HTC did a wonderful job of updating the HTC hero. First you get a small update which allows you to download firmware over the air. Then few days later they sent the 2.1 android update.

I thought it would be like any other updates, it will completely reset my device. So i backed up everything on my phone that i wanted to my sd card using astro file explorer.

HTC update didn’t reset anything. All my apps, settings, contacts, calendar were there.

But it was disappointing that not all the features are available.

No speech to text – this was one of the features I wanted
No live wallpaper

What do you get in the 2.1 update

Few new HTC widgets (And the ability to download new htc widgets)

To download new widgets go to widgets and look at the first link, it will allow you to download more widgets. try the notes widget its really cool.

Improved market place now you can search better and also see screen shots of apps, Before installing them.
There is a new navigation app, not yet tried out.

You can now see what programs are using your battery etc.

Now there is bluetooth file send & receive support. If you want to receive any thing from other mobiles or computers now you can do it through bluetooth. But its useful only for small files like mp3 etc. If you want to get anything bigger on to the device its still better to do it via usb. It took me 22 minutes to get a 150 mb file through bluetooth.

There are quite a few small one but they are just normal updates nothing to write home about.

That’s pretty much it.

Pretty sad that not all the features of 2.1 android are ported over to this update. But the way they are updating the firmware for these devices is something special.

I think the speech to text has problems with recognizing indian accent and may be that’s why they have not added it.

The only issue i am facing with this update is wifi is not working on mine. It doesn’t show my wifi access point. i have reset the phone. And tried all the suggestions in android forums.

But still no luck…

Related posts:

1. HTC hero gets update in India
2. Htc Hero I recommend
3. HTC hero has impressed me so far

First of all its quite small than I imagined. I was expecting something as big as or close to my 13 inch Macbook. But its small like a digital photo frame a bit bigger than that. Only a little bigger than that.

Second thing is how heavy it is, I don’t think people will enjoy playing on it holding it in their hand for a long time.

But you can easily use it on your lap or arm rest etc.

As soon as I turned it on it showed connect to iTunes message. So had to connect it to iTunes and register before I could start using the iPad.

The screen, I own an iPhone so that was not such a big deal. But such a big screen with capacitive touch is wonderful to use.

Browsing on it looks wonderful, I surfed to quite a few sites on safari and they all look wonderful. And pinch and zoom makes it wonderful to read websites and use internet.

I was using this on a wi-fi so pages were loading quite fast. It was a 3G iPad, but we didn’t have a sim so used wi-fi.

Photos on this thing look wonderful, so do videos.

Even though its hard to get any videos to fill the screen because of the screen size. You will have black bands on top and bottom of the video, but still video looks quite good.

Music player on it is quite nice. The sound from the speakers was also quite loud, louder than the iPhone.

Music and videos take a couple of touches more on the iPad than the iPhone. Which was quite strange, when you compare how good they are on iPhone. You have to select a video and then go to a page about the video info and then click play. On iPhone you just click a video and it plays.

Games look really fun to play on iPad, its made for games especially board games.

Over all its a fun experience using it, and the hardware is solid apple build. If you have seen a unibody Macbook it looks quite similar to that.

Will I buy one at least not this version, I am excited about iPhone 4 though.

I would recommend this to anyone who uses internet a lot and doesn’t type much.

My friend got it from overseas, you can buy it in India anywhere from 35000 – 40000 Rs. Apple has not yet officially launched iPad in India. If they price it around 25000 Rs which is what it sells for in USA. I might think about it, but I know they will not sell it for less than 35000 Rs.

Related posts:

1. iPad and my view about it
2. Htc Hero I recommend
3. Rumour Roundup the Apple Tablet

I am a gadget afficinado, so like everyone else i too was watching the apple ipad event at 12:00 am eagerly. Trying to get all the details about it etc.

After reading few hundred blog posts about it. Here are my view about the device and if i will buy one or not?

First the price, its really hard to justify its pricing in India. It will cost as much as normal laptops in India.

iPad wifi only version will cost
16 GB will be 32135 Rs,
32 GB will be 38575 Rs,
64 GB will be 45015 Rs.

Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india. 499$*46Rs+40%

iPad wifi & 3G version will cost
16 GB will be 40507 Rs,
32 GB will be 46947 Rs,
64 GB will be 53387 Rs.

Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india.

This would have been fine if it had multi tasking. On my macbook i always multi task, like downloading something while reading a web site.

All we do on our computers is multitask. So going back to older times is hard for me.

Not all indian sites work on safari and these sites have no plans to change the situation soon.

This was the main reason for me to switch from iphone to HTC hero. There are some sites that don’t load well on safari. i need other browsers, for example stock trading sites don’t load in safari. But they load in chrome and firefox. On a laptop i can switch to those browsers, but on iPad i have no such option. Apple will never allow other browsers on iPad. Even with banking sites this is an issue.

You could say this is a computer for other members in your family. That’s a good point but not at this price. I could buy them a good laptop at this price. Even a good netbook would be cheaper than this.

The iPad is a half inch thick device, with multi-touch, forever connected to the internet, simplified, focussed, affordable, and most importantly, can be superbly productive.

This above point is the only reason i might think of buying one. But it will largely depend on the price i will have to pay for it. If i can pay 20000 Rs for the device and 1000 Rs per month for unlimited 3G. i might get it, but that will never happen. Current unlimited 3G prices on BSNL are 3000 Rs per month.

So lets see how it will be priced and that is what will decide if i buy it or not.

Related posts:

1. BSNL Crashes GPRS Prices
2. Photo Frames are such useless devices
3. Indian stock trading should be easier

I bought one in the early days of these device, it had a small 6 inch screen. I just bought it because it was something new and i thought i would use it. But once i bought it, i realized how useless and they were.

First of all mine resets itself once the power goes off. So i had to manullay set the date and time every time, which it was capable to display. They could have put a small battery in it, that could have helped remember these details even when power went out or they could have saved it to the system. Even then its a useless device, why would you want a device keep churning photos when no one is looking at it. Just not eco friendly and waste of power.

Photo frame would only make sense if they could be used for other things. Like a tablet, when i don’t use it and dock it or while charging. It could become a photo frame or weather or news reader. Ipad is a good example of my concept.

That is the only way i think some thing like a digital photo frame could be justified.

If some one can come up with an epaper that could show a photo without any power. And generate enough power from light everyday to show one photos everyday, then i would buy one. All the technologies are available at the moment, some one needs to put it all together.

If you still was to buy one, this digital photo frame is now available in black and white colours for Rs. 8,000 with a one-year panel warranty and two-year product warranty.

Transcend Launches 8-inch Digital Photo Frame

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1. Samsung Hdtv power board problem

A nice place to find and read all the rumors of apple tablet. You can see what features are being predicted.

Its an interesting look at the rumors, if apple releases just a bigger iphone there will be a lot of disappointment. From all the rumors and patents they have applied for in the recent months. It looks like Apple’s tablet will be something special.

As always it be way costly and i will try to get one after a year or so. Which is when it will probably land in India.

By the way iPhone 3GS has not yet launched in India.

Rumour Roundup the Apple Tablet

Related posts:

1. Microsoft’s secret tablet computer

I upgraded to Tatasky+ so i only paid 5000 Rs which was reasonable. They took my old tatasky settop box away.

The installation came as a surprise because i thought, and was told by the customer service that there is no installation. I thought i could just swap the settop box, but that’s not the case.

A red led glows when a recoding is happening.

This is the remote for Tatasky +

Only these buttons are the extra from the regular tatasky +. Just hit the R button to record anything.

The installation guy comes and installs new hardware near the dish and also put a second cable to the dish. He was only just able to put the second cable because of the tight space inside the wall.

So be aware that there is an installtion for this box and it can only be done by a qualified professional. He also calls in to activate the service one the installtion is finished. So don’t think you can do the installtion.

Now the good part, once you paid for the box and the annual package. You can start using the service.

Before i begin once you use the service you will never go back to normal tv ever again.

