8 Questioins to Ask yourself when you are buying a Laptop ?

Are you in any manner similar to Sanjeev Rai Puri, travelling most of the time with business, and need to be connected wherever you are, worried what happens if your laptop fails, how much battery time will your laptop give you, what if someone steals your laptop, My suggestion to him was a Toshiba Tecra A8, but then I can't personally suggest a model for each one of us, to choose the right model, click here to read my 8 Questions and Answers to ask yourself when you buy a laptop in the Express Money, with Indian Express on the 18th December 2006, nationwide.

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Internet Filtering Software - Protect your children

Tips to protect your children online, there are many a scares on the Internet, read my solutions in the Express Money, with Indian Express on the 4th of December 06, or click here to read it online.

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Next Gen DVD Players - Should you by em, or hold on

In the second in the series on high-visibility consumer durable items this festive season, I turn my attention to the next generation of DVD players (last week, I had sized up LCD TVs). The DVD players most of us have today are simple devices you insert a DVD and they play. But the players coming into the market today do more than just that, more so in the context of the way our viewing options are evolving.

To read the full article, pick up the Indian Express dated 30th October 2006, or click here to read it online.

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How to buy an LCD TV

With the prices of LCD TV hitting rock bottom, and so many advertisements in the Media about LCD TV's, how do you take a decision on which TV to buy, what are the parameters to be compared, is there a rating for the current TV's.

Read my take on it in the Indian Express on Monday 23rd October 2006, or click here to read it online.

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It's Diwali Again - Indulge

It's diwali time again, and this time around, I am telling you what to buy for yourself, you are a Gadget freek, a tech wizz, well these are gadgets, you should not be seen without.. so go on ahead, grab a copy of the Indian Express, Monday 16th October 2006, or click here to read my take on the 5 cool gadgets you should buy this diwali.

Happy Diwali

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3G - Music, movies, conferencing…

Questions / Answers / Possiblities, 3G the new hype, the new buzz word, so what all can you do with it, does it make broadband happened, when will it happen in India, what will be the cost, read my take on it by clicking here, or buy the Indian Express this Monday, 9th October 2006.

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Is this really from Microsoft

I was just updating myself on some of the new phones available in the US and UK, and came across an MP4 player, believe it or not, Microsoft.. I had to read it again, again, again, spell check, again and it was true, it was Microsoft.

Like the picture above, well the specs look cool too.

•30GB capacity - Keep 7,500 songs (MP3 format) or 25,000 photos at your fingertips, or even 100 hours of video
•Photo and video compatible - Sometimes you want more than music to entertain you; the Zune delivers both photo and video options
•Hard drive storage format - Integrated hard drive provides massive amounts of memory for the least amount of money
•3" portrait or landscape video screen - Unusual 3" video screen goes from portrait to landscape mode as you turn your Zune; you always see the best picture possible
•Extensive file format compatibility - Advanced software lets you import most music, photos and videos with ease
•FM tuner - Catch the Top 40, stay up to date with your favorite sports teams, and make sure the weather doesn't take you by surprise
•Online music store - Browse the huge selection of music in the Zune Marketplace designed to work flawlessly with your Zune

More details click here, or and the inside scoop from Cesar Menendez, a Microsoft employee working on Zune - Microsoft's new music project, by clicking here.

Hmm.. now will this be an ipod killer... dont know.. steve jobs..ur comments ?

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International calls @ Rs 1 per minute

Everytime I needed to call international for a long time, i have loved to use iconnecthere a service from Delta three, and Delta three originally as long as they were in Retail. Even in the early days of the Internet, calling a land line (regular phone line number) in the US was of zero cost, with the emerging technologies in Voip and more and more options coming up, which one should one choose for their daily needs.

In the Express Money on 2nd October 2006, with the Indian express, I compare PC-PC, PC-Phone, and Voip Phone to Phone over Internet technoloiges, and help you choose the right one.

Grab a copy of the Indian Express, or click here to read it online.

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Silent Launch of the Xbox 360 - What is MS Scared of !

Most of you must have read my colum in the Indian Express, I spoke about XBOX 360 and the PS2 about 6 months back, and was awaiting the launch of the XBOx 360. Rumors in the market had it, that the XBOX should come out by the Diwali this year (20th October), and then I touched base with Mohit Anand .

Our first conversations about May of this year indicated that we will be a part of the launch test, and I actually wanted to share the opinion of what it felt like with all my 1000 odd readers on the website, and through Indian Express..

Sadly the XBOX was launched last week without much fan fare, no big news paper carried the story, no reviews done, just in time to be there in stores for Diwali.. so.. what is it, that MS is scared of.. ... PS3 is not here for another 2 months, I assumed MS wanted to encash on the India Diwali market, but seems like, MS Figured, most of the people who wanted to buy the xBOX already had one :)

Keep it up.

