Introducing the world of 3G to Indian mobile consumers–A review of 3G service providers and their tariffs

After mobile number portability it is now time for the telecom industry to woo the customers to the latest in the industry. Yes indeed, 3G is the talk of the town. With 3G available from all the major service providers both for their pre-paid and post-paid consumers, everyone can now experience ‘on the go’ internet experience from their smart phones. What remains to be seen is how the Indian consumers are going to embrace this technological advance. And this to a great extend will depend on the data plans and tariffs that the service providers will offer. I have compiled a list of major 3G service providers along with the details of their post paid charges (wherever available).

Comparison of the tariffs and service

Of all these, Vodafone’s deal is currently the best as one gets to try the 3G experience ‘at no extra cost’. But when Vodafone will start charging for the service, I guess BNL will get back to be he best again. Not only are the charges vey nominal, the service is also good. I find Airtel to be the costliest amongst the lot (They even charge you at 50paise per minute on Customer service calls – that’s pathetic!). I have personally tried Airtel and BSNL and from my experience, I find BSNL beat Airtel hands down I terms of cost, browsing speed and issueless connectivity. Airtel has intermittent breaks in connection and is relatively slow in comparison. Vodafone, I heard lives up to the ‘Super man’ zoo-zoo levels of expectation. (Again Vodafone did come up with the best series of Ads for 3G – they seem to have on hell of a creative team)

State wise list of service providers:

Here is the details of 3G service provides in different states:

State	Service provider
Andhra Pradesh	Bharati Airtel, Idea, Aircel
Assam	Reliance Telecom, Bharati Airtel, Aircel
Bihar	Bharati Airtel, STel, Aircel, Reliance Telecom
Delhi	Bharati Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone
Gujarat	Idea, Vodafone, Docomo
Haryana	Idea, Vodafone, Docomo
Himachal Pradesh	R C0m, Idea, STel, Bharati Airtel
Jammu & Kashmir	Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Bharati Airtel, Idea
Karnataka	Bharati Airtel, Docomo, Aircel
Kerala	Idea, Docomo, Aircel
Kolkata	Reliance Telecom, Vodafone, Aircel
Madhya Pradesh	Idea, Docomo, Reliance Telecom
Maharashtra	Idea, Docomo, Vodafone
Mumbai	Bharati Airtel, Reliance telecom, Vodafone
North East	R com, Bharati Airtel, Aircel
Orissa	STel, Aircel, R com
Punjab	Docomo, Idea, Reliance Telecom, Aircel
Rajasthan	Docomo, Reliance Telecom, Bharti Airtel
Tamil Nadu	Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel
Uttar Pradesh (East)	Aircel, Idea, Vodafone
Uttar Pradesh (west)	Docomo, Bharti Airtel, Idea
West Bengal	Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone, Aircel

 

Even though 3G is  the hot cake now, the usage will greatly depend on competitive pricing. Also as a smart phone (like iPhone, android models or Nokia smart phones) is a basic necessity for this service, that will also act as a dampening factor. Nevertheless, I believe that this revolutionary technology will reach the masses very soon even if the service is priced quite on the higher side now. I am sure the charges will settle down to customer friendly rates within a short time – remember when cellphones came to India, incoming calls were charged at Rs.65 per min and today we are paying homage to 1 paise/min!

What do you think? Do you have 3G enabled handsets? What 3G service do you use and how do you like it – Please share your views!

Verizon unleashes 4G with HTC Thunderbolt - A review of features and deals on Thunderbolt

The wait for 4G is finally over - Verizon has launched the 4G service with HTC Thunderbolt today! The 4.3 inch Thunderbolt is priced at $250 at Verizon wireless with a 2 year contract. The phone looks very cool and hopefully experiencing 4G on it would be cool as well. The only thing that bring a frown is the Android version in the mobile. With android already working on Ice cream Sandwich, this mobile only sports the Android 2.2 version (the version most widely in use today).

Features:

Android 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC Sense 2.0 OS

4.3” TFT Touch screen, 8MP rear cam with LED Flash and 1.3MP front cam

MicroSD expandable up to 32 GB

802.11 b/g/n wireless, 2.1 Bluetooth, 4G network

Qualcomm® MSM8655, 1GHz, Qualcomm MDM9600 chipset

 

 

The best deal on this phone is available at Amazon.com – $180.00

Ordered your HTC Thunderbird already? What is your expectations? Do share your comments here!

