. The reason being that the life of gadgets has come down with so many advanced gadgets getting launched frequently. The right time to buy, I believe, is as soon as the product is launched, to enjoy the full life of the product.

A perfect geeky gift for you would be...

Maybe a technology that has been only heard about, and I would be one of the few to use it. Something like an iRobot, a smart machine that will handle all my requests.

One technology that you have been personally interested in?

Wireless technology "" it would be great to have a truly wireless world, where every electronic product can connect/talk to each other conveniently.

Which is your most stylish gadget?

That would definitely be the Harmony Universal Remote "" the touchscreen model is amazing. Also the MX Air, a mouse that works in the air.

What's the geekiest thing you have ever done?

Four years ago, when I exchanged video data between my mobile and my laptop through Bluetooth, I felt like a geek. When I had my first online video conference using a webcam, I felt geeky. And today when I explain to my friends how Squeezebox streams music from my laptop kept in a different room through wi-fi, all of them feel like handing me the Geek Trophy.