Choose From One Of Two Great Savings Options No Down Payment: Fill & Download for Free

“…it's not rampant technology for technology’s sake. Every single component, every process has been considered and measured to make sure it is truly useful…”- Jony IveInnovation Does Not Always Mean Being FirstInnovation is not just about the technology, it is how this technology is used and how it changes how we use devices; it transcends all prior innovations up to that point. Innovation builds on the greatness of the past, but this does not mean innovation is just a big incremental leap, there are more elements.Some of the most informed technology observers, writers and notable Apple fans began to question if Apple could continue to innovate. They even began suggesting that the new Gold iPhone 5s option would be a failure before it even came to market. This is not about how wrong they were, it is about how easy it is to lose perspective of how truly innovative companies build truly innovative products. Sometimes it seems to be happening in slow motion, appearing like nothing is really happening.So much of what Apple has done since the Apple I, has been a design philosophy of assimilating great technology in “Apple time”. This means they are usually not the first to bring technology to the market, but perhaps the first to pull together all of the elements to make a desirable product that includes the technology. From the Integrated Woz Machine [2] to the new Touch ID, none of the foundational technology is new. However—with historical insight—it will eventually be deemed as innovative. Of course, just like any company, Apple has made some mistakes with technology; just not very often, and certainly not lately.When I saw the first Apple patent applications for mobile devices back before there was an iPhone, I knew that Apple would take a very long time before they introduced a product with a fingerprint scanner. Once the iPhone hit the market Apple filed dozens of direct and indirect patents relating to this technology. This was a journey that spans more than seven years, as along the way Apple acquired the most active companies developing fingerprint scanner technology.The Motorola Atrix And The Dawn Of Smartphone Fingerprint ScannersMotorola [2] invented the foundational technologies we all use today with cellular communications. Not only did they invent technology, they also have innovated countless times since Paul Galvin started the company in 1928. There is no doubt that Motorola has not only played a very important part in the connected and wireless world we see today, but that world simply would not have existed if Motorola had not innovated to the level they have. They were first, and they innovated a lot.Fingerprint scanners on cellular phones go back to a very limited use device built in the 1980s. The most recent example is the Motorola Atrix[2] family of smartphones. Developed in early 2010 under code name Olympus, the Atrix was to be an Android-based smartphone with a dizzying array of features. The Atrix even featured a full screen and keyboard docking system that many thought would make the smartphone a laptop replacement. The fingerprint scanner was the cherry on top of this multi layered stack of technologies. The problem, however, was that the technology employed in the Atrix’s fingerprint scanner was less than adequate and suffered from ineffective recognition that would frustrate users.Motorola’s Atrix was well received when it was announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show on January 5, 2011. But Atrix failed to capture the imagination and the marketshare of smartphones. Even though many users liked the integrated fingerprint scanner on the top rear edge of the device, it was not very accurate and not really very useful. The product now is virtually obsolete, as there have been no official upgrades from the old version of Android that powers the device. Thus the Atrix has met the unceremonious end of life that so many great ideas face in the marketplace.A Study Of Two Different ApproachesApple has brought the use cases for fingerprint technology to the forefront with Touch ID. This technology presents a great opportunity to examine just how divergent Apple’s approach to product development is, in comparison to just about every other technology company. Apple’s approach has often been problematic for knowledgeable technologists...and for good reason: they simply do not see what the big deal is from a technological perspective. And in most cases, they have been quite correct.Specimen of the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s.Specimen of the fingerprint scanner on the Motorola Atrix.There are quite a number of reasons why the Motorola Atrix failed to captivate users and capture market share. I will address what I assert are the most important contrasting elements to what I am certain will be a paradigm changing and transformative technology. In many ways the approaches to product development used by Apple and Motorola are really at opposite ends of the spectrum. At this point I think it is obvious, but it was not nearly as obvious when Apple started on the journey that resulted in Touch ID, nor was it obvious when Motorola added a fingerprint scanner to a smartphone.Touch vs. Swipe- Apple chose a technology that allows the user to touch a finger on the scanner, and this is not at all trivial. When one uses Touch ID the first time, it feels natural to just touch the scanner with the inside edge of the thumb holding the phone. Motorola’s scanner requires a finger to swipe over the head of the reader. The process is less than natural because of the way you must swipe the pad of the forefinger in a not-too-fast and not-too-slow action. Touch is the reason Touch ID got it’s name.Front vs. Back- Apple chose to locate Touch ID front and center integrated into one of the most important areas of the iPhone, the Home button. This makes instant access and regular use of Touch ID quite simple. Motorola’s scanner is located in what seems to be a thoughtful location from an engineering perspective. However, from a user perspective there are several contortions necessary to be sure of a correct fingerprint swipe.Any Finger vs. Just A Forefinger- Apple’s Touch ID allows for any and all