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The Idiot Box Wars - DTH, IP TV or CAS

I have been yapping about the DTH story for sometime.. Now the government is cler on what it wants to do with the CAS roll out also, a new announcement from MTNL means IPTV should be here in about a month or so.. So.. more options, more confusion... well.. want to know what to choose, or should you wait right now, read my take in Express Money, with the Indian Express on Monday 4th September 2006, nationwide.

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Choosing the Right Color Printer

Digital camera penetration is growing, I see more and more film camera users now going digital, becasue the cost of running is low.. Printing film is becoming a tougher task, especially those of you who know me well, know that I love black and white film photography, the chances of getting a good photo by clicking, and then the chances of getting it printed are out of any safe probability estimates.

So if you have a Digital printer, and are thinking, why not print an image from the camera at home, read my take on choosing the right digital printer in the Express Money, with Indian Express, on Monday 21st August 2006.

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Dish TV is Hotttttt

The DTH market in India is becoming Hotter. The only private player in the Industry till a month back, Dish TV from the Zee TV Stable, now has a competitior, (sadly a lost competitor at the moment, learning to teeth), in Tata Sky.

After TDSAT's Intervention in making sure Dish TV has access to all Star TV Channels, Dish TV looks like a Leader.

I fought a battle with my Dish TV STB today to program Star Channels (well I will get them for free If i Get one of dish tv specials, till 31st December 06, and after that is when they will fix costs. Anyway, Dish now has some great offerings,.. Check out dish tv's website for a list of some new channels, and if you are a bit wiser on how to program the STB, check this link out at Lyngsat, which has a list of channels, you may not be getting on your Dish TV, but will be able to, if you go into the setup and change a few settings.

Happy Dishing :)

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Tata Sky is Online but Still Confused

Tata Launched TATA Sky, it's venture with Star TV and Sky Broadcasting with Pomp and show on the 8th of August. You had only heard of it, if you are an AVID star news watcher, nothing else. Then the site went kaboom, and you could not check what was happening. Yesterday Tata Sky, Launched their new site, and the full fledged advertising campaign across cities, the banners are up, and every one wants to know where to get a Tata Sky Dish Antenna, your's truly decided to get one for testing myself, and thought why not now evaluate if the Dish TV setup I have v/s the Star / Tata sky thing which one is better, so i was back on their site, and found a few things which were interesting to read,

Basic Hardware Cost: Rs. 2999
Installation + Activation + One Year Warranty: Rs. 1000 (Why isn't the warranty included in the product price)
Rs. 200 Per Month for Subscription (you get only and all star channels, nothing else, and no other options, it's 200 or nothing).

So I am doing a comparative on what it costs you, what do you get, look out for that.. In the meanntime, when I called all the dealers in Delhi (I made about 60 phone calls to various dealers), the list was taken from Tata Sky website, and none, yes NO ONE of them had heard of what Tata Sky is, and why their numbers are on the website. I then frantically started calling dealers in the other cities, and wow, same story, no one knows that they sell tata sky dish based system.. it was news to them, some of the dealers even asked, me launch ho gaya bhaiya, ke aise hi bol rahe ho

Well, one thing I figured out, Tata did not get their hosting right, got a partner to shutdown their website, put up a technology company to do a website (that does not work on any linux browser properly), and put up the whole electronics dealer directory from some site, and none of them new about the Tata Sky launch.

Well Good luck Mr. Tata, a businessman I have always respected, but never understood, hopefully this will be another of the ventures like your Indica Car, that will be a great succcess, but why, and how still escapes me.

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Tata Sky is TATA BYE (AKA Choosing the Right Hosting Company)

This week on TV News was dedicated to the launch of TATA Sky and how it's entry into the Indian Market will help people get a choice, after all, we are all tired of our cable operators. Some of us , like my Dad who were the early movers, chose the ZEE Dish TV and were all waiting for more channels, and the Star Bouquet on it for the last two years. Finally TATA Sky is launched.

But well, my post is not about Tata Sky or it's launch, it is about how to choose the right hosting company. After all you pay the hosting company to make sure the site is running, and not show you

"Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Apache/1.3.34 Server at www.tatasky.com Port 80"

Why did it happen to Tata Sky, Well TATA is the owner of VSNL, country's largest Internet and Hosting company, Sky a Part of the Star TV Network is one of the largest cable / satellite television networks of Asia, and the Investment to start Tata Sky "Approximately 13,000 crores or US$ 28 billion, if I have my mathematics right".

Who do they choose to host their webiste, well atleast not my company, and atleast not VSNL, but a Shared Hosting Company run by Quadra Infotech (Using Shared hosting servers from DirectI), at a plan of maybe Rs. 5000, for a 100 MB disk space(well how much more do you need for a website).... without reading the fine print Bandwidth Allowed: 1GB... :) Well who will do 1 GB.. TATA did it.. you will do it, anyone can do it.. it's a matter of visitors coming to your site.

Who is the Culprit, someone called Mr. Rasesh Patel, who I believe is someone very senior in Tata Sky's IT Department.

