Sachin Agarwal: January 2004

BMW 5 Series
I went to the BMW dealership to check out the new 5 series yesterday. What a piece of crap. It's not as ugly as the new 7 series, but it's still pretty bad. The worst part was the TERRIBLE interior and the HORRIBLE design.

When you open the trunk, it snaps up and almost hits you in the face. To close it you have to push down HARD. The center armrest also snaps open to store things. So you think you need to push down hard to close it. Nope. When you start pushing down it snaps and slams shut. The interior controls are cheap and ugly. You have to control the AC and other functions through the terrible iDrive system.

And I still don't understand why the interior light switches don't have tiny LED's in them so you can find them at night. My 1999 Audi had that.

BMW Z8
The dealership also had an Alpina BMW Z8. Alpina is an aftermarket tuner in Europe. I didn't care much for the Alpina mods. It had ugly wheels, an ugly steering wheel, and they retrofitted an automatic in the car that usually comes as a manual only. But once thing that was cool is it's individually numbered, 410 of 500.

The Z8 is BEAUTIFUL. It's like a retro BMW roadster. The interior and exterior might be on the of the nicest I've ever seen. And it's faster than a Ferrari. I think Steve Jobs has one. Steve is my hero.

Audi S4
The S4 is finally making its way onto the streets. I absolutely love the performance of my car, but if the S4 was out when I bought it, I might have got it instead.

Audi has by far the best design of any car company out there. It is the Apple of cars. The attention to detail is amazing. There are so many details my 1999 Audi had that my 2001 BMW can't even touch. Audi once lacked the performance aspect of driving a BMW, but I think they have nailed that down now.

Audi A8
Another new model hitting the streets now. Gorgeous. I would definitely take this car if I was over 40, rich, and wanted to drive a boat.

Acura TL
My co-worker Jerry and I have been arguing Acura vs. BMW for years now. I have to admit Acura has done an amazing job with the TL. It's pretty good looking, very nice interior, 270hp (although horsepower is generally marketing bullshit, like MHz), and great technology.

The main thing I LOVE about the car is all the cool gadgets it has. The Nav system is unreal. Touch screen, super fast and easy to use, and voice activated. In 3 seconds you can find a gas station or ATM, lookup a phone number, or find anything else around you. And you can tell your car to dial any phone number and it will work over bluetooth using your cell phone, in your pocket. The nav system in my car is great, but this one destroys it. Plus the car has a DVD audio system and other cool stuff.

The car does have its problems: first of all, horsepower is nothing if you can't put that power to the ground, and being front wheel drive, the Acura can't handle the power it has, or handle twisty fun roads in the mountains. Just pulling out of the Apple parking lot we could spin the wheels.

Also, I don't like some of the design decisions in the car. For example, the air conditioning controls are top and center, for easy reach. Except the car has auto climate control. If you have auto climate control, I feel you should set the temperature once and forget it, otherwise it defeats the purpose. If they expect you to be adjusting it often, what's the point?

I also wish the window controls were in the center console by the gear shifter, but I guess I'm going to lose that no matter what when I leave the BMW family. Why does no one else understand that's the PERFECT place to put window controls since your left hand is on the steering wheel, and your right hand is on the gear shifter?

Mazda 3
I have always loved the Protege. After I took Bob to buy his a couple years ago, I convinced Nikhil to buy one, and then another co-worker to buy one. They are great looking cars and very sporty looking. Then the 6 came out and the RX-8, and I was in love with the whole lineup.

Now one of my co-workers bought the new Mazda 3, which replaces the Protege. Basically it's a small car that matches the features and comfort of its larger competitors. Xenon lights, leather, nav system, and other things you can't even get as options on the 3's competition. And it's super fun to drive. And it's a hatchback which automatically makes it cool.

Here's a great article about someone using bluetooth and their cell phone to surf the web at the airport. I did this after New Year's when I had a couple hours to kill at LAX.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/09/02OPconnection_1.html

Two weeks ago we were at Macworld and we needed to find the location of a French restaurant where we were going to meet one of Evan's friends. We couldn't get a wireless connection because there were too many people online.

So I took out my laptop, connected via bluetooth (phone in my pocket) and surfed the web. Rad.

Highlights from the birthday party:

Roy came to visit from Seattle!
Flaming Dr. Peppers
Brian Rakowski breathes fire with 151

Finally, here they are. I commented them all so you know what's going on.

This was the most incredible trip of my life. It's amazing to see this other country that doesn't do things at all like the US, yet everything still runs, and sometimes better than it does here. I feel like my life makes a little more sense now, like I found out a little more about where I come from and who my people are.

The highlight was seeing so much family, some for the first time. After coming back to the US I felt really lonely. I guess that's normal after 5 weeks with lots of family, including a huge wedding.

I really, really miss India. On the plane ride home I even thought about moving to India permanently. I'm already looking for ways to go back, hopefully for 6 months to a year. Maybe I can market Final Cut Pro in Bollywood!

Chris told me about this great cell phone deal:

Since phone number portability took effect in November, i'm sure lots of people are looking to get new phones and new plans.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/wireless/B0000AGRYX/rebate-info/bensbargaicenter/104-9732226-5926320

The phone is a sony ericsson T610. After rebates you get the phone free and MAKE $200. That will pay for 4-5 months of service.

The plan is 600 anytime, unlimited nights and weekends for $40.

This is the phone I have and it is really amazing (especially for you Mac users). It integrates perfectly with iSync so it will grab your address book and calendar from your Mac. WHen you get a call, the person's name show's up on your screen. You can dial numbers and send messages from your mac (so you don't have to use a dial pad)

You can also surf the web on your computer using the phone as the internet connection, all over bluetooth.

And you can do other cool things like have your music turn on when you enter the room, off when you leave the room, have your screen lock when you leave, etc.

And of course there's the bluetooth headsets. Bluetooth rocks.

There wasn't much exciting news from Apple last month since I was gone (heh), and because everyone is getting ready for Macworld Expo. The only exciting news is the music store is getting great press and was named product of the year by Time and Fortune

Now everyone and their mom is coming out with a competitor which is very sad. Can no one else have original ideas?

This might be the biggest month for Apple ever. First, the Macworld Expo starts tomorrow. The keynote is at 9am and rumors say there will be a list of new products.

The Macintosh was first introduced in 1984 during the super bowl with what many say is the best commercial ever made. Here is the video.

This super bowl will be the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh. We already know that Apple has a deal with Pepsi to give away 100 million songs under bottle caps. This will be announced at the super bowl.

I am sure Chiat Day is hard at work putting together one of the biggest marketing campaigns ever.

India was amazing! It's such an incredible country. I didn't want to come back! Tomorrow I'll put up all my pictures.

Of course, it was still great to be home. Stepping out of the airport was surreal. It reminded me of Back to the Future when Marty finally gets back to 1985. Outside the airport I just looked around at all the things that were a part of my life, but i hadn't seen for so long. There's an M3! There's a rice rocket! These people speak english!

In the taxi to my house everything seemed to be in slow motion (Delhi is very crowded and there's lots of traffic). It was raining, and everything seemed to be too smooth and quiet. The car had a suspension that actually absorbed the shocks! And the car didn't have a diesel engine making tons of noise. The radio was playing music that I knew!

The first thing I did was jump in the MINI and drive to McDonalds for a Big Mac. Hmmmm, beef. Then I needed a long hot shower and clean clothes.