fingers (or toes, if you are so inclined) to be used to activate the fingerprint scanner. Motorola’s technology primarily allows the right and/or left forefinger to be used. This is logical because of the way Motorola chose to position and orient the fingerprint scanner, however it severely limits the use cases for the system.Multi Orientation vs. Single Orientation- Apple’s touch ID allows it to recognize fingerprints in any orientation around the scanner. Motorola’s fingerprint technology uses only a single orientation: a straight up and down swipe. There is no doubt that just this issue alone would frustrate most causal users to the point of disconnecting the feature.Sapphire Lens vs. Plastic Lens- Apple chose one of the hardest translucent materials to be found, almost as hard as diamonds. This material selection was not a flamboyant afterthought, but a really deep understanding of the potential limits of scanning technology. Motorola elected to use a plastic-based sensor lens for the Artix. The lens of a fingerprint scanner is of paramount importance. Over time, the quality of each scan will degrade when materials less hard than Shappire is used. A smartphone will be exposed to dust, debris and oils from skin. This buildup will accumulate and cause recognition errors. More importantly, plastic—and even gorilla glass—will accumulate micro-scratches and whorl marks that will ultimately render the scanner useless.Reinvention vs. Off The Shelf- Apple built all of the technology for Touch ID from the ground up, both internally and through the acquisition of AuthenTec. Every single element—as well as the way the elements are combined—is unique. Motorola selected an off-the-shelf part that was inexpensive, but also not very accurate. Ironically, at one point AuthenTec sourced the part. Apple’s technological achievement in Touch ID is based on building this subsystem from the start. Even to an untrained eye, one can detect a huge difference just visually:Specimen of the iPhone 5s fingerprint scanner sub system invented from the ground up.Specimen of the Motorola Atrix fingerprint scanner subsystem that is basically a standard off-the-shelf part.Deep Security vs. Surface Security- Apple converged the security and encryption technology of the ARM A7 processor so that the fingerprint biometric data is held securely in the Secure Enclave of the A7 and can not leave the chip. Motorola just saved the biometric data in regular processor memory. This opened up the prospects of unauthorized use, as well as potential full identity reproduction of the user on other systems or devices.Multiple Use Cases vs. Single Use Cases- Apple clearly has been thinking for almost a decade about biometrics and fingerprint technology. They have empirically studied all aspects of how this technology could inform deeper uses cases with in the hardware. Today, Touch ID is constrained to just two use cases, unlocking the iPhone and authorizing iTuens and App Store purchases. But this is an artificial limitation, and Apple will deeply integrate Touch ID into the very fabric of the OS. Motorola’s vision was limited to only unlocking the Atrix and had no deeper uses cases planned.Apple Created A Name For The Fingerprint Scanner: Touch IDWe can also see a huge a dichotomy in the approaches both companies used to present the technology to the world. Apple has centered the marketing of the iPhone 5s around the fingerprint technology, and created a special name for it, Touch ID. In contrast, Motorola chose to present the fingerprint scanner as just one part of a very long list of features. This is apparent in the marketing videos below:Apple iPhone 5s video.Motorola Atrix video.How The Windows In Our Homes Inform Security.We all choose to make choices about security. We also know there is no such thing as 100% security. With the right conditions and the right amount of technology, anything will be unlocked. We live in homes that hold a great deal of our personal wealth, however we have access to the home that just a hard tap could defeat, we call this a window. We like windows for many reasons but they massively impact security. Even with alarms, the window is just inches away from our stuff. We accept this and we will ultimately accept that even the best fingerprint scanners will be circumvented. It will not be easy for 99% of us to circumvent, but it will be done.Innovative Technology That Just DisappearsIt is safe to conclude that Motorola saw the Atrix fingerprint scanner as little more than a security feature. Apple’s approach was dramatically different. Fingerprint-based security was viewed as a deep design element rather than as a technological appendage. We can see this visually in the way both companies present the fingerprint scanner to the user. In Motorola’s case one can feel that the scanner was grafted on to the design of the device, whereas Apple makes the technology disappear almost entirely. In fact, unless one was told there is a fingerprint scanner hidden below the Home button, it could be entirely taken as a Jony Ive desire to simplify and remove the Home button rectangle image.Example of how the fingerprint scanner is not obvious on the iPhone 5s.Example of how the fingerprint scanner is very obvious on the Atrix.History And Public StatementsThe fact that Motorola was one of the first companies to integrate fingerprint scanners into a smartphone should be a forward-looking accomplishment of which it can be proud, even if the product was not considered a success. However, it is surprising to me that Motorola made a Microsoft-like embarrassing statement yesterday [4]. Although intended as glib, I predict that the statement will not prove to be one of the company’s finest moments:Example of a regrettable and cringeworthy tweet from a multi-billion dollar company.There Is Room For All Kinds Of InnovationThere is room for thousands of ideas, products and companies in what we currently call the mobile market. It will soon just be viewed as the computer market is today. Innovation does not always appear in the way Apple conjures up their products. It can come from a spectrum of philosophies. But the common element is that an empirical praxis forms the foundation. As Jony Ive pointed out, it is not just about the technology, but how truly