Apple iPad 2 vs Motorola Xoom vs Samsung Galaxy tab - A comparison of features, hardware and usability

Its Showtime for the tablet competitors Apple, Motorola and Samsung and for tablet lovers, it can’t get better than this. Gone are the days of Apple monopoly in the market. Now, the customer is the king and we have for the first time real competitors to consider when thinking about the latest in electronics market – tab. The release of iPad 2 (read the features and highlights here) had Samsung do some serious re-thinking about its price and features before launching it in the market. Also there were reviews on Motorola Xoom which showed that there were some areas of improvement when compared to the iPad2. However, with Android making its presence felt among users of wide ranges of age group and profession, it is customer oriented market yet again and here is how I compare the tabs (Read a detailed comparison of Android vs iPhone here). Again, in this case too, I am not going to say if one tab beats the other or if Apple wins over Android or Android gets better than apple – just trying to bring out an unbiased review.

Comparison Chart:

	Motorola Xoom	Samsung Galaxy tab 2	Apple iPad 2	Advantage
OS	Honeycomb	Honeycomb (android 3.0)	Apple iOS 4.3	Purely for the brand power and also because Honeycomb is still raw and yet to be experienced – Apple
Display	10.1”	10.1”	9.7”	Though Apple’s display is slightly smaller than the other two, it looks cuter than the other two to me – Apple
Resolution	1280 x 800	1280 x 800	1024 x 768	Definitely Motorola
RAM	1 GB	Not Available	512 MB	Motorola
Processor	1 GHz Terga 2 dual-core	1 GHz Terga 2 dual-core	A5 1GHz dual-core	Again for the tested and extremely satisfying performance – Apple
Camera	5 MegaPix rear camera with LED Flash / 2 MegaPix front camera	8 MegaPix rear camera with Flash and 2 MegaPix front camera	Rear camera pix rating unspecified, front camera VGA	Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – Apple disappointed everybody big time here
Memory	32 GB – Expandable memory up to 32 GB in microSD	16 or 32 GB – Nothing specified yet about external memory	16, 32, 64 GB but no external expandable memory	Motorola – MicroSD slot was one of the most expected feature in the new version of Tabs
Wi-Fi	802.11 b/g/n along with Personal Hotspot	802.11 b/g/n	802.11 b/g/n	Tied – similar specs
Network	3G (upgradable to 4G – if you don’t mind shipping it back and forth to Verizon to get this done)	4G HSPA / EDGE / GPRS	3G HSDPA / GSM / EDGE / CMDA	Samsung Galaxy Tab for the 4G
Externals	9.8 x 6.6 x 0.5 / 12.7 mm / 1.61 lbs	9.67 x 6.7 x 0.43 / 10.9 mm thick / 1.32 lbs	9.5 x 7.3 x 0.34 / 8.8 mm thick / 1.33 lbs	Apple – truly lives up to its marketing slogan – thinner, lighter and smarter
Ports	HDMI, USB 2.0	USB 2.0	HDMI (with adapter)	Motorola Xoom

 

Apple’s exciting features like Facetime, excellent multitasking still scores overs minor hitches in Motorola (like problems with microSD, confusing buttons in different applications and heftier finish than iPad2). However Motorola Xoom is a serious competitor to Apple in the tablet race and we are in for some exciting market analysis in near future!!

What do you think about the latest tabs in market? Do share your views and reviews on your tab experience

VMware view client App for iPad–next leap from RDP / VNC Citrix and Wyse apps in market

 

One of the primary arguments that many people have against owning an iPad or even better the latest iPad 2 is that this 10 inch piece will never grow up in capacity to handle what their desktop / laptop can handle in terms of work. I must say that either these people are unaware of the business apps that are available in market or haven’t worked out how to use them to perfection. Yes I am talking about the VNC / RDP apps that are abundant in iTunes apps market. VMware has joined the bandwagon (in league with Citrix and Wyse) now making it bigger and better with their VMware view app for iPad.

 

RDP / VNC apps for iPad / iPhone / iPod

As this post is not a review on the RDP and VNC (Virtual Network Computing) apps that are available in the market, I am not presenting an exhaustive list here. The two apps I have given below are arguably the best in this category in the market

1. iTap RDP (Remote Desktop for Windows) By HLW – Paid App ($11.99) – Use this app to take RDP of your machine when you are connected to the local network. Or if you can get a public IP from your internet provider, you can set your laptop/desktop with a static IP and you can then access your machine from anywhere in the world from your ipad. Once connected you will actually be working on you laptop/desktop with its hardware resources!