Sadly, Mr. Patel, did not bother to verify the company and or the kind of service they provide, and also forgot to check out, that the same server had 288 other clients for hosting.

So beware and be careful, do not let your IT Guy or your Accounts guy take the decision on where to Host, check everything, read all fine prints... you never know.. you may become famous, and have a dead website saying "The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later."

Have a Happy Weekend.. and Hopefully tatasky.com should be working before we say wake up and smell the coffee. It's 11th August, 2:18 AM.. and I am still up and awake trying to figure out, after all TATA should not have done this.

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Money Management Software - Mr. Mouse, the Financial Advisor

The New form 2/3 from the Government of India seems to be an impossible tax, after all you spend a lot of cash daily, ranging from your parking tickets, to the burger at Mac Donalds, that you never get a reciept for, or maybe better still, Dominos' pizza, that has the reciept stuck to the pizza box, you can't staple / file your pizza box as proof of payment to Domino's at the end of the year.

Thinking where your money went, or how you could have kept a good tight record of the cash flow, so taht the Form 2 and 3 are not a pain. Well read my take on some Money Management softwares by clicking here, or grab the Print copy of Express Money, with the Indian Express this Monday 7th July 2006, India Wide

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5 Things to look for in your new DVD Player

DVD Players are a common buy, we dont' give any thoughts when we go out into the market either looking for a new one, or to replace the one that sadly died on us, are there somethings that you should look for, maybe things / features that will make it future proof... well.. read my take on the 5 most important features I think you should look for when you buy your next DVD Player, click here, or Buy the print copy of Express Money, with the Indian Express on Monday 31st July 2006, India wide.

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Mp3 Phone or MP3 Player + Phone - Indian Express

A lot of us have been troubled by this question, should we in the day and age of mobile entertainment, look at a converged device like the Nokia N91, for mp3 + phone in one, or should we buy a popular mp3 player like an iPod + any other Nokia phone ? Read my take on it in the Express Money, free with Indian Express on Monday July 10, 2006 Nationwide, or click here to read the online version.

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Is this Technology Abuse ?

Ever had the weather play spoilt sport with you, or been to a wedding that was delayed, because of incessant rains that decided to pour at the n'th hour. Well this news article on CNN IBN, is really cool.

Somnath Chattopadhyay, A priest in Kolkatta, recently solemnised the wedding of Debasree Roy of Kolkata with Dhritiman Dutta of Silchar in Asaam over the mobile phone after the weather gods decided to play spoilsport.

The other day though there was news, that no one can get a divorce over the phone by saying Talak Talak Talak, but getting married on the phone, seems to be still acceptable.

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Toshiba Does it Again - L30-C330 Launched in India

We got our first consignment from Toshiba today, and Toshiba's done it again, Last year their Celeron Laptops broke the price barrier of Rs. 40,000 and this year, they have broken the price barrier of Rs. 35,000. All for Rs. 32,990, this cool model with a Celeron 1.6Ghz / 256 MB DDR 2 RAM / 40 GB (5400 RPM) Hard Disk Drive / 14.1" WXGA display, DVD Combo, Wireless and yes, Windows XP Starter Edition. This machine priced so cool should really break the markets for Toshiba in India.

Toshiba has never been portrayed as the cheaper brand, and with this price point, Acer and Compaq Presario need to watch out.

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BPO's and Data Secrecy

System3, My company has been toying with the idea, of opening a Training Institute, a Technology / Skills finishing school, and while the Internal discussions were going on, we were thinking of making sure that about 15 - 20 hours of training time is spent on Ethics / Values / Morality training.

Since Customer Support Executives at companines like mine, and larger corporates at times have access to critical information related to the customer, well anytime you call your cell phone company, they take all your details this includes, your Date of Birth, your Wife's name, your land line number, your home address, and they already know your credit card numbers, so what stops them from defrauding you, ethics / morality.

A big story on CNN-IBN today about the fraud at HSBC Back Office in Bangalore, where the kid managed to cheat HSBC customers to the tuen of 2,33,000 pounds.

Interested, well CNN IBN raised a question, how safe are our bank accounts. Well how safe.. keep strong passwords, make sure you know what information you need to disclose.. be careful, there is someone watching you.

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Review - JVC D-350 (Indian Express)

India is a big market for White goods, Digital Cameras have become a rage, but sadly Video Cameras were not able to make the simliar dent in the Market. A few weeks back I got a call from JVC to review their D350 First Digital Cam Corder in India, for Under Rs. 20,000. I could not believe it, and I called up the JVC guy to bring the camera over. I ran through tests, and lived with it for about 15 days, till I came up with the review. Is it worth a buy or not, read it here, or buy the Print Copy of Express Money, with the Indian Express this Monday, June 19th 2006, Nationwide

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The First Case of Gadget Misuse for Tax Evasion in India

It's out, It's public, It's no news, INDIA IS ALL ABOUT JUGAAD. Times of India, Page 13, June 13,2006 Reads

