Chromium Variant Browsers

When I was first introduced to internet, that was over a mere 128kbps cyber cafe. Later when I moved to use internet on home, that was dial up - just 40kbps. The hunt of better browser was started that day and I soon ditched that faggot oldie Internet Explorer.

Firefox was my first of few browsers I tried that time. I also understand some browsers like Avant and Maxthon were better than IE though both are using IE's Trident engine. But when Opera goes free, I find that it is best in terms of speed and customerization.

However in 2008 Google introduced Chrome, a browser based on Chromium project, which itself uses WebKit engine. From world's most popular search engine to a software giant, Google has seen Chrome's aggressive growth across world.

Currently there are several browsers based on Chrome on Windows, and many more on MacOS and Android.

Google Chrome

Chromium Portable
Comodo Dragon
Torch
CoolNovo
SRWare Iron
RockMelt
BlackHawk
Qupzilla
Maxthon
Epic Browser by Indian firm Hidden Reflex
Opera (from 15+)
Brave
Vivaldi - www.vivaldi.com
Blisk 
Microsoft EDGE - from Jan 2020. 

All Stuffs About MTS 3GPLUS and MBLAZE ULTRA

MTS India, the Indian telecom service provider of Russian Sistema has launched its next generation high speed data network in 9 circles where it's operating.

Why is 3GPlus?

MTS is already offering EVDO Rev B Phase II services in Rajasthan circle under MBlaze Ultra or simply Ultra brand name. So why does it create hype with 3GPlus? The reason is pretty simple. Due to regulatory issues CDMA operators can not say EVDO as 3G technology, that's a problem in marketing their HSD services against GSM operators' 3G/WCDMA/UMTS/HSPA services.

But MTS got the unified license, so that there is no technology restriction. That's why now they can say EVDO as 3G.

October 2013: Reliance 3G Speedtest in Barrackpore, West Bengal

Though I did Reliance 3G speedtests earlier in early 2011, I did this to check Reliance's network congestion after the company rolled out 3G@2G plans. I was using 1GB data plan for Rs 123.

I used several servers - some Indian and some overseas. Reliance showed awesome results with most Indian servers, while the overseas servers get good enough performance. 

How to check 3G data balance: send MBAL to 55333. You will get instant notification with remaining data usage details.

Top Rated Bengali Blogs

আমার মাঝে মাঝে বেশ জমিয়ে বাংলাতে ব্লগ লিখতে ইচ্ছা করে। সফটওয়্যার তো আছেই - অভ্র কিবোর্ড। কিন্তু অন্য অনেক বাঙ্গালির মতোই আমি কুঁড়ে। তাই আর লেখা হয়না। যদি বলি সময় পাই না তাই লিখি না মিথ্যে কথা বলা হবে। এখন অভ্র তেই টাইপ করছি - দেখলাম যে ভুল বানান গুলো অভ্র নিজেই ঠিক করে দিচ্ছে, কাজেই বাংলাতে টাইপ করাটা এখন কিছুই না! Unicode support থাকলে বাংলাতে টাইপ করা বা পোস্ট করা কোন ব্যাপারই না। অনেক সাইট/ব্লগ এভাবেই চলছে।

অনেকদিন আগে আমি আনন্দবাজারের ওয়েবসাইট এ ইউনিকোড সাপোর্ট না পেয়ে একটা ব্লগ পোস্ট করেছিলাম। তার কদিন বাদেই দেখলাম আনন্দবাজার এর ইউনিকোড সাপোর্ট সহ একটা প্রক্সি সাইট মার্কেট এ চলে এসেছে। ... যদিও পরে আনন্দবাজার নিজেরাই ইউনিকোড সাপোর্টেট সাইট লঞ্চ করে। 

Recently আমি বেশ কিছু বাংলা সাইট এর সংস্পর্শে এসেছি। প্রায় সবকটিই bookmark করে রাখার মত। কিছু সাইট আছে সেগুলো বাংলাতে নয় তবুও কোন না কোন কারণে ফাটাফাটি।

http://my.anandabazar.com/blog
http://bongpen.net/


আপাতত আমি এই ব্লগ পোস্ট টা publish করে দিচ্ছি, পরে আবার আপডেট করব। 

Google Chromebooks Arrives in India - But Stay Away from it !

Finally Google let the dogs out in India. I mean the Chromebooks. First launched in 2011, Chromebooks are the laptop run on Chrome OS. There will be two models - Acer C720 Chromebook and the HP Chromebook 14, from October 17 these will be available in Croma and Reliance Digital stores as well as on online sellers like Filpkart.

Why you should not buy a Chromebook in India?

