Bangalore Bloggers

Airtel GPRS new plan, Rs.19 for 200MB!

Airtel is getting more competitive in it’s GPRS offerings by offering one more GPRS pack at very affordable price. My friend Ashwin posted a screenshot sometime back which says about this new pack:

So, as per the screenshot if you easy recharge with Rs.19, you can browse free till 200MB. Though it’s unclear how much validity it carries. If you know, do let everyone know via comment section.

Airtel GPRS, Rs.98 for 2Gb per month! How to get it?

Airtel has recently rolled out a new GPRS pack which is very competitive with GPRS packs offered by new providers like Docomo. With new plan user gets unlimited browsing all through the month for just Rs.98. Though Airtel calls it “unlimited”, it comes with fair usage policy limit of 2Gb. If you are using GPRS only on mobile device, 2Gb is more than enough for a month. If you are connecting your laptop or PC to browse internet, then you should be counting on those bits!

To get this plan, just “Easy Recharge” with Rs.98. But, before that activate Mobile Office on your number. To do that dial *567*11# & you will get a confirmation message. Dialing this activates basic plan of Mobile Office, which is 30paise/50kb, pay as you browse. After you ERecharge with Rs.98, it overrides the basic plan & you will get 2Gb of free browsing. It’s instant

If you don’t have settings send ALL to 543210

Bloggers who are in Nokia’s invite list for super secret announcement!

Just inspected the source of the page http://events.nokia.com/countdown/ to get the entire list!! I’m listed too, but not yet contacted by Nokia! Nobody has any clue on what Nokia is going to announce!

I made the list just to reduce the pain of scrolling on the countdown page

Norton Internet Security 2010, makes life easier!

Seriously, been using free anti virus since years, but my computer is still vulnerable & keep getting affected again & again. I don’t understand why they aren’t powerful. For me, an anti-virus software should be “Install & Forget”, it should be capable of taking care off all sorts of malicious bad software, trojans, spywares & let me concentrate on work!

Norton Internet Security 2010 does just what I wanted to. It takes care of all bad stuff & allows me to do my work peacefully. As you can see in the below screenshot, NIS has got really nice dashboard which tell you everything about current processes.

Clicking on the performance button shows how NIS is performing on your machine, how many issues it has found, details of the issues it found, memory/CPU consumption ..etc, everything plotted over a nice graph.

Elegant settings window allows you to configure NIS as per your requirements. Certain things which you might already know like scheduling scans, network settings, computer settings, web settings, everything comes under this. All these settings have a simple button which can turn ‘on’ or ‘off’ anytime .

We surf internet all the time. But, the fact is we find new sites via search engines (or I can say just Google?). NIS nicely integrates with Google search results page & shows whether the listed links are safe to visit or not. In my opinion this itself hugely reduces chance of getting infected!

With NIS you can have better understanding of installed applications. Norton scans every installed application & automatically finds out whether to trust the application or not & assigns proper access rights. Norton also tracks CPU & memory usage history of all applications!

Today, my friend’s came come with an infected thumb drive & asked me to format it since he was unable to fix it with the free anti-virus he had. I just plugged the thumb drive in, NIS automatically scanned the drive, found the threat!! I just clicked “Fix” & bingo! NIS took around 5 to 10 seconds to fix it & all the data was safe.

It just covers everything! I don’t think my PC would ever get affected with NIS installed on it! There’s still a lot of settings & configuration available, I just gone through few which impressed me.

Tata Docomo launches 5 new GPRS packs

Tata Docomo has announced five new GPRS packs as follows:

-To pull internet settings please sms “INTERNET” to 52270 and save them as default settings on your mobile

-To get Recharge Instruction for all packs: Call 12526(toll free) OR Dial *135*<pin># OK

-To activate the Rs. 5/- Daily Pass, SMS ”GPRS” to 121

-For more information on the TATA DOCOMO GPRS Packs visit: www.tatadocomo.com/gprs.aspx

Google announces it’s own phone “Nexus One”

Google has announced it’s own phone “Nexus One”. Following are the key features of the phone:

Powerful 1GHz SnapDragon processor
3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen
512MB of RAM
512MB of ROM (Internal Memory)
MicroSD slot expandable up to 32GB
5 Mega Pixel camera
Google Android OS
GPS, Google Maps
Accelerometer, Light sensor & proximity sensor
Active Noise Cancellation for clear calls
Google Earth debuting on this handset & will be available to other Android devices soon via Android App Market

Nexus One is priced at USD 529 & not yet available in India. Check out the phone at http://www.google.com/phone.

