GPRS Packs by Different 2G Operators: Pack Value & Rs/GB

** Rs indicated the data pack value and Rs/GB means how much the operators are charging per GB according to the pack value.

** Note that data packs can be revised any time by the operators.

Bob 'Saswata' Biswas As Moneylender?

If you love, like or scare of Bob Biswas, you must know who is the dude acted as Bob - he is none other than Saswata Chatterjee, Apu-da of Bengali film industry.

After this contract killer + LIC agent dual role in Kahaani, Saswata is turning into moneylender (mahajan) in Manoj Michigan’s comedy Damadol. 


I got this pic of Bob's new avatar on Telegraph India T2 (March 28, 2012 Edition). 
The article was published in a T2 with Saswata's photo, while the website does not showcase him. Anyway I grabbed his new avatar from e-paper version of Telegraph (which is damn slow, often non-responsive to my mouse clicks and so on!)

Well this is the actual content from Telegraph:

CHIP Forum is Now Tech2 Forum: RIL Link?

If you are technology, computer and internet enthusiast you must heard about CHIP magazine. Basically I was re-born to computer geek due to CHIP and Digit tech mag.

Tech2 came to my life in later time, it was a tech site dedicated to Indian audience. For me it is not so popular, but I visited it sometimes for the contests, which I never won. That time it was tech.com, later it was revamped and URL is changed to tech2.in.com - because of the link with in.com.

It should be noted that in.com is launched by Network18. Please visit the wikipedia page of Network18 and you will be wondered about Network18. CHIP is a product of Infomedia18, which is print mag face of Network18. So overall CHIP and Tech2 is just opposite sides of a coin. Now online forum of CHIP - http://www.chip.in/forums/ is now merged with Tech2 Forum.

Order Cancellation on Bata & Pepperfry: How Did They React?

Recently two orders by mine were cancelled over Bata.in and Pepperfry.com. In both cases these were the respective first order from them. I am sharing my experiences on these two sites. Just read it and I will explain why Pepperfry.com gets a +1 !

I snap +1 from Pepperfry.com , it is now pending ! 

Bhooter Bhobishyot - Simply Awesome

For last 2 years Bengali films are getting back to the previous golden era, though commercial copy-paste films are also releasing along with these true Bengali films.

Bhooter Bhobishyot is another googly by Anik Datta.. 

It is enjoyable ghost comedy with some satire at places, a must watch for everyone. The movie can be a tribute to Ray, but the ensemble cast did it marvelously along with superbly crafted script! 

Dhritiman Chatterjee - A New Face of Filmy Bad Boys

Just back at home after watching Agent Vinod, I feel that Dhritiman Chatterjee is a new face of bad boys in Indian films (Hindi and Bengali). He is different from the league of bad boys like Amresh Puri, Gulshan Grover. He has definitive manly voice and can add a smooth chilling cold to it, so appeal is more.

Dhritiman was a discovery by Satyajit Ray, as he debuted in Ray's Pratidwandi in 1971. Later he appeared in other films of Ray.

Bob Biswas - a Cult in Making?

"Nomoshkar. Ami Bob Biswas. Ek minute."

.... Dhikkaw!!!

foto credit - MissMalini

It seems Saswata Chatterjee's character Bob Biswas is turning into a cult classic.

In Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani Bob Biswas is a character who is a L.I.C. agent but at the same time he is a cold blooded contract killer. Though the screen space was small for the character, the act by Saswata who was most of the time under-rated actor in industry, was extra ordinary and appeals everyone.

There's no psychopathic laughter. No twitching. No punch dialogue. He is the friendly neighbourhood hired assassin. He is Bob Biswas.  [via facebook.com/ekminute]

Already on Twitter there are two accounts

Google Wave Service to be Turned off on April 30, 2012

On March 21, 2012 I got a mail from wave-noreply@google.com with the subject: Reminder, Google Wave Sunsetting in 2012.

This is the official mail from Google to end its Wave project which many took as a next level of forum. But these days Google closed most of its Lab products and they are more concentrated in Social Networking. Google is trying hard to be a gem in SNS market, but still not so successful except Orkut was popular in India and Brazil.

Ex-employee who left Microsoft in 2009 and joined

On Hurry? Give Offline Stores A Try!

Shopping from online sellers are a tricky one. It saves your time a lot, you can order stuffs even at 3 AM of a day. But sometimes whole thing can turn to a nightmare to you, if you are not an tanned shopper.