2. Desktop Connect By Antecea Inc. – Paid App ($14.99) – This has the choice of either connecting through VNC or through RDP. The same idea of public IP holds good here too to make your machine available from anywhere in the world. One good feature about this app is that you can turn off the touchscreen option and then your whole ipad becomes the giant touch pad and can be used to control mouse pointer movements (if you have difficulty in point touching)

TeamViewer By TeamViewer – free App. I know that this app cannot be even mentioned in the same breath with the RDP / VNC apps but if you are not too freaky about security (when you accept team viewer policy it means you allow your session visibility to team viewer), this one will just suit the bill for accessing your machine over the internet. But the only drawback I can think of is that, you cannot log your machine off and team viewer must be left running all the time. So don’t go sharing the Partner id and password!

What does VMware view do?

The VMware view client for iPad that has been launched on Wednesday (9th March 2011) and will now enable enterprise users access their workstations from iPad (I can’t start imagining how happy my husband’s going to be about this). Simply put, if the virtual machines are available in the cloud in a data center, you can access them from your iPad using the FREE APP from VMware (VMware View for iPad By SpringSource). VMware likes to call this a ‘finely tuned solution’ with PCoIP protocol for a faster and smoother user experience – even over 3G!! This app is compatible with external bluetooth keyboard and external display.  With the latest iPad 2 boasting HDMi, the display can be over a wide screen LED TV.

Special features of VMware View App

Once you have the app installed in your iPad, just click on the VMware view icon (middle icon in the bottom row) to connect to a virtual machine by entering its IP, followed by the username and password in the next screen.

The desktops that are provisioned to your user accounts will show up. Click on the one that you want to connect to and the desktop comes up on the ipad

The interesting feature that enhances the usability of this app is the drop down menu that appears on the top. From the drop down menu, you can choose the following options:

1. Keyboard: Opens up the keyboard for typing within applications such as Microsoft word from within the machine

2. Trackpad: Using this trackpad is similar to using the touchpad in any laptop. Controls the mouse pointer

3. Control Pads: This opens up the control keys, function keys, alt keys and other usability buttons like page up and page down that is most commonly used in a windows machine. Interesting yeah!

4. Gesture Help: A Help on what gestures on iPad means what to the Virtual machine.

5. Options: From here you can choose the touchpad sensitivity and enable / disable tool tips.

6. Disconnect: Disconnect from the virtual machine using this button from drop down menu on top. You can reconnect to the virtual machine and start from where you left off from you ipad or from your workstation.

 

UPDATE: Check out VMware official blog on the VMware view app for iPad at VMware website – link here

 

I think this app comes as a boon to most of the business and enterprise users who have the maximum inclination to buying an iPad. Do you? Are you already using of RDP / VNC apps - What do you think of this app?

The new iPad 2 (second generation iPad) features review and what is missing in iPad2

Lo and Behold! The much awaited gadget of the year – iPad 2, the second generation iPad was launched two days back and has put a full stop to all kinds of speculations about it. Steve Jobs (who still looks unwell) was clad in his trademark black turtleneck and blue Jeans to unveil the latest pride to the apple family.Being gadget freaks, that we are, we had our own set of expectations towards the next generation of this wonder gadget and was waiting eagarly to see how it was different from the generation 1 ipad.

For all those who are still saying, this is a redundant piece of gadget which is just tossed in the market to do what an iphone / laptop does, consider this – Will you want to take your laptop out every time you travel to watch a movie / presentation or would you rather prefer a tab? If you are answering that you’ll just be fine with a iPhone / smart phone my answer is this – I prefer to fly emirates rather than any other flight for just one reason – the in flight personal entertainment screen is by far the biggest among all the other international airlines. The name of the game is portability!

Lets get back to the iPad2 and its features:

Appearance and Aesthetics:

* Lighter and Thinner than the previous iPad version – 8.8 mm thick which is 35% lesser than iPad and weighs 1.3 lbs

* 9.7 inch screen (There were a lot of speculations that iPad 2 was shrinking to a 7 inch screen – thankfully this speculation was wrong)

* LED backlit, multi touch display with Finger print resistant oleophobic coating – in short the same as in iPad. With iPhone 4 in circulation with Retina display, I almost 99% believed the speculation that iPad 2 was getting retina display as well. Really disappointed here.

Hardware Features:

* A5 processor (Dual core) with 1 GHz speed

* iOS 4.3

* 9 times better graphics than previous version

* 10 hr battery (inbuilt again)

* Dual Camera

           -  Rear camera is good – has video recording capacity of 720p HD at 30 fps.

