BinaryDay

1. vDesire: This is the cheapest phone from virgin india. At Rs 1,699 this phone is perfect for people who want a mobile to talk. The FM radio is the only luxury available on the virgin vswing mobile.
2. vSwing: This is just 100 rs more expensive than the vDesire and has a featurelist that is almost identical to the vDesire.  
3. vBilling: This is an entry level mobile phone from virgin mobile. Priced at Rs 2,199, the phone comes with FM radio and color screen. There are no camera or mp3 player. The virgin vbilling mobile handset is comparable to reliance classic phone which is priced at less than 1,200 Rs.
4. vSleek: The vSleek from virgin mobile comes with a price tag of Rs 3,299. At the price level the feature list looks just too good. It has got FM radio, mp3 player and camera. You can surf the web with the vSleek as well. The VGA camera is the only thing that one can find fault with.
5. Nokia 2505: At a price tag of 3,760 the handset looks too expensive. Even though more expensive than the vSleek, it does not have essential features like camera, mp3 player and ability to access internet. Nokia brand may be the only reason why you will want to go for this handset. I will rather have vSleek from virgin mobiles.
6. vKewl: At a price tag of rs 3,499, it is the most expensive handset from virgin mobile. (i.e excluding the nokia 2505 and samsung max). It comes with all features of vSleek including mp3 player and internet connectivity. It has a 1.3 mp camera instead of the VGA camera of the vSleek.
7. Samsung MAX: At a price tag of Rs 8,999 the handset looks obscenely expensive. Especially considering that the next most expensive handset (Nokia 2505) costs less than half. The featureset looks very much similar to that of vKewl. Even the camera has a 1.3 mp lens.

virgin india has put together a host of really affordable handsets.

Finding lost mobile phones is big business. Previously independent application developers and service providers like airtel had come up with software to track lost mobile phones. However these softwares had an inherent weakness. The thief could always uninstall the application !!!! That is where the advanced mobile tracker from samsung scores. The application comes preloaded with the tracker software. Hence the thief can not uninstall it.

You need to activate the application before the loss. make sure to change the default password. Then enter 2 mobile numbers who shall be alerted in case of a loss. A sms is sent as soon as there is a change of sim card. The sms contains the new number. From the mobile number you can easily trackdown the thief.

“Your Posts, Your AdSense Ads” That is the promise by devilsworkshop to wannabe bloggers.* You get to keep all revenue generated by your post without going through the hassle of maintaining the blog. Even Pavan bats for edubook. Awesome proposition. Only if you are someone who wants to make somemoney in your free time but you have noaspiration to be a blogger.  But it is really stupid to take up such offer an if you are as good as deepak jain of mobilegyaan.

1. The main reason why you should never take up an offer that promises to pay you the earnings from your post is because a good post is worth a lot more than the adsense revenue it generates. A good post builds up a brand, a recognition for the blog. A good post earns links. A good post converts a casual reader into a feed subscriber. Every other post on the blog benefits from these things. And you get nothing for this. Having built up a feed subscriber base of more than 30,000 users on my earlier venture mywalkin, I know the value of these things just too well.
2. A blog network is indifferent to quality. I know every post needs to be approved. But for that a post needs to pass a minimum criteria. It need not be upto your mark. If you are the high quality blogger then you are effectively subsidizing the lack of quality in other bloggers’ work.
3. The problem of a blog network is that it is more like a democracy where quantity matters more than quality. The person with the maximum number of posts gets the maximum benefit from the home page. Also the related posts links favors the author with the highest number of posts.
4. Finally what about ownership? who owns the blog? who decides what advertisement shall be used? Who decides the tone of the blog? How do you ensure that the blog maintains certain standard?

When does a blog network make sense?

1. When the network provides you a job. Like any other job, you do your task and you get a salary. You do not have to worry about change in ecpm. I think techcrunch or gigaom work this way. Not sure though
2. Like rahul says in his blog, if you are a niche blogger then you can use the blog network as a platform to publish your off-topic articles
3. If you have co-ownership and after set down certain criteria like minimum quality of post, you may consider joining a blog network.

P.S: I have very high regard for rahul, deepak and pavan even though noone other than pavan knows personally. Hope you guys do not get me wrong.

P.S TO P.S: Deepak you are too good to abandon mobilegyaan. Hope to see you back on mobilegyaan soon

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the first touch screen phone inroduced by Nokia in India. Nokia rules the Indian makret with more than half of all phones sold in the market. However in recent days nokia has seen a threat to its leadership from the touch screen phones introduced by new entrants like Apple and HTC.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic mobile phone is Nokia’s attempt to fight back in the touchscreen mobiles market. Priced at close to 20k, the 5800 XpressMusic looks much more attractive than the iphone. Looks like the pathetic performance of iphone is not going to change anytime soon.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a 3.2 mega pixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, LED flash and video capturing capability. A virtual QWERTY keyboard makes typing messages or email easier. Like IPHONE, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is 3G compatible. It is not possible to use 3G technology in India though.