New Delhi: If you thought iPod was just a device to store music, get a second opinion from revenue intelligence officials. The department has unearthed a slew of cases where taxevaders had stored records of their illegal transactions in iPods and pen-drives — devices that can be easily concealed or destroyed.
During a raid on an industrialist in Haryana’s Yamunanagar town last year, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) found excise evasion of over Rs 55 lakh. However, no incriminating documents were found on computers or files. The sleuths then scanned a pendrive and an iPod to find details of undeclared dealings stored there. The pen-drive was hidden in the industrialist’s bathroom.
This is hardly an isolated case. At another raid in Ludhiana, DGCEI officials seized a pen-drive allegedly belonging to the owners of plywood company, Perfect Agro. After deciphering its contents, officials found evidence of largescale evasion of excise duty.
Concealing secret transactions in pen-drives and iPods is fast catching up as a trend, say income tax and directorate of revenue intelligence officials, who now take special care to seize these devices before laying hands on account books and computers during a raid. The internet too is a favoured hideaway for taxevaders, who post details of illegal accounts on the web before deleting these files from their records.
Though these gizmos are small enough to fit into a shirt pocket, they have immense memory — ranging from 1 to 30 giga bytes. They are also very easy to discard. Officials believe that during many raids, pen-drives have been put into burning furnaces, crushed under car wheels or thrown into dustbins. In one case, a pen-drive was recovered from the driver of an accused.
Three rolling mills were raided in Shahdara area of east Delhi last September, where transactions worth Rs 40 crore was unearthed from data tucked away in iPods and pen-drives. Clearly, as gizmos get smaller the headache for enforcement agencies gets bigger.

There is more, try to grab a copy. You had never thought of this, ahem, you had.. and you thought you could get away with it, well not really, the Tax Man is smartening up.. Be ware.. But hey.. JUGAAD is big..

I don't think anyone in the world, thought about this.

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The Second Contendor (Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar - Non Smart)

The Second Contendor, Nokia 6230i, well the i Makes it a bit disinteresting for me, I dont' want a camera, but Nokia dealers tell me, the Nokia 6230 the original model is discontinued, so for my Rs 11,000 I will get the 1.3 MP camera built in. The phone matches all my criteria, and also the fact, that I can use the same old Car Charger that I have for the Nokia 6021, so it makes it interesting.

What are the things I dont' like in this model, well, the first, I dont' like the Music Player interface, If I press another key on the keypad, the music player brings me back to the main screen, and the music keeps playing in the background. Also the interface, aah.. Nokia needs to learn from Samsung.

I like the Black body, with the front face as Silver, but think the Samsung looks better, more professional.

I also like the fact that the phones supports PTT (Push To Talk), sadly it is not here in India as yet, mobile operators, listen to me, introduce PTT, you will get more and more revenue.

Best of all, the phone book in the phone can store 2000 entries.. ah I remember the days of a Casio Diary or a Casio smart data watch :)

One up for the phone.. Next contendor Wait for tommorow.

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The First Contendor (Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar - Non Smart)

The First Contendor, Samsung X700. Well the phone looks nice, as a business phone too. The black with silver accents really looks cool. The plastic has a bit cheaper feel to it, but something you can get used to. First thing I notice is Samsung has gotten rid of the ep pin connector for the headphones, and switched to mini USB (I wonder why), the good part, you have a slider to cover this slot, unlike earlier samsung phones which had a rubber / plastic cover that you could place back on the connector.

The image quality looks nice, but our friendly shop keeper will not let me try the mp3 player and or the camera, I wonder why. I ask him about the features and get the full low down, But hey.. I notice, he does not know, and neither does Samsung talk about, whether the phone is business card sms compatible. I check with a few friends, no it is not. Good phone, but misses out a crucial feature in today's date. Anyway, I investigate further, the phone really looks cool and nice

I like the fact that this phone has an external card slot, that means you can take the card out without switching off the phone. The shop keeper tells me, that this is a hotswap slot, i.e like server hard disks, you can take the card out while the phone is on, now that is cool.

The phone is 95 Grams, but feels light. Curvy body and very attractive. The phone supports GPRS Class 10 data service, and no EDGE. so for me, this is a No No.. Dropped..

Next Contendor, wait for tommorow.

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The Hunt for the Perfect Candy Bar (Non Smart) Phone Begins

Around this time last year, my Nokia 6600 smart phone started acting up on me, it had got one of those newbie Bluetooth viruses, and Nokia India was not able to do much about it, that I vouched not to use a smart phone any more. I personally also prefer the Candy bar format than anything else.

My Basic requirements in a phone are, Color Screen - To see incoming MMS Messages, The Cability to put multiple reminders, Long Talk time (atleast 3 hours), EDGE/GPRS for Data on the Road, Bluetooth for My Bluetooth Handsfree, Send and Recieve Business Cards, Speakerphone and Simple straight forward interface.