           -  Front cam-VGA (WTH! who uses VGA these days? Even iPhone4 has 1.2MP front cam)

* Bluetooth 2.1

* Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n

* HDMi Port (the only worthy enhancement) – charge as you watch when connected to TV

Usability Features:

* In built new Photobooth App for photo modification

* Facetime enabled

* Stream media over network

* HSUPA – Uploads over 3G gets faster and better

Price:

The product is priced same as the iPad. But some better sense has prevailed that those who got a new iPad within the past 14 days are eligible to get a $100 refund as the previous versions prices have been slashed down.  This was something that I liked!

Size	Wi-Fi only	Wi-Fi & 3G
16 GB	$499	$629
32 GB	$599	$729
64 GB	$699	$829

 

iPad2 will be released to US users on 11th March. UK user can experience iPad2 from 25th March and just as was the case with iPad gen1, India has no dates yet (I hope it does not take 8 months like iPad)

Will you buy an iPad 2
	Absolutely Yes - I love the brand
	Nope, am happy with my iPad
	I'd buy Xoom/Galaxy tab
	Definitely No! I hate the gadget explosion
pollcode.com free polls

The Disappointments:

No Retina Display

May be this will be incorporated in iPad 3

No SD Card Slot

Well this was mostly expected as Apple markets with price slabs corresponding to its internal memory size and having a SD card will beat that purpose. Nevertheless, it would have been a delight to have had the feature

No USB / mini USB

I still can’t see why Apple doesn’t have this. It is a pain to keep syncing only using itunes. I hope the designers get this in place in iPad3

No Near Field Communication (NFC)

Come on!!! Android 2.3 has this. Is apple trying to compete with Honeycomb or not?

No 4G

With 4G being the next in-thing, I can’t accept iPad 2 doesn’t have it already.

To me this release of iPad seems to be way before what their actual schedule must have been. It misses most of the features that most of us were nearly 99% sure it’d have. Not sure if it was pushed before its time just so that Steve Jobs can present it to the world himself (?!) When Steve said that iPad2 was going to get the other designers ‘back to their drawing boards again’, I found it hard to believe as I see much better features and display aspects in its competitors. Well, if iPad 2 still emerges the winner among its contemporaries, it'll purely be due to the ‘Apple’ brand power.

So what do you think? Are you happy with the iPad 2 or would you have not minded to wait few more months to have all the other features included in it (like me)

Apple iPad features, hitches, prices and deals

Life takes a full circle” – I guess Apple iPad is another gadget that stands testimony to this saying. Moses came back with the 10 commandments inscribed in two tablet and the tablets became the means of communication. It has now, once again – only that this electronic tablet may not be sacred to the Vatican masses but it is demi-God for its users! The sheer beauty and style will mesmerize you. There has been several arguments made about ‘why I don’t need an iPad’ just as was the case with iPhone (read smart phones – coz  android phones is breathing down iPhone’s neck in terms of features and market competition). Even some of the ardent Apple customers needed persuasion to see the whole new cool way of doing things. For those who are still saying that the iPad tab seems an evolutionary link between  Laptop and iPhone, I will not greatly disagree. Even if it were going to do just what the laptop did, isn’t it cool that such a cute 10 inch beauty does all that?

The Technicalities:

Size:

iPad has this beautiful 9.7 inch LED backlit, glossy, widescreen, multi touch display with a resolution of 1024 * 768 pixels (132 ppi) and finger print resistant coating. Try however it may, the Samsung Galaxy tab (even though the colors were more prettier there) looked too petite with its 7 inch screen. iPad wins hands down

Processor and Memory:

1 GHz, Apple 4 processor which boasted high performance coupled with low power system on a single chip. If this processor definition fails to awe you, I wonder what will (Can’t wait to see what’s in store in A5) .

Here comes the first hitch (trust me there are only very few of these – is it blasphemy already to find hitches with the demi-god?) – No external memory. Not that I am complaining, it was perfectly ok to run the iPhone with just the internal memory, but I personally feel that an external SD memory would have been simply great! Standard Apple memory sizes available – 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB

Battery:

Inbuilt non-removable battery (the second hitch). The battery lasts up to 10 hrs when used with Wi-Fi (which includes watching video and audio). If you are running on 3G data network all through, the battery runs for 9 hrs.

Other WOW Features:

1. 3G enabled through micro sim

2. External keyboard (an excellent accessory!)

3. Runs all iPhone/iPad apps (including apps that can replace a kindle)

4. Web, email, maps, GPS and much much more

Other Hitches:

1. No camera – one blogger had written this - on saying why he thought not having a cam in iPad was not that bad at all  “If I am driving and I see a beautiful sunset, I will not reach out for my laptop to take a pic”. Very true. You will not want to take a photo with the 10 inch tab every time. But an avid blogger who blogs on what he sees around him, will definitely want to click and write from the same device. Also, in the age of video chats and face time, single camera system by itself is being frowned upon. In that aspect yes, this is a hitch.