Aircel, Tata and Sistema (MTS) in Talks to Create 3rd Largest Operator

In a surprise move to Indian telecom industry it has been reported that country’s three mobile operator – Aircel, Tata Docomo and MTS India (SistemaShyam) are in talks to merge into single entity. Though the talks are in early stage and three-way merger could be complicated as Govt is yet to bring the M&A policy for Indian telecom.

As reported by Economics Times if the deal materializes, it would be a game changer for the market as the merger entity will account for 15.5% of market share and spot itself in the 3^rd position ahead of Reliance Communications (14.4%) and Idea Cellular (14.3%). Currently Airtel holds 21.86% and Vodafone holds 17.75% market share. However Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance enjoys more than 80% active subscriber base, while the merger entity can have only 65% active subscribers.

#SpamAlert: Text Messages Lead to Spam Email

Recently I suffered from a Spam attack via Text Message and E-Mail. I am sharing the whole thing, and want my readers be safe.

​

Got this message on 05/05/2013, 03:08 AM, from  7503499716

There is a matter that requires your urgent attention which we cannot talk over the phone. Email me on: pr9jk@live.com immediately for details of it.Thank you.

I thought it was someone else, and I sent a mail to the email id.

​

On May 6, 2013 8:02 PM, "Mr. Sung Woo Kim" <pr9jk@live.com> wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am so happy to see your email now and I pray you will be kind enough to read through the email and do as I will ask you to do. I did not know of a way to reach someone from your country and I had to seek the services of a human resource consultancy firm who promised to get me a reliable person from India. My name is Sung Woo Kim and I am from Korea but presently living in Thailand where I do business as an exporter of rice to some European countries. I met with Kamlesh Jain who was from your country in 1998 and in the same year we got married. However, she died three years later during her first pregnancy as a result of complications encountered at child birth. Unfortunately, the baby was lost as well but I put my trust in God. I have done this business for over 11 years now and God has really blessed me through it and I am grateful to Him even in my sick bed.

Presently, I am suffering from hematological malignancy, a cancer that has eaten up my blood cells and bone marrow. I have taken all medical steps to more than nine different highly rated hospitals here and abroad and no solution could be offered to treat the sickness. I have been battling with this sickness for more than four years now and the doctors have now confirmed that I have less than two months to live. I need your help and urgently at that to put a smile on my face before I die. You may be wondering what kind of help you will offer a dying man.

Please, I want you to help me reach out to the poor and destitute children, the aged who cannot afford food and good health care in your country. I did not have the opportunity to visit your country because of the death of my wife who I loved so much. She said a lot of good things about your country, about the people and above all the kind of suffering and hardship the greater number of people live with. We are not together now but I still love her and love her people and therefore want to use the little money I am leaving behind to put smiles on the faces of the poor children and the aged from her country. I have the sum of five million, thirty four thousand US dollars (US$5,034,000) deposited with a bank here which I want to use for this last charitable work of mine.

Since I cannot reach out to these people myself considering my state of health, I have decided to offer you the task of doing this service for me, your status does not matter to me as long as you can do what I have asked you to do. My relatives and friends have wasted so much of my wealth since my illness and I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this last and important responsibility to any of them again. This is how you should apportion the money. 70% of the money should go to homeless and suffering children and the aged. If there are charity homes for these people, you can split and distribute the money to them. Let it be used solely to improve the lives of suffering children and the aged while the remaining 30% will be for you for carrying out this task for me. Doing this is the only thing that can put a smile on my face before I die or while in my grave.

If you are willing and capable of doing this, you are to give me the following information about yourself:

Full Names:
Residential Address:
Age:
Phone No:

As soon as I receive your reply I shall write my lawyer and authorize her to take all the necessary steps to make the money available to you without delay since I have already given her all the documents relating to the deposit. If you are not willing and capable of handling this, also inform me so I can still ask the consultancy firm to get someone else for me. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Sung Woo Kim.

FreeCultr - Good Stuffs Inside, Dellivers in 2-3 Days/ How to Track Javas

Recently I jumped into FreeCultr.com - a online shopping site for clothes for men and women. Till now I ordered twice - both times for men garments only. Quality is good, soft, cotton for every day use. Delivery was done in 2-3 days. I rate it 4.5/5.

Freecultr is a brand, which is sold by Snapdeal, Jabong and others. But over its official site there are huge discount on Henlys and 50% discount on your lucky size.

Annoying OTA Ads by GiONEE Smartphones

Android pushed smartphone usage to a level, where people are just pushed to use it for many reasons. And for some reasons it's always nice to get Over-The-Air (OTA) update on your phone. OTA means you don't have to connect your handset to a PC/Mac; just download the essential packages over phone's WiFi/Mobile Internet and get it updated.

