Review and Technology

Maruti-Suzuki WagonR

Why are we testing the WagonR? It is a car that has survived 11 years with minor tweaks here and there, and is India's second-favourite car with 12,000 sold every month. Well, make that 'is' into a 'was', because the WagonR has received a platform change.

Instead of bringing the secondgeneration Japanese WagonR to India as expected, Maruti is bringing the brandnew third-generation model recently launched in Japan. As for the car, like the old WagonR, it's not a looker. Maruti, though, has changed the looks of the car a bit to look like the existing model, so that buyers feel familiar.

But the car is wider and taller and acquires the A Star's 998cc K-series engine giving it improved economy and BS-IV compatibility. This economical motor is not bad on open highways, but it's not a car built for speed or handling, despite a much improved suspension. The biggest change is inside. The improved interior fitment and drivability would help the new WagonR withstand competition from Hyundai, Ford, Tata and Fiat.

Pros and cons

• Bigger and wider, comfortable interiors, good ergonomics
• Boring to drive, No LPG 'Duo' option at launch

Price: WagonR VXi with airbags and ABS Rs 4.17 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Range starts at Rs 3.28 lakh

Motorola Milestone

The Milestone is what Motorola is calling its first Android device in India (the 'Droid' in the US) and this is the first really cool Motorola mobile device in years. Pretty much, the first Motorola one might want to use since the RAZR. Operating on Google's latest build of the Android operating system, we were impressed by the device's smooth response, particularly of the multi-touch screen.

The slide-out keyboard is extremely useful, though the gold bezel on the navigation button is a bit much. Motorola India is throwing in 'MotoNav', a free-for-life turn-byturn navigation software based on MapMyIndia's maps, which is pretty nice, but maybe as a force of habit, we tended to use Google Maps (also included) a bit more thanks to its smoother interface. If you buy it, please do download Google's fabulous 'Sky Map' from the Android marketplace, which explains the night sky in amazing detail.

Pros and cons

• Smooth interface, excellent build quality, physical keyboard
• Thin, but quite bulky. Battery life could be better

Websites
Every issue we will feature a website that will make your work or life a lot easier. This fortnight we look at a new way of sharing documents on the Internet. This site is still in public beta and you have to sign up for the wait-list, but the concept is fascinating. Microsoft has built a document-sharing application around their upcoming Office 2010 that will integrate totally into Facebook.

This will allow you to share your documents, spreadsheets and presentations with your friends on the social-networking site even if they don't have Office installed on their computers. This is made possible by Office 2010's new 'Web Apps' feature, which is Microsoft's way of taking on competitors such as Google Docs—moving documents from your computer onto the 'cloud' on the Internet.

Need help with some presentation ideas or have writer's block on a story you are working? Well, it will now be your friends on Facebook to the rescue. We're not sure how well this will work, but the concept of 'social' is interesting for something that quintessentially belonged to the workplace.