The Nokia 5800 comes with standard softwares like Nokia maps, Nokia music client etc. This phone has access to OVI, the online music store from Nokia. For this onlne music store, Nokia has collaborated with leading international and national music companies; Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner and Tseries, Big Music and Yashraj.

The mobile is expected to be released in India in January 2009.

The Do Not Disturb or do not call directory was expected to be the grand saviour that will protect all of us lesser mortals from the devil of Telemarketers. However the complexity and ambiguity in the rules accompanying the regulation means that very few people have understood how to make use of this directory. The issue has come to prominence with airtel banning longcodes used by MyToday.

What is this do not call registry?

This is a list of people who have opted not to recieve any Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC). The UCC does not include any communication made pursuant to a contract between the 2 parties. Hence I am unable to see why Airtel has banned the longcodes of mytoday.

How to register in the do not call registry?

Subscribers can make a Do Not Call requests via Letter, phone, SMS or on-line. The telephone number “1909″ is designated for registering your request in the National Do Not Call Registry. Registrations can be done either by calling or sending SMS with keywords “START DND” to “1909″. Telephone calls/SMSs to this number are FREE of cost. The telecom service provider will acknowledge the request within ten days. Requests will become effective in 45 days from the date of request.

What if some operator calls me even after registering in do not call registry?

You will need to complain to your telecom operator. Telemarketer will have to pay a fine of 500 rs for the first violation and 1000 rs for the second violation. Even their facility may be cancelled.

Register with DNC today to avoid getting those irritating calls from telemarketers.

As the entire world is trying to deal with the problem of recession, job cuts and business challenges, mumbaikars have been given a terrible and sad surprise of series of bomb blasts and firing. The sheer audacity of the terrorists makes me angry. Angry at the impotency of us as a nation. I hope someone in Delhi will realize that this is the limit and we must do something conclusive. Something other than talking.

ngpay seems to be the most useful application that I have installed on my mobile. The about us page of ngpay claims that it is a mall on your mobile. And for a change, that is not an exaggeration.

With ngpay you can

1. Book bus tickets on redbus.in, book train tickets, check pnr status etc on irctc and book airtickets as well
2. You can book movie tickets
3. You can do online banking. The facility is available with HDFC bank right now
4. You can pay bills for most of your utilities.
5. And there are even more things like doing charity and sending gifts

Truely a mind blowing and ultra useful application. The best part is that inspite of so many functionalities, the ngpay people have managed to keep the interface really non-confusing. The service works on most of the mobile phone models but requires a gprs connection to operate. I will like to see a version that allows users to do some of these things with sms as well.

Virgin mobile india has come up with an irresistible offer that will instantly convince you to buy the mobile phone from the online store of virgin mobile.

On the purchase of a virgin mobile handset you shall get

• Free talktime worth rs 100
• 500 free sms
• free lifetime validity
• free prepaid connection. (I do not understand the difference between the 3rd and 4th point)

I have been impressed by the innovative offerings and unique advertisements from virgin. However I am not sure if the latest move by virgin is equally smart as this will cannibalize the alternate sales channel and the dealers are not going to be happy about.

I am a great supporter of chinese mobile phones. The chinese phones allow middle class people to use mobile phone features that would be otherwise unaffordable. However one primary problem in buying the chinese phones is the complete lack of brand awareness in India. If the chinese mobile phones have to really take off in India, then we shall need some sort of review system that will separate out good chinese manufacturers from the cheaters.

I think this is a great idea for a techie to start a new website. Looking at the amount of traffic that my prior posts about chinese mobile phones have been generating, I shall not be surprised if the website becomes immensely popular fast. If anyone is thinking of doing the same then do get in touch with me. Will love to help you out.

There is no doubt that the performance of Iphone has been patheic in India to say the least. However analysis of how a smart marketer like Apple got its acts so horribly wrong throws up some interesting observations.

1. India is not a priority market: Apple has never been bullish on India. That does not surprise me as apple has always sold pricey products and Indians by nature are value conscious. I am not suggesting that we buy only cheap goods. We do buy expensive goods but the features must justify the price.
2. Apple’s partners in India (Airtel and vodafone) got their strategy wrong: Airtel and Vodafone knew very well that revealing the price of the IPhone will kill all excitement about the product. I am sure that is why they kept silent about the price till few days before the launch. However contrary to what they expected, this created lots of negative press about the product.
3. Deliberate strategy of Apple: You are free to think that I have lost my mind to suggest that Apple deliberately wanted to have limited response to Iphone. However fact is Iphone is still a new product. There may be some issue with the handset. If that had happened, Apple with negligible presence in India would have got into a difficult situation.  Hence apple could have planned to get a small set of users into the fold so that the word of mouth effect can start and Apple can learn about indian consumers without taking too much of risk.

What do you think? Was it Apple’s stupidity or brilliance?