useful the technology is.Touch ID and the many use cases that will become apparent over the next few years will demonstrate why this technology truly forms a foundation for Apple’s future. You can certainly speculate where this will take all of us, but I think it is abundantly clear one of the next destinations for Apple is to make retail payments become a far richer and rewarding experience for both the merchant and the customer. Apple has had a long time to fine tune these experiences, and from the iTunes store to the Apple retail store experience you and I have seen just the start of the revolution.We Vote With Our WalletsAs I write this we are just days after Apple shipped the iPhone 5s. Some may say it is premature to declare it a success, even with the longest Apple lines in history and the mania some people apparently have to acquire a gold-colored iPhone. I agree that it may be too early to tell. But I have watched this develop through Apple patent filings for quite sometime. I also spent the better part of a beautiful Saturday watching people become excited as they got their first try at Touch ID. The buzz always goes away, but you and I will never look at a smartphone the same way once we have used it.Apple builds products using technology; they are not building products just to use new technology. The technology is a means to an ends. We can see that this philosophy of design can take almost a decade to begin to produce results. This vision and determination is one of the reasons Apple has become one of the most successful companies in the world. But in the end, none of this really matters. What matters is that you and I and the rest of us, directly or indirectly, have voted with our wallets, and not because we love Apple’s technology. We voted because we love what the products do to us, and do for us.__________[1] Macintosh Stories: Five Different Macintoshes[2] Motorola[3] Motorola Atrix 4G[4] Motorola: Remember that one time you …

I graduated from med school in May 2014. The interest I had accrued on my student loans was “capitalized.” That’s a process whereby the interest you have accumulated will now be converted to principal, and will now start generating interest. So, at then end of med school, you’re given a choice:Immediately pay off all the money you’ve accumulated in interest over the course of med school.Have the interest be capitalized.Your choice.Almost everyone chooses the second option, because you wouldn’t be borrowing if you had the money in the first place.I was assigned Great Lakes as my servicer. That’s the private company the government contracts with to handle your loan repayment. In theory, it’s supposed to give you the best of both worlds:Lower rates that you’d have had by relying solely on the private system.The efficiency of the private system, which presumably would be lacking if the government created its own department of loan processing.In practice, a private company that didn’t loan you the money gets to impede your ability to pay down your principal, because it is to its benefit to keep you paying for as long as possible. If you send more money than required, in the hopes of paying down your principal, you are told that you are “paid ahead.” What this means is that the money isn’t going to your principal; it’s being credited to your future monthly payments, so that now your next payments is several months into the future. If you write to complain, and to state what you want, they quote some legalistic policy at you, and continue doing what they want to do.I had loans from two sources.Stafford loans:An extra $20K that I borrowed from Discover, because I was an idiot.I ended up getting so frustrated by my servicer that I refinanced, and lost the right to have an income-based repayment schedule.My total loan balance at med school graduation was about $110K.I graduated from residency in June 2018. By the time I graduated from residency, I owed about $100K. It had taken me 4 years to pay down $10K. I was one of the lucky ones. I know two different people who deferred payment and ended owing more than $300K. Why? The interest accumulated in residency was again capitalized.When I started my first job out of residency, I made the decision that I would throw as much money as I possibly could at my student loans. I didn’t start making big payments until January of this year, after I had been working 2 months as a physician. This was the result:It took me 11 months after residency to have fully paid off my loans.Here’s the advice I can give:Minimize how much you borrow. Go to the cheapest school, or to the school that gives you the biggest scholarship, if you get one. The place you graduate from doesn’t matter nearly as much as students think.Make payments while in med school if you can. It might feel like you’re borrowing money, only to turn around and immediately give some of it back to the bank, but you’ll save yourself the headache of interest capitalization.Cost of living matters a lot. You’re going to owe a lot more money if you go to school in California than if you go to school in Iowa or Kentucky. This adds up. If you live in a place where your rent is $500, you’re going to borrow a lot less than if you live in a place where the rent is double or triple that.If you have two professions you could see yourself doing and not hating, there is nothing wrong with picking the one that pays more.When you’re getting started, it can be a very good investment to get a 3-bedroom house and rent out the other 2 rooms. This will allow you to live rent-free for a few years. During my 4 years of residency, the most I ever paid for rent was $255. That enabled me to pay $800-1K every month on my student loans.Variable interest rates can be very helpful. I refinanced my loans twice, and each time, I got a variable rate slightly below 4%. The rate increased slowly over time, but I refinanced again when the rate went above 5%. The second time around, my rate didn’t exceed 5% until my very last month.I know more now than I knew when I started borrowing, and I didn’t exactly follow all the steps outlined above. Still, I’m 33 years old, and I’ve paid off my medical student loans. That is, as they say, pretty freakin’ dope.I would be in a more celebratory mood if I didn’t have oral boards in 2 days.

