Skull and phones

Johnny John, president of LMG Brands India, started his affair with gadgets a decade ago with a Casio PDA that has found its final resting place in his cupboard today. Installing a camera on his car’s rear bumper that shows up a video in his rear view mirror has not only helped John avoid bumping his car but also firmly established his status as a staunchly geeky executive.

Which of your gadgets are you proudest of?
The global positioning system, or GPS, in my car in Bangalore, because I love to get lost and find new places and do not now have to swallow my manly pride to ask for directions back.

Are there any funky gadgets you enjoy fooling around with?
Fool around, never. It is life-and-death stuff. What would I do, for example, without my BlackBerry Pearl while I sip a long drink on a beach in Goa on a Monday morning? The only way to keep that highly fulfilling job would be to send off a quick mail or two between every delightful sip and snooze to make everybody think I am hard at work. It’s a tough life indeed without one gadget or another.

What was your first true gadget? Do you still have it?
It was a Casio PDA in the early 1990s that led to my christening as a gizmo geek by my friends, as then the PDA was ahead of its time. I don’t use it today simply because it seems 200 years behind its time.

When was the last time your gadgets came to your rescue?
The camera at the back of my bumper, which shows up on a video screen in my rear-view mirror, has spared me from getting my car grazed on Bangalore’s roads.

Have you bought any ultra-expensive gadgets lately?
I’ve booked the Apple iPhone and want to get a bigger-screen iMac with the time machine and Apple TV.

Have you ever fixed a broken gadget?
And miss the chance to buy a new gadget? Never.

What is the longest time you have ever spent figuring out how to use a gadget?
One minute and then hours. The first one minute is to read the manual to find out how to turn the thing on, and then hours to navigate and try to find every possible menu, sub-menus.

What would be the perfect geeky gift for you?
Keep adding to Apple Mac accessories, and if my wife’s reading this then may I have the Apple time capsule with the one terabyte of memory, please?

Is there any gadget that awes you?
I’m waiting to get the flexible touch-sensitive screen gadgets that will have the world rolled up in my hands.

If you could, what kind of dream gadget would you build yourself?
Wirelessly connected eye shades with a 3-D display of an Internet page that I could be accessing through a phone or PDA, or even a GPS device in my pocket.

I should be able to navigate through voice commands via the wireless microphone embedded in my jawbone and listen through wireless 6+1 channel headphones embedded in my skull. And I can go on!