Recently I made a blog post saying bookmywish did give me a pleasant shopping experience, this site is not that cool compared to pepperfry.com but at the end of the day I got the ordered stuffs delivered quickly. And that's thing people want - A good delivery chain.

But these sites often do not mention their servicable area, and further often they ship with some local couriers and all these lead to break the trust of the customer. Even Flipkart who has the best delivery chain can turn into a horrible shopping experience.

Now I had some issues

Samsung Galxy Pocket - Champ with Android Inside?

Smartphone market is booming in India, though late but it is happening. But 3G is not the factor behind this happening, rather people buy a 3G enabled smartphone but do not opt for 3G.

Today I came across an article by Economics Times saying that Samsung is coming up with cheaper smartphones in India.

Samsung already flooded the market here with its Galaxy branded Android smartphones - a lot of them are below 15K INR like Galaxy 3, G5, G Ace, G Min/Pop, G Y, G Y Pro, G Y Duos, G Ace 2. But the worst part is Samsung is not withdrawing older models nor these models get a price cut. Say for example Galaxy 3 - one of the popular economic Android device in 2011 is still selling at 8K. This phone has a 667 MHz processor while new Galaxy Y comes with 832 MHz processor and priced at 7.5K.

BSNL 3G Speedtest 2

This is my second BSNL 3G speedtest, I checked this one in the morning - offpeak hours, and find that BSNL 3G has no consistency. And ping is too high which affects the smooth browsing.

Few Stuffs I Like to See on Blogger

Earlier I tried to move on to Wordpress. But the time was not appropriate as then I did not have time to make posts, and as usual that bars me to explore wordpress.

After working on Wordpress theme on Telecomtalk.info I feel Blogger misses some things:

1. A good spam filter
2. Blogger does not differentiate tags/levels or categories.
3. Blogger does not offer to edit inappropriate comments dropped by readers.
4. New interface of Blogger sucks as Google messed up GMail UI too. [Even new UI of Wordpress looks better than the previous one]

This is just ridiculous that Blogger can't simple take care of these stuffs.

I am obviously looking forward to move to Wordpress or my own website. While moving to Wordpress requires some technical knowlege and hosting my own site means money - I am still stick to Blogger. With time ahead I will leave Blogger at any cost for sure.

Telegraph featured BBC Sherlock on t2

I watched this new contemporary Sherlock Holmes a months back, it is just awesome. I posted a status on facebook on this new SH.

Yesterday I saw new SH is featured on Telegraph India's entertainment supplementary T2. Then I feel to post on this new 21st century avatar of old sleuth. Thanks Madhumita Bhattacharyya, to cover this on T2.

When I was watching BBC Sherlock, I felt two things:

Kolkata to be Country's first 4G City - Will Success of 2G Replicate in 4G?

Quiz time !!!

Where were first 2G services launched in India ?
Ans: Kolkata, by Modi Telstra (now Vodafone)


Where were first 3G services launched in India ?
Ans: Delhi by MTNL [Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.]

Now without Kolkata touch 3G is yet to take off. 3G services are costly, and coverage is poor or not authentic be it BSNL or any private players. Also handsets price is also another issue. And in a whole customers did not adopt 3G.

Enter 4G! It is heard that 4G will be commercially available in Kolkata for the first time in India by Airtel. Via @ETTelecom we come to know that Kolkata circle will be managed for TD-LTE by ZTE Corp.

Journey started by 2G is now a grand success, let's see Kolkata Connection can make a success story for 4G services in India or not....

Well to make it success I love to see Muksehs Ambani has to use Monsoon Hungama on 4G too! 

Kolkata is Still Not In Twitter Trends

When I am writing this blog it is 5:19 AM, March 17, 2012. I am kind of disappointed to know that @twi (official twitter account of Twitter India) tweeted a hour ago:

We now have local trends for 6 cities in India! Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai: pic.twitter.com/MXjreNjZ 

And alas! Kolkata is not in the list!!

Why????

Are not people of Kolkata active over twitter? or they tweet without the hashtagKolkata?

Augere's Zoosh: LTE Broadband + Scam + Advances

Augere Holdings is one of the companies who won BWA license and spectrum in India in 2010. It bagged BWA spectrum in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh (1 circle only).

Voice and Data reported that Augere is targetting 4G launch in July, 2012. Roll out of Zoosh broadband will be started with Indore followed by Bhopal and then Raipur.  