Airtel SMS shortcodes for activating daily/weekly unlimited GPRS packs

Airtel has two unlimited GPRS packs for it’s prepaid customers. One day pack offers you unlimited browsing all the day for Rs.20. Similarly you can go for weekly pack for Rs.99 & do unlimited browsing throughout the week. Getting these packs activated is quite simple via SMS shortcodes as follows:

To activate daily pack (Rs.20), send MO to 56123
To activate weekly pack (Rs.99) send MO to 56122

Since I’m not an Airtel user, I don’t know more about other GPRS packs Airtel is offering. If you are aware of any, please share it with others in comments section.

‘Gift a broadband’ with BSNL! No charges for first month! No installation charges!

BSNL Bangalore is offering a scheme for celebrating Christmas & New year called ‘Gift a Broadband…’. You can just walk in to any BSNL customer service center & purchase a Greeting Card enclosed with gift voucher to avail a new broadband connection. This greeting card costs you just Rs.100. Following are the benefits user who applies for new broadband gets using this scheme:

Free Broadband Starter Plan (Rs.250) for a month
No rental on modem for a month (Rs.80)
No installation charges (Rs.250)

So total value is Rs.580 & you are paying only Rs.100. This scheme is valid only till 31st Jan 2010 & user has to apply for broadband within that date.

Nokia 5230 touch phone launched in Bangalore

Nokia has launched it’s new touch phone 5230 in Bangalore. This phone is mainly targeted at youth who love to listen to music. Nokia 5230 features 3.2 inch touch screen with dedicated music control buttons, 2MP camera, 70MB internal memory, microSD slot expandable upto 16GB. Nokia 5230 runs on Symbian S60 5th edition & that opens up doors to huge number of apps for the device. MRP of the phone is Rs.8,499, yeah I was shocked too! It’s pretty affordable & value for money I should say.

Check out the launch event video happened at Garuda mall, Bangalore:

Vodafone launches unlimited national SMS packs

Vodafone has recently launched unlimited national SMS packs for both prepaid & postpaid subscribers. Following is the pack details for Pre-paid customers:

Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 52 (Validity : 30 days)
Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 34 (Validity : 15 days)

For postpaid customers monthly unlimited national SMS pack is Rs.80 per month. To activate this pack send ACT TEXT to 111.

To know more about these packs send “TEXT” to 111.

Nokia E72 camera test/review

When it comes to E series phones everyone thinks about messaging, IM, office suite & other serious stuff! But E72 has a twist, it has got really good camera built into it, which previous E-series phones lacked. So, let me show how good E72’s 5 Mega Pixel camera is with photographs taken in different modes & lighting conditions.

Day to Day photography:

Found something interesting while traveling? Just take out your phone & click! No options, no modes selected. I saw a bus stop in the car mirror while commuting, just took out the phone & clicked!

As you can see the image clarity & details are really good. No wonder if posts to my Posterous has increased these days!

Close Up:

This scene mode is used to capture objects in 10 to 60 cms of distance. Collected those thumb drives in different Nokia events

Landscape:

Bangalore race course captured in landscape mode.

Night Landscape:

As you can see, capturing night landscape isn’t that great from E72. The picture isn’t clear & blurry. N97’s camera performed really better in similar lighting conditions.

Night Photography (normal closer objects):

Woke up of a bad dream in the mid night! Just to divert my mind, took the phone & blindly clicked this pic. There was absolutely no light in my room when I clicked this one. This also proves how brilliant the flash is on E72.

Backlight (Pointing at a light source):

First one, the sunset, though it looks brilliant, cam is unable to capture all the colors in it. Second pic looks really nice.

Video Recording:

Captured this video from the window of a fast moving bus covering Bangalore city corporation’s wall project initiative.

Conclusion:

Overall, camera of Nokia E72 is as good as an entry level digital camera. If you are a person who wants to capture those wonderful moments as it happens, this is just perfect for you. Inbuilt email client & share online features of the phone enables you to share those moments right-away with friends & family. I’m really loving it, god save my mobile internet bill!!!

You might be also interested in what all I liked about this phone.

SMStweet lets you Tweet via local SMS

I had been to Nokia developer conference few weeks back. Met lot of interesting people there, shared ideas, it was fun. I also met Mayank there & got to know about SMStweet which he built. SMStweet enables user to post Tweets via SMS. To use this service just go to SMStweet.in & sign in using Twitter. This service uses Twitter oAuth & hence doesn’t store your twitter login information. After authenticating with twitter, give your mobile number to SMStweet & start using the service right away.

Send TWT YourTweet to 09220092200 or 09243000111 to post a tweet. If your tweet gets posted successfully, you will receive a response message containing latest @reply made to you.

Tweeting is fun when you share your experiences right away. Once I tweeted from middle of a river! SMSTweet just enables you to do it! No need of a GPRS connection, no need of a fancy device, all you need is a mobile phone & every mobile phone supports SMS (Do I have to say that?). I also find SMStweet useful to post interesting forwarded SMSs to Twitter!

Why I’m in love with Nokia E72!

I couldn’t wait too long to express my opinion about Nokia E72!! So, here is a quick post!