If it has a voice recorder, voice dialing, they are good features, but not something that I have to have. The Phone that met this criteria last year, was the Nokia 6021, and it has been a great phone till now, till it's speakerphone started acting up. I have realised, with a total talk time of 393:44 Hours, it is nearing it's end of life with me. So now the search for a Perfect Candy Bar phone, begins. The Current Contendors, Nokia 6320i (The Camera is now a bundle I can't get rid of), Samsung X700, and more and more that come my way. So watch this space carefully, and let us unfold, if NON SMART, CANDY BAR, phones are the way to be, and which one to buy.

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Want to Move to Linux - Think UBUNTU

As a Corporate have you been contemplating moving your desktops to Linux, well what has stopped you, If I may, I can lay down a few things

• It is free
• No Long term Support
• Versions Change very fast
• No Corporate Support

Well, all of this is changing except part 1, where It is Free is still the essence (except in case of Red Hat Enterprise Linux). If you are a small corporate (say 20 to 40 desktops), and are looking at Linux as a great viable next step, think Ubuntu. The company that produced the best Desktop OS that was available till date, and now offers Long Term Support.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS introduces functionality that simplifies common Linux server deployment processes. For system administrators setting up large numbers of web, mail and related servers, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS offers the fastest and most consistent path to deployment, combined with the availability of global commercial support where needed. "Ubuntu has a reputation for working well out of the box on desktops, and we have worked to bring that same ease of deployment and configuration to the server marketplace" said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project. "Based on our analysis of the ways people were already deploying Ubuntu on servers, we have aimed to streamline their experience while expanding the range of software available to people deploying Ubuntu in the data centre."

The Latest version of their Desktop and Server OS is o ut, and may I say, I am thinking of another format of my laptop to get Ubuntu back in Place ... Download it from Ubuntu.com.

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Repair or Replace - Express Money (Smart Spending)

After 3 weeks of a sabatical from the Indian Express, I am back with a Cover story, this time around on a very old question, to Repair or to Replace. Every now and then one of our gadgets fails, and starts to get on our nerves, till we dont' get it working, how do you take a decision wether to repair or replace the gadget, white good.....

Read my views on it, in the Indian Express this week on Monday June 12, 2006 or catch it online at expressmoney.in

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Move Over Wave Radio - Your Turn is Over

Bose, undeniably makes the best sound. Ever since I heard one of their demos 10 ~ 15 years back, I am a big fan of theirs.. but sadly, everytime I went to buy one for myself, I came out thinking.. hmm... that is expensive.

My last such trip was to buy the Bose Wave Radio, I did not want to shell out Rs. 39,000 for a CD Player.. Though however good it may sound, no.. this was not the budget. I ended up buying something lousy.. but well it not only plays CD's, but can do more.

While browsing the internet, I came across the iSonic from Polk Audio, which to me looks like, will move the Bose Wave Radio out of it's realm.

Polk may not have the same speaker design technology as the Bose guys, but what Polk has done is something we used to do when we were in college, Want Surround sound, and have a basic amplifier, put the left and right speakers in the front, and put another left and right speakers at the back of the room, so you had four speakers, and Great surround sound. No processor, no DSP, nothing, just a bare basic rig to give you high quality Surround Sound.

Polk has taken this to the next level, and the iSonic seems interesting. It plays CD's, VCD's, DVD's (Yes you can connect it to your TV too), AM/FM Radio, XM Radio Ready - Though not an interesting option for us in India, and a Dual Alarm Clock, yes 2 Alarms, one to wake you up to the radio and the other to wake you up to a CD.. for a lazy guy like me...this is the Auto Snooze Reinvented.

Now.. the price tag of 599$ is something that i think i will need to relook at.. Waiting to get this to test.. Go check out the site.

And NO I dont' know when we will get this in India.

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Nokia India Website - NOT LINUX FRIENDLY

There is nothing wrong with using linux, there is nothing wrong with using an OLD PC. For some of us, it is a mandate, for some of us a liberation, for some of us, why upgrade technology.

For someone at Nokia, we are stupid, that we are not on the latest browser, with the latest plugins.

Nokia India's website Requires Flash 8 < Every programmer knows, that Flash 8 is only supported on Windows at the moment, and no other OS.. Why build websites with Flash 8 ? <

Screenshot Above

If anyone at Nokia is reading... Please make sure when you outsource work, you dont' fall to the whims and fancies of the programmer rather than do it the way technology needs to be done. .

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PS: Maybe it is because Nokia in India is distributed by HCL, remember, HCL's own site was offline (As of 11th June 2006, The Domain has still not been renewed)..... Luckily I dont' invest in Shares, else HCL shares.. I think personally needed a dump :)

Nokia Get's Handwriting Recognition

Think it, Write it

The AD from Nokia reads. Yesterday after ages, I visited the Ghaffar Market at Karol Bagh in Delhi, the Mecca of Parallel Import, and the Mecca for all Electronic wannabe's, and found that the latest rage to hit the market is the Nokia 6708, a Sleek candy bar phone, with a Stylus to input and touch screen wala phone.