Founded in 2007 Augere is a wireless broadband business company with a vision of 'Broadband for All' and focused to bring affordable broadband to Asia and Africa. In Asia Augere is already present in India's neighbor countries - Pakistan and Bangladesh. Augere is present there under 'Qubee' [Qubee Pakistan, Qubee Bangladesh] since 2009 and offers wireless broadband using WiMAX technology.

Augere is headed by Sanjiv Ahuja, former CEO of Orange. Principal shareholders of Augere include Harbinger Capital, France

e-Commerce in India: Roadblocks & My Story

e-Commerce is booming in India. Some died prematurely like Taggle, while some left the market and came back powerfully like BigAdda. Well from my aspect e-commerce boom is just started and it has to go long distance.

What are the road blocks for e-Commerce in India?

Shopping on bookmywish.com [positive feedback]

Ordered some stuffs on BookMyWish on March 9 and got delivered on March 15. 

Delivery in 6 working days! Good one!

Email 1: Order Confirmation on March 9
Email 2: Order will be shipped on March 12

Email 1 has a link for checking your order status and there you can check time of shipment, name of courier company and the tracking code.

However the shipment was done on March 13 via DTDC and got delivered at my home on March 15.

Conclusion: It was a pleasant shopping experience with bookmywish.com! Pricing is good overall and shipping + packaging is good! 

via email!

BWA in India: 4G, LTE, WiMAX, HSPA+

BSNL 3G - Hands On Review

BSNL 3G - Review

BSNL was the second operator in India to roll out 3G services. Currently it has pan India 3G coverage as users can roam on MTNL's 3G network in Mumbai and Delhi with no extra charge for data usage.

Hands On: Huawei Mobile Partner v23

Right now I am using BSNL3G with Huawei's new stylish Mobile Partner ver 23 [Huawei E1550]. Among all skins I like funkystaan most! (check the screenshot above)

Huawei India - Contact, Support, Mobile Partner v23

China-grown Huawei Technologies is a reputed telecom vendor offering CDMA & GSM phones and data card in India.

Huawei Device India - http://www.huaweidevice.co.in/
Huawei Device India Facebook Page -  http://www.facebook.com/HuaweiIndia
Huawei Device Forum
Huawei Youtube Channel

Contact Us Page of Huawei India

Virgin Mobile India GSM - New FRC for Kolkata

Though I am not sure about is it a new plan for new customers or it is another promotional offer, but Virgin Mobile India comes up with a new FRC for its new GSM customers. You can remember that Virgin is not too keen to keep offering CDMAservices.

* Virgin Mobile India (VMI)'s GSM services are based on Tata Docomo's GSM network.

Promotional offer for new customers of VMI GSM:

Daily Deals of Tradus, Infibeam, Indiaplaza, Timtara, Naaptol, Saholic

There are many sites like SnapDeal, Rediff's Deal ho jaye, Indiatimes' Times Deal , Crazeal which offer city based daily deals or hourly deals, and these are the only ones which I can remember at time of writing, there are more than 30 similar sites, but here I am listing the deal of day links of various reputed/well known e-commerce sites in India.

Tradus - Deal of the day
Infibeam - Magic Box
Indiaplaza - Daily Deals
Saholic - Best Deals
Timtara - Special Offer
Naaptol - Hot Deals
mGinger - Deals

This is it! I do not find more links apart of these ones, if you find such deal links please comment on!

My Tribute to Rahul 'The Wall' Dravid

Well I know that I am late! But it is said 'better late than never'. I must say my tribute to Rahul Dravid who was one of my childhood hero.

I knew it is coming any day, as that golden team of Sachin-Sourav-Rahul had been broken down a long time ago.

Almost 2 years ago, I favorited a tweet by Rajdeep Sardesai -  sachin maybe god, but in the hindu pantheon, there are many gods. so also in cricket. rahul is god-like too.

I got it over facebook posted by fakingnews: All those born in late 70's or in early '80s, if Rahul Dravid didn't make you feel old today, you are not a cricket fan.

It is so fucking true!!

Rahul Dravid reflects an india that is honourable, ethical. hardworking and thoughtful. (And, he was a genius). Thank you, Rahul. Thank you.

— Rahul Bose, actor and Indian rugby player 

End of an era, Rahul Sarad Dravid retired!