2. No USB/HDMi port – when an iPad almost takes the place of a laptop, it is a disappointment to see no USB or HDMi ports in the iPad. Every single piece of electronic junk on the planet seems to have a HDMi port these days… what were the iPad designers thinking?

Prices:

What I loved the most was the pricing. It was neither too high (to make it another of those unreachable desires) nor too low (to look worthless). The prices at the time of launch was:

Size	Wi-Fi only	Wi-Fi & 3G
16 GB	$499	$629
32 GB	$599	$729
64 GB	$699	$829

 

And it remains the same till date. The best deals that I’ve seen so far are from amazon.com (the difference in price is between few cents to $5 – if you can call that a deal )

Are you a proud possessor of iPad – share your pleasure. Or are you waiting for the next gen iPad, do share what improvements you want to see there.. I am doing that list next :)

Top 11 cricket apps for iPhones for the World cup season

Cricket fever is on and here goes the top 11 cool cricket apps for iPhone users that will keep you updated every single moment! Within one weeks time since the love season, starts another exciting season for the cricket lovers around the world. The time of world cup.. the time we were awaiting for 4 years. As is the case in all the previous seasons, every country is trying to say why their team is the best since their past victories (if there was one) and why they are the favorites to lift the trophy this time. And as usual, we the fans are going to try to keep ourselves abreast with the latest news and scores wherever we are. The savior for our cricket thirst comes in the form of these iPhone Apps which is just the answer to stay on the top of the happening cricket news! What’s better, all these apps are FREE APPS!!!

Here goes the list of my favorite top 11 apps for this cricket world cup season:

1. Live Cricket Score By Islet Systems: This is by far the best cricket app for iPhone for this cricket world cup season and many more cricket seasons to follow. What I love the most about this app is the player stats that come up in the detailed score card view. Apart from the other features present in all the other apps here below, this also has the distinguishing score projections feature. You can receive alerts for 4’s, 6’s, 50’s, 100’s and out. The overall visual appeal of the app is also a eye grabber!

2. Xplore Cricket WC2011 By HCL America Inc.: This was more of a schedule and informational app when it was initially launched. A must have for foreign fans who have travelled to India / Sri lanka or Bangladesh just for the passion of the game. The app has exhaustive details on the match venues like details about the maps and directions, Food and Restaurants with Tourist Places and hotels. The directions includes the details of route from the nearest airport using bing maps. Their latest version (Version 2.0) includes live score card and latest news too.

3. iCricket - most popular Cricket app By Kuchbi Inc: I am not suggesting that - they are! ‘the most popular cricket app’, that’s what the kuchbi guys have named themselves. Heights!! But they are arguably the best after the one by Islet systems. They also boast player statistics of over 1500 players. They also have the ball by ball commentary feature and live cricket videos from internet.

4. Cricbuzz - Cricket Scores and News By Cricbuzz.com: This app sends alerts (as push notifications) for every 5 overs for the subscribed matches, has comprehensive player profile and the distinguishing feature is the availability of radio commentary and access to the executive editorials of cricbuzz.

5. ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – Official By STATS LLC: This is an exclusive app for ICC Cricket World cup 2011 and has ball by ball score updates, commentary, teams and players stats features. It also has links to related photos on internet. This app can only be evaluated more once the matches actually start

6. ESPNcricinfo By ESPN: This is for all the ESPN lovers. Features include Live game coverage , Commentary, scorecard, match graphics, photographs, reports and player profiles, Push notifications for wickets, batsman milestones and score updates during live matches, Video/Audio podcasts, selection of the best features from ESPNcricinfo Magazine, News, Results, Fixtures, Records and Rankings.

7. NDTV Cricket By NDTV Convergence: This one is again another official app. Live match coverage - scorecard, photos and reports, Videos from web are the features of this app.

8. Yahoo! Cricket By Yahoo!: Yahoo!’s very own app for the cricket season. Features are live scorecard, batting line up details, match stats and Yahoo! news articles. This app is only available in India!!!

9. CricketWC2011 By Divum: It has a Live Scores ticker running on the top. But otherwise, I’ll use this app just for the schedules and fixtures.