The engineering involved in nano is no doubt exceptional. I believe no other manufacturer would have been able to do that. There is on thing that nano compromises on and b that is aesthetics. Engineering wise it has by far done great. Here is why:First – There are 37 unique design features from the roof to the wheels to ensure that the Nano delivers a performance that is better than any other small car. It is actually a very clever car with state of the art technology available at an incredible price. People who own the car fall in love with it.Second – The Nano exceeds all safety standards like frontal impact and roof crush test. The NEW Nano which you see on display has additional safety features in the electrical, exhaust and fuel system.Even if the driver does not pay attention to warning signals, these features ensure that the car shuts down when the engine temperature rises above permissible limits. Tata Motors is so confident about the car that they offer a 4 year / 60000 km warranty on the Nano.Third – The unique compact design of the rear engine and transmission ensures that there is maximum interior space for passengers. The fuel tank has been moved to the front to distance it from the engine and to provide a 40 litre boot space. The seats of the Nano are placed higher than other small cars making it easier to get in and out. The body has a tall boy design which gives the Nano great headroom.As a result the Nano has 21% more space than a Maruti despite being 8% shorter in length. So you can now have comfortable interiors as well as easy parking.Fourth – The Nano is the most fuel efficient petrol car in the country at 23.6 KMPL. This has been certified by testing agencies. While the actual mileage depends on your driving, the Nano will have the lowest fuel bill amongst all cars. Additionally, you can choose to buy a maintenance contract at a mere Rs. 99/month. With the Nano, the monthly operating cost can be as low as Rs. 2000/month for average daily driving of 30 kms.Fifth – The Nano might look delicate but it is actually a very rugged vehicle with a ground clearance of 180 mm; the same as a Scorpio. It has a very high gradeability of 30% and can climb slopes and hills easily. The Nano has proved itself in rough terrains like Khardungla and Jalori pass.The Nano has a top speed of 105 kmph, which makes it a good highway vehicle as well. Nine Nanos drove 15,000 kms across the country in 26 days as a part of Nano Superdrive campaign. Owing to it being very light, the Nano has a very decent power to weight ratio and hence a good pickup.Sixth - The Nano has the lowest turning circle radius of just 4 metres. Coupled with easy steering and compact size - the Nano is one of the most maneuverable cars on the road today. Many of the customers claim that the Nano helps save time by almost 10 ~ 15 minutes in a one hour intense city traffic drive.Seventh – This truly wonderful car comes with a 4 year / 60,000 Km warranty. Most other car manufacturers provide 2 years of warranty on their vehicles. This is made possible because of the superior design and ruggedness of the Nano and shows our confidence on the product. The Nano design has won 5 major international awards.Eighth – The 48 month maintenance contract at Rs. 99/month ( rs 4752 total cost ) makes the operating cost of Nano even lower than that for two wheelers. This is a special offer that Tata Motors is offering to all its Nano customers this month.Ninth – This is not all – along with Tata Motors finance – we are offering a very special financing scheme at 100% ex-showroom funding, while most of the other manufacturers offer 80% finance of ex show room price. As a result you can drive home a Nano at a very low down payment as compared to other cars. This financing requires very simple documentation and does not require any proof of income. The finance offer is valid only if you book your Nano this month.Tenth – The Nano comes in three trims –a) The standard version which is a non AC version with three color options.b) The Nano Cx with a powerful AC and 5 color optionsc) The Nano Lx which is a top end version with fog lamps, body colored bumpers, power windows and three color options.There are a total of ELEVEN variants to choose from.