If you can read Bengali, read Goutam Bhattacharya's report on Anandabazar.
Link 1 - Link 2 - Link 3 - Link 4

Infibeam - A Case Study [Siblings & Unique Visitors]

When I posted Flipkart is Cheapest - I mentioned that Infibeam is rising. Now after the consolidation of Flipkart & Letbuy (it is more than just buy-out of Letsbuy by Flipkart), it seems that this move was unavoidable.

Infibeam is not just a single e-commerce site of India. It has many sister sites selling stuffs at a competitive price range.

As you can remember Infibeam has tied up with Ananda Publishers, a part of Anandabazar Group which is one of largest Bengali publishing companies

Test

Blogging via email! :]

MobiKwik - A Pleasant Surprise [Online Mobile Recharge]

Since I got the taste of ease of online transaction I started buying books, electronics over e-commerce sites. During my days with experiencing Reliance EVDO I often was out of balance and that time I felt the need of online mobile recharge. My first choice was PayTm because of its neat interface while MobiKwik, from where I got some free coupons via Telecomtalk.info, seems kind of confusing interface which led me to use PayTm.

I am using Debit Card and both of the sites use CCAvenue which was slow previously and recently it has turned fast :)

India's Concept Car Tata Megapixel

Tata Group is a multinational company with heart Indian! Tata Motors which stormed the motor market with Rs 1 lakh Nano, is now come up with a new concept car.

Well Nano was jerked with some land issues in West Bengal which forced political hand over in the state and helped Gujarat to be brand Gujarat !

International Women's Day - Google Doodle + Extra

This is the Google Doodle to celebrate International Women's Day 2012. 

Incidentally today is India's colorful festival Holi also!! 

Get some extra today - differences between Man and Woman :)

WHO'S WHO: If Laura, Suzanne, Debra and Rose go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Suzanne, Debra and Rose. If Mike, Charlie, Bob and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

Happy Holi & Happy Women's Day 2012

PotPlayer - Best Media Player at Recent Time

If you are still using KMPlayer, time to move on! 


It is PotPlayer time!!

KMP or Korean Multimedia Player was appeared in the market in 2002, developed by Kang Yong-Huee. 
In August 2007, KMP was sold to Pandora TV, a Korean video streaming company. The buy-out helped the developer continue his work to KMP, this also supports the forum and hosting etc cost.


I got to know about KMP in around 2008 and during this time KMP rocked! I recommended my friends to use it. KMP has a better interface and file handling than VLC, Media Player Classic or GOM player. 


Basically KMP did end my search for the best media player in   Windows. 


That time I had a portable player, MPlayer portable, but sad it is the portable version of MPlayer does not work on Win7. 


And I installed jetAudio from Cowon for audio playback. Cowon, which I recommend for mp3 player or portable multimedia player has the best audio player with plenty of features. jetAudio is too good.


However, I am not sure, but I guess after KMP v 2.9.3.14xx the original developer left KMPlayer. Or may be he left already but only minor updates on the original build was made by PandoraTV developers. These updates being minor was not hampering my need. 

2G Mess - My Opinion

After a long time I am able to write down my thoughts regarding this 2G mess/scam! These are the stuffs I feel those were done wrongfully!

Apart from these 2G mess there are some problems of telecom which have to be taken of as soon as possible. Because spectrum is scarce.

EVDO Coverage of Tata, MTS, Reliance in Kolkata & WB

EV-DO is the 3G/HSPA equivalent of CDMA technology. Due to some technical reasons CDMA carriers of India can not utter 'EVDO' term for their high speed data services (HSD or High Speed Internet Access/HSIA). But EVDO is very much developed in India and gave us the taste of wireless broadband before 3G from GSM players set in.

All these private players offer EVDO Rev A - max downlink 3.1 Mbps and max uplink 1.8 Mbps.

PSU - BSNL West Bengal and Calcutta Telephones offer EVDO but there is no definite list of the coverage.

TV Release Group Dump Xvid, I Support

I am a BitTorrent user since 2005, and from around 2006 I find that .mkv files offer better quality than .avi releases. Later as I turned more tech geek, found the advantages of X264 over XVID/DIVX codecs. DivX is already abandoned by BitTorrent release groups.

I asked desi releasers - DDR and XRG to rip in .mkv format for small size and better quality. But what they told that many users watch these rips on their DVD players which are not x264 supported and hence they have to keep releasing xvid rips. I also found that DDR is releasing same release in two versions - x264 and xvid for the convenience of the users but x264 rips go to only private trackers. That is not a big problem for me as I am member of most of the desi torrent groups.