10. ICC Cricket 2011 By Fafadia Tech: Another app basically for scheduling. Just add matches to your calendar and receive reminders (not that we are going to forget the dates anyway :P )

11. WorldCupInfo By AppInternals: Another informational app. But here goes the disclaimer of the app “All the information provide in this app is best effort. The Application Owner does not guaranty the accuracy or any change in schedule and team information” So use your better judgement :)

 

If you were wondering why this odd number 11… that’s the playing team size :)

 

Have you downloaded these apps already and love them? Do you have other better apps to suggest?? Please do drop a line in the comments section.

 

Facebook goes secure with HTTPS

Facebook has at last implemented HTTPS. Facebook is one social networking site that is most popular among people of all age groups and all walks of life. Also this is one networking site with loads of personal info which in most cases is unwittingly shared in the whole wide web. There has been many pleas to make this a secure site over internet in the recent past and two recent events have at last opened the eyes of Facebook developers to include security feature for facebook:

1. Hacking of Mark Zuckerberg’s account

2. Stealing of Facebook passwords of Tasmanian activists by Tasmanian Government (They had inserted a JScript to Fb home page)

With internet abundant with hacking tools (Firefox recently released a plugin for session hacking – Firesheep), this was a long time due!

Well here is how you enable the security:

1.Go to Account Settings

2.Under that look for Account Security and select to enable HTTPS

And here is how Facebook is adding the extra layer of security:

1. Social Authentication: You will have to verify yourself by identifying the profile photo of one of your friends (this is a random generation from your friends list).

This might get tricky and difficult if your friends have celebrity photos or cartoon characters as their profile image

2. Captcha authentication: You will have to verify with a captcha authentication when you open Facebook from out side your home country

However, there are some fall backs in Facebook’s HTTPS implementation. Those are:

1. The loading of page takes longer time than usual when you go through HTTPS

2. Some third party applications do not use HTTPS and open with only HTTP – this is another place where your details are extracted. So be careful about the 3rd party applications that you wander out to from Fb.

3. Default page that gets opened when you just type Facebook and Ctrl+click on the address bar is NOT HTTPS. So you might want to enter the entire URL starting with https:// or just add that to your favorites.

Whatever be the case, we can be happy that Fb has implemented the security feature and I want to believe that they will go on to improve this as well – just how they went about improving Facebook over the period.

10 iPhone accessories that you can live without

Whenever a new technology / product comes out, it is evident that accessory manufactures have a field day coming up with ideas to accessorize the product. And if the product is highly successful in market, needless to say, these guys earn their share of buck too. Well iPhone is one such market for which the market is swarmed with accessories. Accessories the you’ll want/need (see my previous post on 10 ‘Must have’ iPhone accessories) is the first category. And there is yet another categories that you think you might want but will forever be shelved if you ever get them. So here goes my list of 10 accessories that you must absolutely not consider buying. There may be some exceptions (which I have mentioned in the list), but otherwise, trust me, you don’t need these!

1. Designer Cases for iPhone: The Ed Hardy iPhone case or Hello Kitty/flowery/girly designed or the tiger/leopard skin like cases may draw you like magnets towards them when you see them first. And in some cases you might end up buying only to regret throwing $15-30 in the drains. They DON’T look elegant on an iPhone. Go with the leather case or the default glass case that Apple hands out for free!

2. Armband: I can understand having an arm band for a iPod (I see joggers having this) but it makes absolutely no sense in getting one for your iPhone. Furthermore, you’ll have to remove the case that the iPhone is in to fit into this one and when you go to work, you have to switch cases again – that is if you mind having to wear the arm band over your suit

3. Bluetooth Keyboard Case: Well this is one of the exceptions that I was talking about earlier. If you are on the chubby side with big fingers, this might be necessary. But even in that cases I’d suggest getting a stylus (see at the end of the post), instead of carrying a bulky case around.

4. Passport Wallet iPhone Case: There seems to be absolutely no limits to integration. For one thing, why would you want to keep the credit card in the iPhone case?? A definite bad accessory that you can live without!

5. Bicycle Handlebar mount for iPhone: First thing, it is not safe! Can you imagine the distraction this can cause to the biker sitting right at the sight of vision? One could argue that it is convenient this way, but safety first is what I would say!

6. FM Transmitter for iPhone: This might look alluring.. wow you can play FM from iPhone – but stop and think – how many FM transmitters do you already own? Do you need another piece for the same job? I mean there is no ‘iPhone pleasure’ element associated with this right?

7. iMusic Pillow: Is the radiation around us just not enough that we need this to keep us in the ring of radiation even when we sleep? Absolute no to this accessory. What are headphones and external iPhone docks for?

The last three here below are in fact nice accessories, but are not real necessities. So they find their way into the list of accessories that you can live without.