If you remember, this is not the first Stylus input phone from Nokia, in the past there was the Nokia 7710, the much touted wide screen experience, but the stylus was only for point and click.

Wht the 6708, Nokia claims cutting edge handwriting recognition, now let's see, when can I land my hands on one to test it out.

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Want to Design your Own Robot ?

Year 2035, Matrix is becoming a reality, why not try to do it today...

Try designing your own robot, and write 50 words or less, your hopes and fears when the robots do come to life, and you could win a Digital Video Camera or an MP3 Player.

Interested, click CNN FUTURE SUMMIT CHALLENGE.

I am already in, how about you ?

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What do you think of the Future ?

Matrix.. Will it be true, will there be a time, that humans and robots co-exist, and look so much alike, that it becomes difficult to know who is who.

CNN Future Summit, brings together some of the brightest minds of our time to see how science and technology are shaping our future.

To know more about the details, goto CNN

The Future of Cellphone

While researching a topic on how the Future of the Cellphone will be, will we head towards a converged cellphone or a standalone cellphone like the olden days, what all will it be able to do, I came across this video, and I think it's worthy of a watch.

A Swiss Key you want !!

They say the Sweedish have a solution to everything, and this new product seems to make it sound so true. Every now and then I have been left hunting for a Philips screw driver or a small saw, I can cut out something with, I have been carrying a Swiss knife, but that is bulky, after all I dont' need 30 tools at any one go, but I do need a saw, a flat screw driver and maybe a philips screw driver more often than I need any other tool. If this is the case with you, a $9.99 investment at Think Geek can get you some peace of mind, the best part, it can become a part of your keychain.

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Shredding Scissors

I was a little kid when I first attended a seminar by the RAW (India's Intelligence Division in the Millitary) on how to destroy sensitive corporate documents. They showed us bleached, burnt, cut all kinds of documents, and they could retrieve information from it, the only thing I remember from it is, bleach the document, shred it, burn the ashes, and crumple them.. .and you have the perfect destruction, but in our daily lives, we come across papers that need to be destroyed, just tearing them is not sufficient, getting them to shreded pieces is important, now for a person like me, who writes down some stuff and wants to get rid of it later (dont' go hunting my dustbins now).. Shredders are the ultimate in immediate docuemnt distruction, but for small pieces of paper, buying a shredder did not seem to be very intelligent.

This post on Gizmodo about the Shredding Scissors caught my attention immediately. Japanese people.. now they are intelligent.. go check it out.

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Xbox 360 Coming to India

It's out, and It's confirmed, right from the horse's mouth, the Microsoft XBOX 360 is finally coming legally to India, microsoft is going to work on a launch schedule in the next few days, keep watching this space for an exclusive look at the box, and most probably a first hand review report.

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One Laptop Per Child is True !!

Back in October 2005, I wrote about the 100$ laptop project sponsored by MIT, the project now called OLPC or One Laptop per Child, has made it a reality, yes, the first working prototype(s) was unvieled on 27 May 2006 (pictures), to the working committee. More Details available here.

Now I am out waiting for this to come out.. if nothing else.. it will help create more computer savvy children, and more employees for IT companies like mine.

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LG Launches it's new website !

Ever since LG Launched it's products in India, I have always respected them as a company. My first exposure with them was a 14" Digital Color Monitor back in 1997 with the name Goldstar and the same LG Logo, to a time where every Air conditioner / DVD Player / gadget I was buying, I was hunting down LG for an option.

For my articles, and for General Info, I have used their website again and again, and I have seen it change and evolve, but What I saw today is something I never thought was their focus.

1. Their website now works properly with Firefox on Linux
2. The site has a much friendlier e-commerce look unlike before
3. The New E-Shoppe now offers 0% loans, EMIs Automatically and good prices.. One great step taken by a manufacturer in India to get people to buy from their website.. now only if the website had great prices, check it out at http://www.lgezbuy.com

:)

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New Launch - Kiosk Checkin for Jet Airways

One of the biggest pains in India at an Airport, other than the whole Airport experience was a sad old check in queue. Though for regular fliers holding miles and cards from airlines, this was not really a big problem, but still checkin over all is a sad sad way.

Begining next month, Jet Airways, one of the leading Indian Private airlines, is offering a check in using a Kiosk. Starting from Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. Wolfgang Prock-schauer, CEO of Jet Airways says that

This device can help reduce the check in time to as low as 1 min

So, want more details, check out Jet Airways, by the way for some reason the first page link on their site takes you to an error 404 ;)

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New Avtaar of the Boring old Flash Drive

Ever since I have been a kid or as a matter of fact, any Geek, lego sets have always impressed us. Though lego was never available in India at that time, but cheap Chinese and Indian copies kept us company and enough entertainment to try build models.

Thumbdrives have started to look good, but not as good as the one above, Joe at Lego Flash Drive has put up a DYI on how he managed to create the above one. Dont' wnat to read it, but just see pictures, click here

Now I need to get me one of these.