Powerful: With ARM 11 600 MHz processor, it is really powerful. It’s been two days of massive usage & it hasn’t hung or crashed a single time
Camera: E-Series phone with 5 MPix camera!!? Pics are brilliant & makes me think to start a new photo blog! Will post few pictures taken from it in a short while.
Smooth UI: Though it’s the same old Symbian S60 3rd edition OS, UI is very different from other E-series phones like E63, E66, E71. The new UI is very smooth & has got cool transition effects.
Form Factor: Ultra slim & metallic finish gives a very good feeling when I keep it in my hand, and makes it fully comfortable to type on QWERTY keyboard.
Runs for long!: It really has got a huge battery, it ran straight two days with ‘always online’ email, random music listening, many app downloads from OVI store & all!
Music: I can hear!! I can hear that difference in music when compared to my old E-series phone E66. And also E72 has 3.5 mm audio jack which lets you plug any earphone of your choice!
Optical Navi Key: Initially was making mistakes in menu selections because of Optical Navi key, after a day, I’m so much used to it. Turned the sensitivity of it to ‘High’!!
Blink!: A small thing, the blink from that d-pad makes me feel I have a living being in my hand. It blinks faster when there are unchecked SMSs or missed calls!!

That’s it for now! Let me know what you think about it in comment section.

Meet Up at Nokia Store

Nokia is doing an interesting consumer initiative in Bangalore wherein they are inviting consumers to their store. They will have some of the app developers giving a demo on apps like Newshunt , Touch games and they will also host a few fun quizzes/games. Anyone attending will win a Nokia Music voucher and there will be exciting prizes announced through a lucky dip at the store.

http://twtvite.com/jdwdfy
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=196879729307

Getafixx – A very innovative way to connect to the expert knowledge

What do you do when you are stuck with something? Call a friend & try to get a resolution? Well, that’s what I do normally. But sometimes you can’t find someone who has expertize in that particular field. Then you will probably look for some forums & post your questions right? But, these forums takes a day long to get a reply & most of the time replies aren’t helpful. So, you finally end up having an unsolved problem!!

Getafixx is the best & perfect solution for you to connect to expert knowledge. To start using Getafixx, just add getafixx@voicetap.in to your gtalk & start chatting. You don’t really need any help after that, when I added it, I didn’t read any document, I just followed the response from the bot!!

10:33 AM me: help

getafixx: Hey there stranger. Looks like you have not yet signed up! Please provide me with your first name and last name seperated by comma.

me: Prashanth,HN

getafixx: Please provide me with your 10 digit mobile number and location seperated by comma.

me: 99860******,Bangalore

getafixx: Please provide me with a password.

10:34 AM me: ********

getafixx: Excellent. Thanks for that. Your ID for using the Voicetap knowledge engine is 46. The expert will see your name and ID, and can get other details should he want.

Here are the tags that you can use anytime
search: To search for knowledge
connect: To connect directly to one expert / person
help: To get help with the commands
details: Type details followed by Y / N to allow / disallow others from accessing your profile data
expert: To change your expert categories at any time

By the way: We are looking for experts. Do you believe you can chat with people to help them with something? Anything? y / n .

10:35 AM me: y

getafixx: Just provide your areas of interest separated by commas. For eg: IITJEE, Engineering entrance, friendship advise, sports injuries, nuclear physics, startups …

me: wordpress,PHP,GoogleWave,web

getafixx: Now tell me what knowledge can I connect you to today? (Type search space search term)

10:36 AM me: search wordpress

getafixx: We have found 0 experts who are currently available to chat with you.

Please type in connect @[unique id] (Example: connect @5) to connect to a expert

me: search php

getafixx: We have found 2 experts who are currently available to chat with you.

sandip dutta (14)
Gaurav Sahni (37)

Please type in connect @[unique id] (Example: connect @5) to connect to a expert

me: connect @37

getafixx: Please wait while I contact Expert User to check whether he can chat with you right now.

Hey, Gaurav is now available to chat with you. Go ahead and type your query and I will act as the relay between you and Gaurav. Should you want help with the commands, type help and press enter.

Please note that Expert Voicetap technologies pvt. Ltd. does not hold any liability of the discussion that you have with Gaurav should you go ahead with this chat. Happy knowledge gathering!

To send a message to Gaurav type @37 followed by your message.

10:37 AM Gaurav Sahni (@37) Hey Prashanth

me: @37 hey, just trying out Voice tap

getafixx: Gaurav Sahni (@37) lol, alright

It is that simple!!! These people have implemented the entire login process inside the chat itself. Including sign-up process I was able to connect to an expert in just 5 minutes. Next time it’s going to take just few seconds I guess!! I should say this is very innovative product I reviewed in recent days.

I normally say “try Google for it” when people ask me something I don’t know. But, from now on I’ll probably say “Try Getafixx“!!!

Link: http://voicetap.in

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