8. Stylus: If you are already tired of touching your iPhone (I don’t think I ever will be), this accessory can help. But as I said earlier the big fingered do need this.

9. iPhone Stand: I won’t actually criticize this one – but it is up to one’s own interest

10. Extended battery cases: With multitude of options to charge an iPhone (wall socket, through laptop/desktop), I didn’t think this is a necessity. If you don’t mind losing the aesthetic value of the iPhone (your phone’ll look 1/2 to 1” longer), you can get this one.

10 “Must Have” iPhone accessories

Just as I had told, the iPhone addiction does not end with just the iPhone. In fact, it stretches to the whole lot of accessories that comes along. In fact we even had bought few of the accessories before even buying the iPhone. So here goes my list of 10 ‘must have’ iPhone accessories.

1. iPhone Screen Guard: Even with the utmost care, it is humanly impossible to avoid scratches on mobile phone screens. So when it is an iPhone, it calls for the extra level of caution! That’s why I have this as the #1 must have accessory. Some dealers even sells it with  a Lint cleaning cloth

2. iPhone Case: When you buy an iPhone, you are eligible to get a free glass case from Apple (from istore). If you are satisfied with that, then well and good. But we bought this leather flip type iPhone case, which is the second layer of protection to the screen as well as a fancy and executive case.

3. iPhone Car charger: The purpose of having a iPhone (to browse on the go) is defeated if you run out of charge when u essentially need it! Having a car charger always comes handy when you have a busy schedule and cannot stop to charge the iPhone. Various options are available with this accessory too. You get the regular car chargers and the retractable models too. So choose what suits you best.

4. Charge and sync dock: Although you can use the cable that shipped with your iPhone for charging and sync processes, I hate to have to place the iPhone vulnerably (:P) on the table in doing so. This accessory will hold your iPhone safe in place during charging and sync and hence finds itself in my list of must haves. These come in black and in white colors.

5. iPhone car mount holder: This is another piece of accessory that ensures safety of the prized possession when you have to physically part with it – while driving. There are several options available in the market – like the ones that says ‘FM Transmitter + Car Charger + Holder ~Remote Included!’ or the simple ‘Unviersal Car Windshield Mount Holder’. I personally prefer the simpler version because that is easy to handle.

6. Earbud clips: This is more of a convenience accessory. For music lovers like me, these EARBUDi Clips that can be fixed on and off the ear phones that shipped with the iPhone are just perfect. There are other variations too like the ‘premium stereo ear bud for earphone’. Choose which you like most and go for it.

7. iPOD Cradle: This and the car mount were the accessories we already had B.I (before iPhone). There are several cute cradles available in market. We had this iPod + iPhone Speaker Dock/Clock from Sony and I find it an amazing product.

8. Bluetooth headset: I know that holding the iPhone is irresistible, but there are times when you’ll need both your hands – like for driving, cooking, etc. and you don’t want to risk juggling with iPhone. That makes this accessory another must have!

9. Sim card Cutter : If you live outside America, (like us in India), this is one must have tool. Even with Mobile number portability, you will have to get a new sim card from your new service provider for porting the number. And usually we don’t get mini sim cards (as yet). This tool will give precision cut mini sim card. You cannot toy with the sim card with a pencil, scale and extra sharp scissors. One inch here or there leave you in a big mess! So get this one.

10. Micro sim card Adaptor: Well, you might think why am I ever going to need this. but I can give you one most possible scenario. Lets say you have an iPhone that you’ve been bragging about and one day your wife decides she wants to show it off too to her friends. You don’t want to be left stranded with a mini sim that will not work in the other regular phones (well the expensive alternative is to get her an iPhone too :P). That’s when this savior steps in. With this accessory you can use your mini sim with the regular phones.

Well this is my list. Have I missed any of the accessories that you thing must have featured in the list?-Do leave me a line in comments!

The disaster called Reliance Netconnect Broadband+

 This post was due a long time. When we came back to India, the most important necessity for my husband was the internet connection. So what did he do? Simply followed one of the promotional SMS that he received on his cell phone (mobile phone) and took the Reliance NetConnect Broadband + which offered up to 3GB speed. He failed to notice the ‘up to’ part and ordered the connection immediately.

What was the charge?

The modem cost was around ` 2500 and there were several monthly packs to choose from and we choose the Gold pack hoping to get the best available performance. The cost of that was ` 950 per month.