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New Launch - Mobilblue Availalbe in India

Remember this cute little mp3 player we had reviewed about an year back, well it was still a concept that looked far fetched at this time, but all for Rs. 4800 for a 512 MB going upto Rs. 10,500 for an 8 GB Model, these have hit the underground market in India. I am not sure of the legality of exports, but an old acquaintaince, Kartik Mehta of www.jjmehta.com, has these avialable for sale from his website.

The guy is known to backup his products, so even if it is a legal import by him, he will get it serviced, so what are you waiting for..

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HCL Notebooks (Toshiba's Home page in india) is OFFLINE

My company is a partner for Toshiba laptops and yesterday we had to submit some quotes, for which we needed a clarification from Toshiba's website. www.hclnotebooks.com the site which is dedicated to toshiba laptops in india is offline. This brings me to a great part, where everyone asks why should you host with System3 (which is an expensive host) and not with other cheaper hosting providers, well the following Whois - Domain registration details for the domain will show you the whole story

Domain Name: HCLNOTEBOOKS.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Name Server: NS2.CYBERSPACEWEBHOST.COM
Name Server: NS1.CYBERSPACEWEBHOST.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Status: REGISTRAR-HOLD
EPP Status: clientDeleteProhibited
EPP Status: clientUpdateProhibited
EPP Status: clientHold
EPP Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 18-May-2006
Creation Date: 17-May-2005
Expiration Date: 17-May-2007

The part to note here is, the domain actually was never registered in the rightful owners name, a practice followed by most of the hosting companies in India,

Registrant:
Netprophets Cyberworks Pvt Ltd.
Z-17, Haus Khas
New Delhi, Delhi 110016
IN

Domain name: HCLNOTEBOOKS.COM

Administrative Contact:
Rajpal, Saurabh saurabh@netprophetsglobal.com
Z-17, Haus Khas
New Delhi, Delhi 110016
IN
+91-11-52654781

Sadly, HCL being one of the larger IT companies in India may have not even realised what they were walking into, or maybe the person who took this decision, did find System 3 to be stupid when it asks for a higher cost, to host the same site. Anyway, for the time being, you can enjoy the screenshot above, if you are thinking of buying the Toshiba laptop. :)

So.. hosting is not all about money, it is about how it is done, and how it is handled.

Take care.. and enjoy your weekend.

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New Launch - Sony Ericsson W810i

Sadly I am no big fan of either Ericsson or Sony, and especially not Sony Ericsson, but this phone made me sit up and see, it looks cool and is one of the coolest MP3 Phones around in the market. Recently Sony Ericsson launched this cutie in India t a cool price of Rs. 23,495. Though for an MP3 and A Phone this is a bit expensive, with iPods touching rock bottom prices, but well you can also blog from this phone. Just saw a photo of it at Infosyncworld.

Anyway, if you need more information about the Sony Ericsson 810i, click here for a list of links.

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New Launch - Idea's Woman Card

A Friend of mine used to joke, that there are only 3 saleable things that will survive every kind of economy crash, Education for your children, Eating out or Fast Food, and Things for women. Well Idea and other technology / service companies seem to be all running after Women now. So much for pink power. Anyway, Idea recently launched a Womans' Card, it is nothing more than a specific cell phone calling plan (so many plans so many confusions), but there are a few things I liked about it, namely, the part where it has group messaging built in, that means you can send message to about 3 people automatically when you are in trouble, or calling an emergency number weven when you are at zero balance (calls worth Rs. 25). Now this seems to be a great idea. Want more details, click here, and yes. the best part.. if you take it now, there is an Introductory offer of Free Pearl Earings for every woman card subscriber.. now.. only if I knew someone who wanted another bill plan.

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New Launch - Samsung D820

Everytime I look at a slim phone, it makes me feel that I am much fatter than I really am. Now you would be wondering what kind of new complex is that. The Motorla Razr Gave me the shivers, and the recent announcements by Samsung on their slim phones has given me sleepless nights, that is why so many updates on g-spot all of a sudden. Well jokes apart, other than being busy in the office at night, I thought I must start specific blog posts about new product launches in India, since most of my readers are from India, this seemed to be great choice. Anyway.. back to the phone.

Well It slides, and is only 16.2 mm thick. And No the photo was not made that way by me, it is from the Samsung Ad. The phone looks cool, but is not too big on the features, so what you are majorly paying for is the slim part of it. At a price of Rs. 20,999 it comes loaded with a 1.3 Megapixel camera, Direct TV Output, a 5.3 cm screen, Mp3 player, expandable memory and bluetooth.

I am not sure this is for me, as sliders are not really my cup of tea, but if you are looking at that party stopper, and think the Moto Razr is passe, give this one a look.