Here are the feature of the device

Record Tv (You can record two channels at the same time)

Pause Tv (You can pause any channel you are watching and rewind back upto 45 minutes or the moment your started watching the channel which ever is higher)

Record Tv

You can record up to 30 hours of programing. Which is more than a 10 full lenght movies. Once you set the hard disk management to automatic, it will automatically delete the old show and keep recording the new once you choose.

Only settings you can change for tatasky + plus are these shown above.

You can schedule recording up to two days in advance.

You can record two channels at the same time. And watch another recording while this is going on.

When you are playing a recording a blue led light circles around the round dial on the set-top box

You can even set series link which automatically records a show every week or every day. But this feature is not supported on all channels. Only few of them have this feature, but really useful when it works.

The info bar show the time remaining in the recording while playing back, when you press info button.

You can even fast forward the recorded shows to skip ad’s or the boring parts.

Pause Tv

You can pause any channel you are watching it automatially buffere up to 45 minutes or whenever you started watching the show. You can change this in the settings menu.

This indicates how far behind you are from the live Tv.

Once you get to know all the features and start using them, you will really love your tatasky+. Now i can’t imagine watching tv without a Tatasky+.

Here is a Trick to do a slow motion on tatasky+. Pause the recording and then click forward button to do slow motion, this is not in the manual.

Its priced around 9000 Rs if you are not a Tatasky subscriber. But well worth the price.

I really recommend you get one, it will change your life style enormously.

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2. Sun brings Hd to India
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HTC Hero

Its and andriod phone with HTC’s own customization.

So far from all the videos i have seen of it, i am loving it.

Go here for the spec of HTC Hero

It is expected to be priced around 30000 Rs in India when it launches.

LG BL40 (Chocolate)

This is the new chocolate phone from LG. Its looks really amazing in design and ui. Watch the official teaser of this phone from LG.

G BL40 Chocolate will run on the latest S-Class interface, sporting an extraordinary 4″ touchscreen display with cinema aspect ratio of 21:9 and a resolution of 800×345 pixels. With a waistline of only 10.9mm, the LG BL40 will also have a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G support.

Go here for the spec of LG BL40

No launch date has been set so far but it will also be priced around the 30000 Rs mark.

Palm Pre

This is palm’s answer to iphone. It has a wonderful operating system and design. But the multimedia capabilities are the one that are bothering me a bit. But i love the design of the phone and the ui.

Go here for the spec of Palm Pre

It will also be priced around 30000 Rs.

Mobile phone scene has never been this interesting.

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Here are some of the reasons i shifted to Aircel from Airtel.

1. No roaming charges in south India for states like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu

2. Triple the recharge amount. For example if i recharge for 300 Rs i will get 900 Rs, talk time of 300 Rs for std calls and 600 Rs for local calls. The calling charges are as per other carriers 1 rupee per minutes. This could be an introductory offer but still nice.

This is the big one for me

3. 98 Rs for unlimited internet for 30 days  or one month.

This is the cheapest rate any carrier is offering for unlimited for one month. Airtel were offering for some time but they have stopped unlimited offerings all together.

So i have changed my Sim to Aircel and its working perfectly with my iphone.

Here are some the things you should know about using it on iphone.

Gprs Settings for Aircel on Iphone

You have to put in the gprs settings for the internet to work. To do that on iphone go to settings-general-network-cellular data network and there type APN as “aircelgprs”. Leave the user name and passwords as blank.

And it will start working, if it doesn’t restart your phone and try again.

Other numbers of Aircel

To check balance type *125#

To get more detailed call report dial 123

To get to the call center dial 121

So far loving the service, the gprs speeds are on par with other providers. I was going to get Bsnl 3G Sim but they are charging nearly 3000 Rs for unlimited usage. So for now i will stick with Aircel.

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I know many can’t afford iphone in India. So here are other touch phones that are a but easier on the wallet that are available in India.

Even though none of the are as good as the iphone, they are still better than non touch screen phones.

The cheapest one starts at around 6500 Rs and is called Ray T65 and look really interesting.

Read this to know more about Touch screen phones for every budget with their prices & features

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