Ok with this we thought we were all set to experience the flashing internet service. Our hopes were all doomed on the very first day. The connection speed was in the order of few hundred KBPS. We thought we had made some mistake with the set up and called the customer support. (I must say here that my husband is an infrastructure management engineer in a software organizations and I must say is one among the best in his technology). We went through all the steps that he asked us to do. Finally he asked us to change the connection type to “Hybrid” and said it was going to be a home run from now and no more issues will come up.

Day 2: Still the same poor bandwidth problem. We call the customer support – that is the beauty with these products. Every time you call the cust supp, a new guy picks up the call and we have to start over from the beginning and he tries to make us do the exact same things that the prev guy did. So I told him to cut that crap and take up a complaint.

Then we fall into this typical Indian mentality of not following up with the complaint and trying to find other alternatives. So we moved the BSNL broadband modem to another place so that our laptop can connect thro wifi with that modem and forgot all about our complaint to Reliance.

Suddenly it dawns upon us that by end of this month, we were going to get the monthly bill for this dreadful service. So we call them up again and they tell us there was a problem with the tower that was serving our area and it would take at least 2 more weeks to correct the issue. The Cust supp guy agrees that our first month bill would be waived as the service was poor – but for that we had to call one day prior to our billing cycle day and tell them the whole Ramayanam again and ask them to waive the monthly charge WTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But we continued ‘trying’ to connect to this snail speed internet and at the heights of vexation called the cust supp to cancel our account. Now, we had barely used the service for 20 days and Guess what? they refused to return the cost of the modem ` 2500 – Mukhesh bhai’s crocodile mouth account had already swallowed it.

At the end of this debacle, we are left with a useless piece of junk and a loss of ` 2500.

But I would not condemn the product as a whole because after this bad experience we talked to few others who were using Reliance NetConnect Broadband + (in other areas) and some of them were contented with the service and bandwidth they were receiving

My advice to anyone considering Reliance NetConnect Broadband+ is – first talk to friends who use the service in your area. Take their feedback seriously and then buy this product because if you ever want to cancel the account you will not receive the cost of the modem back.

Internet explorer 9 Beta Review

IE version 9 was officially launched on 15th September 2010 with a lot of promising features and a magnitude of reengineering to give a fast, clean, secure, never before web experience. You can download IE9 Beta from Beautyoftheweb.com.

Web browsing or internet browsing constitutes almost over 80% of usage for a PC / Laptop users. Still it is one of the most compromised areas too. Browser crashes and slower loading time of graphic web pages are going to be things of the past with the latest IE in action. One of the most striking feature of IE 9 is that it puts content first. The screen space for the website is increased and browser controls reduced. So how does the experience get better?

1. Hardware acceleration: With the use of Microsoft DirectX technology in this browser, premium quality graphics will be displayed at ease.

2. HTML 5: Now enjoy Adobe Flash and Microsoft SilverLight without any need for plugins – thanks to HTML 5 supportable IE 9

3. JScript engine: The javascript engine used in IE9 is “Chakra” which compiles scripts on the fly that the running time is reduced

4. SVG: With SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) incorporated in IE9, the images and charts and maps will no more be pixilated in browser.

 

IE 9 has some very cool features over its previous version.

Single search/URL bar: With the unified search and URL bar, the browser has more space to display the page contents using lesser space for browser tools.

Pin websites to taskbar: If you liked the feature in windows 7 that allowed you to pin the frequently used applications to the taskbar, then you are going to love this new feature in IE9. You can now pin a website like an application to the task bar. Voila, you get to browser your favorite site just by a single click. Whats more, if the site had configured meta tags for jump list, you’ll see them upon right clicking on the pinned icon.

Smart Security: The IE9 is smarter in identifying and memorizing your regular download types .The built-in download manager doesn’t pop up  annoying warning for your most common types of downloads (like winamp) unlike the smartscreen filters in the previous IE versions.

Tear off/Aero Snap tabs: Well, this is not new if you had experience with Firefox 4. I thought this was one feature that IE was missing with respect to tabbed browsing and now thats there too!

Add-on Advisor: I’d say this is the smartest thing in IE9. It tells you when an add-on is slowing down the browser performance and gives an option to close just the add-on. So no more browser crashes! One might argue that this is not something new as Chrome already has tackled this browser crash problem. Yes, but at the cost of large memory usage (chrome uses different processes for each of the plug-ins/add-ons)

With respect to performance, security, ease of use and web standards and Development tools, IE9 beats the other two competitors hands down. This link here gives the best comparison of the browsers that I’ve seen so far.

 

I tried IE9 last week and since then my other browsers lay forgotten. I find the experience beautiful indeed!

Have you tried IE9 yet? Do you think IE9 is better than other browsers? Do share your comments!