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New Launch - Olympus µ [mju:] 700

Olympus has launched the µ [mju:] 700 in India. Though sadly if you goto the Olyumpus website, and select Asia, there is no country India in it. Olympus cameras have been sold for quite sometime in India, and ever since the age of Digital Cameras, these guys have managed to slim and shrink their digital cameras beyond belief. The µ [mju:] 700 does the same by giving you a slim camera with a 7.1 megapixel resolution and a great all weather design, i.e it is waterproof, but not that you could take it inside the pool. It has a 3x Optical zoom and has a 2.5" LCD monitor, and all for a cool package price of Rs. 16,995. This seems to be a great deal. I will wait till I can get one to test to give you the real review. I like the fact that this comes in Black, Orange and Blue other than the usual boring silver that all digital cameras come in these days.

If you want to read more, there is a cool review of µ [mju:] 700 at Let's go digital, or alternatively the link for the camera at Olympus webiste is here.

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Windows Media Player 11 is Here

Back in the hey days of listening to music on the computer, we had the simple media player from Microsoft, with a very simple layout, and the only good looking players around were either Winamp or Jetaudio. Both of them had their own advantages, and the fight began with Real player announcing free versions. The fight got complicated, and over all the Windows Media Player came out with features that were not only great, but long required. Lately WMP (Windows Media Player) added the feature of synchronising your music with an external MP3 Player, but the looks in WM10 were becoming passe, obviouslly with more and more graphic power available, and people running after the Vista look, well finally the WMP 11 (BETA) is out, and you can download it from here. I can't really review it, as I am now on a Linux desktop personally, but another few days, I will try to do this for you on My Windows PC.

But from the looks of it, I think I like it.. :)

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Are you Vista Ready

Everytime Microsoft announces a New Operating System, people seem to spread rumours, on how they got Beta Test copies, or how they modified their existing OS's to look like the upcoming OS. The biggest release as Per Microsoft, in the Desktop Environment is Vista. Some of the tech journals, look at Jan 2007 (The now estimated date of launch for Vista), to be the dooms day for MS, where people will sit up and realise, that their PC's are not ready, and we dont' want another OS that just looks better. Well there is more than meets the eye, but quite a bit of it is Eye Candy. For some of us, the Eye Candy part is so important that we decide to upgrade, and also keeping in mind, software vendors stop to provide support for older versions.

Anyway, if you are wondering, your PC is Vista Ready or not, check out Windows Vista: Get Ready site at Microsoft.

There are two clasifications that are out, at this time.

Vista Capable : Min 800 MHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, 15 GB Hard Disk
Premium Ready: 1 GHz 32/64 bit Processor, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB Hard Disk, and atleast 128 MB on your Graphic Card, to run Aero.

More you can test using the link above, sadly for me, no more upgrades, no more eye candy, no more windows.. I am on linux :)

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Swiss Knife for the Woman in your Life !!

People who know me personally, know that I have a fetish for Swiss knive's. Especially from Victorinox, I can go into the Victorinox store and have an awe on my face, everytime they come out with a new model. I dont' really like the cheap Victorinox rip off's, but sometimes there are things you stumble by and fell, they are worth a dekko.

My swiss knife these days is a pride of my wives' hand bag, and a great tool we use when travelling and camping. But this pink one I stumbled by, is sure going to be a chick magnet for all those who have their women eyeing, their swiss knifes. Not available in India though, but you can always order from Firebox in the UK, all for UK £14.95 or US$ 28.00. So what are you waiting for.. See the picture, go order it.. I promise, it's worth more than what you will spend on it.

By the way, some of the key features are

* Mirror
* Flashlight
* Scissors
* Nail File
* Tweezers
* Pen
* Pill Box
* Perfume Bottle
* Knife
* Ruler
* Bottle Opener
* Screwdriver
* Corkscrew
* Safety Pin
* Needle and Thread
* Key Chain

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I Love Dogs !!!

No Not the one's with wiggly tales, that wiggle more when you meet them, or the ones that bark at you, I am talking about the roasted ones that you put inside a bread and call em a hot dog. India is not too big on hot dogs, though there have been some people who have recently started making them in the big malls, but naaah.. that's not what street food is all about. Sometimes on Sunday's we try to make them on our own, but making the sausages in a pan, does not give you the even cooking or the texture in taste that you are looking for. Running through my usual Gadget websites, I came across the Home Pride Ballpark Hot Dog Rotisserie Griller/Bun at BoomerGadgets, all for US$ 49.95, and available as White, Blue, Red or Silver as per your choice.. now this is what I call, ADD to Wishlist

Happy Sunday's

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Want to be inside the Matrix.. Watch Carefully !!!

The Matrix, Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, showed powers of thought, you could think you can fly and you could, besides the computer animation, maybe it is true maybe it is not, but do you want to be inside the matrix, well press the play button on the video above for this Nintendo commercial, currently airing in Japan, and watch carefully..

Well so what, no Matrix, it's Mario... He can jump, he can fly, is he a bird, is he a plane, no it's Mario..


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.xxx no more

From CNN, ICANN the body that allows the domain names and numbers on the Internet has delayed the proposal for approving .xxx domain name. The .xxx domain name would have led to a seperate so called red-light district on the internet, and would have made filtering much easier. Read more about it at CNN

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