Tata Sky - Claims 7 Channels Launched, Launches only 4

2 Days Back, on Tata Sky, you had that same silly yellow postal envelope popup, to tell you "TATA SKY LAUNCHES 7TH CHANNEL WITHIN A MONTH", now I wonder what do they mean by 7th.. Check the details and it talks about only 3, BBC Entertainment, BBC Ceebees, and India TV, though the release of AIR Jallandhar Radio Station (Because they discontinued ETC Punjabi) & Akash Bangla, was never flashed, but this makes a total of 5, and not 7. Does someone at Tata need to learn counting again, or is the 5 a new 7 ?

Ohter Interesting Reads this week: Govt - TDSAT differ on DTH Pricing
List of New Channels allow to downlink to India

GS

Should TRAI have a Larger Role in CAS / DTH Operators

A great discussion on India Broadband Forum, if TRAI should play a regulator to see that all DTH Operators, and CAS providers carry all signals, that means all brodacasters to compulsarily give signals to CAS and DTH operators, and Customer to choose, would love to see what comes out of it.

G

Pearl, 8800 and now the Curve - It's Finally Here

I am no big fan of the Pearl or the 8800 but all I can say after looking at the Curve is WOW. Yes, It's brilliant, RIM, finally adds the features we all wanted

1. The Phone can now work as a Modem, so no need for an additional Data Card
2. Expandable Memory
3. 2.0 MP Camera with Flash
4. Media Player
5. Blackberry Maps

WOW

Price: Unknown
Availability in India: Not Yet
Wishlist: Yes (7290, it's time for you to go)

TRAI and ISP's to share Revenue

A bit late on my blog, but a serious news, TRAI and ISP's will now share 6% of the Revenue, (Did I read that right, 6% of the Revenue, and not Profits) WOW, and we talk about making this country internet Enabled, with forcing higher fee's and this Revenue Share structure, I think the ISP community of small rural ISP's, and small town ISP's will finish, I agree that there is a lot of Grey / Illegal Voip Connectivity happening in the name of ISP's, but sadly, raising the fee, and introducing a rev share is not the way to do it.. somone listen to me.

As reported in Hindustan Time on Thursday 10th May 2007.

G

PC Mag Set to Launch in India

PC Magazine India, yes, it's a reality, wait for June 2007, and PC Magazine India shall hit the market shelves pretty soon, Arindham Chaudary's Planman Media, is bring out the magazine and has already started huntin for Advertisments for the first issue.

I have always Admired Arindham as a visionary, and his work with Planman, and the magazines he has brought out, has made me put him on the spot.

GS

Tata Sky Users, should you buy a Dish TV

A few days, back, when Tata took off some of the Zee stable channels, and Tata' service still not stabalising, a lot of people have come upto me and asked me a question, should we switch, or maybe get this box too. I thought the whole concept of going DTH / CAS was to bring your cable bill down, in my case it has taken it up, since the same content is not avialable (well 80% is same) but the balance 20% (Dish has the zee channels, has MGM, B4U Music, Total TV, India TV and Tata Sky has BBC Entertainment....and nothing), my bill is now going up to 300 for Tata, and 300 for Zee, so a total of 600, and when MTNL IPTV does finnaly launch or I mean is available where I Live, I will be down a 1000 bucks, for the same thing that I was getting for 200 a month.

Anyway, a good news for all you Tata Sky customers, TDSAT has announced that it is working on resolving the Pricing formula for DTH users, and also Issued a notice to Tata Sky, to start beaming down India TV and Total TV. Thanks ET, and good work people filing PIL's..

GS

Want a Tivo, Get a WIZO

Well, no jokes, a few of my friends have been after my life to help them hack a Tivo and get it into India, to work in India to record programs. Digital Video recorder market in India is still starting up and the only solutions available right now (other than PC based DVR's) is the LG's Time Machine which includes a Hard Disk based recorder built inside a TV, though this will not be able to tune your DTH reciever, or the Dish TV DVR, which though will work with the Zee Dish TV, but sadly I have not been able to buy one, after repeated calls, and requests to Zee Group. Anyway, a few days back, while browsing through the immense world of technology sites, I came across an Interesting Indian company called Keen Pvt. Ltd, and is building a DVR called Wizo. Though it is not commercially fully launched as yet, this basically means, you can't go into a store and buy it right now, but look out for it, Anil Gupte, the guy who runs Keen is working hard to bring this to market.

Should I put this into Wishlist, why not, Anil Said, that he would love to have me as a customer when he does the full commercial launch, here is Cheers to a brilliant Indian company, an Indian working hard to bring out the next Generation DVR, tuned for you in India.

GS

DTH: Subscribers demand right to choose pay channels

When DTH actually became a reality, and CAS took a beating, a lot of people called in on my show on Radio Mirchi, and asked me on why they can't choose a single channel, or a set of channels that they want only to pay for on DTH, which is what they could do with CAS, After all they should all be comparable services.

Till a few weeks back TATA Sky did not offer any other subscription plan, while Dish had some plans, but under pressure started sellling only one Plan. Now both of them have some plans, but you still can't choose. The news that Subscribers will go through a PIL to get this, was expected, and May 7th's Hindu reports

Coming out against the packages of pay channels thrust by the DTH (direct-to-home) service providers on the viewers, the subscribers have demanded they should have right to choose the pay channels they want to see.

Why is Airtel Blocking Joost

If you are a Joost user, you must have felt this too, and I see this happen to a lot of Joost Users, Airtel is blocking Joost servers, you are not able to sign in, to watch Joost. Is airtel nearing it's release of the IPTV, or is it only to save on International bandwdith. If you don't know what Joost is, head on to Joost.com

GS

Mobile Phones for the Elderly

Buing a Suitable cellphone for your Dad, or your Grandparents is not really the easiest thing to do. Some of them dont' want to learn how to use a new technology, and some of them can't see that sharply to use the smallest of cellphones available today. I was faced with a similar delima sometime back and decided to check out the market for a suitable cell phone for the elderly from the available phones, my article in Express Money, with the Indian Express, on Monday the 7th May.

Alternatively you can read it online here

GS

PS: this is my last article in Express Money, sadly the Money Marketing team has not been able to cash in on it, and hasnt' managed to make money with advertising to support it, My fate with express is a bit unclear right now, but will keep you posted.

Netgear Acquires Infrant

I have been a big fan of the Netgear SC101, and have been selling it at my company like crazy, I think we must have sold over a 100 Units in the last year, and also promiting the Use of this Device. Sadly, we could never buy one for our office, or my home use, as we have a Linux + Windows Mixed Network, and SC 101 supported only Windows PC's.

The Latest news from Netgear, that they have acquired Infrant, made me sit up and read it carefully, not only does Infrant have a good Home Solution but also a great solution on the Workgroup front, waiting for the device to land in my hands. If you think you need Scalable Storage for your network, call System3, and we will come and give you a solution that works for you. Alternatively if you are looking for some free advice, well Send me a mail

GS

Good News: Power Open Access from July 1

From July 1, the most talked about scheme in Power will be implemented. If you are a large Establishment (Current Definition: A hotel, an Airport, or a Metro, etc). You will be able to choose your Distributor, BSES or NDPL. Also another part of the news is, you will be able to buy power from an Agency, as a third source. Read more by clicking on the above graphic.

Source: Hindustan Times, 7th May Print Edition

GS

Microsoft + Yahoo = Nothing

I am not sure if all this news is only to Drive up the Share Prices or to rig the market, but Business Standard today reports, that the talks between Microsoft and Yahoo are no longer active. But MS is still open to possibilities of work together.

What would be the name if they merge it, Microoooo or ????

GS

Reliance Mobile - World Roaming is Finally here

Well, this is not such a big news but still with quite a few people using Reliance Phones, this was always an issue, roaming across the world, where CDMA / GSM networks co-exist, and keeping the same number. Reliance has announced the World Roaming, and comparitivley, the Tariff also looks interesting and lower than the competition, will it work, won't it, I will need to wait for someone to review this, till then.. Good work ADA. More Details here

GS

Asus Classmate PC $249

Recent News on Gizmodo, Asustek / Asus to build a $249 PC, Intel watch out, another contendor in the OLPC Segment (though this is strictly not OLPC), but with a7" LCD at 800x480, an Ultra-Low Voltage (ULV) Celeron M 900 with no L2 cache, and 256MB of DDR-II, presumably with a version of Windows embedded in memory, this sure looks hot.

GS

Solar Power - Yes It's working

About an Year back I was seriouslly contemplating getting into Solar Power Production, and while reading up on it, I found that the only possible way of doing solar power production on a full day basis would be to have a tower with solar panels all around it, something like a cylindrical tower, but this idea found on BBC is great.

GS

Power is'nt Delhi's right

PEOPLE DO not have a fundamental right to electricity, the Delhi government told the Supreme Court on Friday The statement - in a season of scorching heat and frequent power cuts - came during the hearing of a public-interest petition on the city's power crisis.

We are seriouslly going to the dogs, in this country, and we are talking of Commonwealth Games..

This is a scan from the Hindustan Times, May 5th Edition. Sadly could not find it on their website, but it is on the e-paper.

GS

Microsoft to Acquire Yahoo - Well finally MSN search engine will work :)

I have never been a big fan of the Microsoft Search Engine. I think Hotmail is a good product, but it got shadowed out under MS. Also Yahoo, has not been my search engine since the early days, I was more of an Altavista/Digital to a Google fan now.. In between I swinged to Yahoo to use their calendar, which still has a lot of my data on it, but then, Google Consolidating everything together moved me.

Today's news in Economic Times caught my eye, and at approximately 50 million Dollars, Microsoft will surely get an edge if it acquires yahoo, but will then Yahoo stay yahoo, we have to debate that.

G

Google - Best Place to Wrok

This news is of No Surprise, but yes, Google is has been named as the Best Place to work for IT Guys, while Goldman Sachs is the Best place for Finance guys, as per "The Universum IDEAL(TM) Employer Survey- MBA Edition 2007"

Links: Economi Times, Financial Express

Tata Sky - Releases Ad about New Packages, and 5 New Channels !!!

Refer to my posting, Today Tata Sky released the Advertisments for the multiple price packages that they have. The Ad also mentions 5 New Channels, 2 I spoke about yesterday, wonder what the other 3 are, and when will they announce it.

BTW TATA ji, the first icecream (Starter) is pretty Sour.. and it's 160 a month.. :(

G