Most Indian handset manufacturers like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn etc don't offer OTA update on their handsets. (Does Micromax even offer Android version update to any of their smartphones, apart from Canvas ones?) Lava offers, but to get the update you have to visit Lava's service centers.

Anyway GiONEE, a new handset company, directly from China has been launched in India, and they have some quite-good smartphones under their portfolio, and they offer OTA update on them.

GiONEE misuse the OTA feature and they push advertisement over OTA. Most of them are irritating, showing over the drop-down menu. Check the screenshots.

4G India: Reliance Jio, Tikona, Google, Airtel

Airtel may roll out 4G services in Delhi in next 1-2 months.

Google may buy stakes in Tikona Digital Networks via its subsidiary. Tikona won 4G/BWA spectrum in 5 circles. Market rumor is Google is competing with Yahoo and Microsoft in the deal

After Govt come up with Unified licensing - Reliance Jio and another 2 companies have been applied for the unified license.

LG to Deploy MediaTek's Triple SIM Technology in Optimus Smartphones in Emerging Markets - My Take

Continuing the effort to bring most suitable mobile technology for emerging markets MediaTek Inc, leading semiconductor company announced the world's first triple-SIM technology for smartphones.

LG Electronics already partners with MediaTek for the triple SIM technology - it has launched triple SIM Optimus L4II in Brazil. Brazil, another emerging country has shown the interest in multi-SIM smartphones.

3G Triple-SIM technology allows for three SIM cards to be used simultaneously - ach can receive calls, transmit data, send SMS messages and remain in standby mode concurrently without consuming excessive battery life.

A key feature of the 3G Triple-SIM solution is its high level of stability, which prevents the occurrence of dropped or poor-quality calls, and reaffirms MediaTek's reputation as the leading producer of multi-SIM chipset technologies.

MTS India : Codes & Helpline Numbers

* Applicable in Kolkata & WB.
These numbers may work in other circles too, but check with customer care.

• Know your SPECIAL OFFER before recharging MTS Mblaze.SMS MYOFFER space(eg: MYOFFER 91XXXXXXXX) n send it to 9153551555 from ur alternate number
• Travelling outstation? Find hotels and restaurants near you, get a convenience, Find Cabs Also. Simply dial 54422 from your MTS Mobile Toll Free.
• Search for best Mobiles, Computers, Jobs, restaurants, Car, Taxi, Travel, Laptop, household items, Packers & Movers, property etc. Call 54422 TOLL FREE.

MTS HELPLINE [text to 155]
HELP to 155

ACC fr account info
BAL fr balance
VDET fr vas details
SR fr complaint status
PACK fr different packs
M2MP fr onnet packs
LOCALP fr local packs
SMSP fr sms packs
ISDP fr isd packs
BRO fr showrooms
VAS fr value added services
RC fr recharges
DND fr do not disturb

Personal Talk: Windows 8.1, WP8 & Opera 15

I know lots of things regarding housekeeping of personal computers and laptops and my friends often ask me to solve their problems with Windows. I still run Windows XP on my 7-year old desktop and my lappy runs on Windows 7 (I skipped Win Vista completely); sometimes I install Ubuntu on the laptop and often it is removed soon after specially due to its poor multimedia support comes by default.

However for last 1 month I found that a lot of people (mostly of my college friends and medical professionals) are buying laptops with Windows 8 and the real problem starts here. These guys do believe in brands and to them Sony and Dell are the choice of laptops while they never heard of Asus, Acer or Lenovo. Don't call me faggot as I spend time with these tech-retards!

Advantages & Disadvantages of BSNL’s ADSL broadband & Cable Broadband Services

This table was actually made long time back, I found it on my old writings. However I find this is good one to share. That’s why it is posted.  

 Broadband is going to be a basic need for people, though most people in India like the mobile broadband it is the wireline broadband that can really push the boundaries.  

In Kolkata for last 2-3 years some local ISP are providing services, like Alliance, Meghbela, Citi Cable, WishNet, Get Broadband, Kailash etc. There is similar trend in other cities too like in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc, Hyderabad has Beam Broadband, Bengaluru has RailTel.    

Here go advantages & disadvantages of BSNL’s ADSL broadband & Cable Broadband services:
 

BSNL Broadband	Cable Broadband (Meghbela, Alliance etc)
ADSL/VDSL/Fiber (in few areas)	Cable
Wide coverage	Area wise coverage in pockets
Dynamic IP for home users Everytime you connect, IP changes Disconnect > Reconnect = Good for downloading from file hosting sites	Static IP One IP is allotted for your PC No such advantages
Hack prone, your username & password can be leaked and used by others.	Username-password may require, but MAC address verification means it can not be hacked.
Just plug the RJ-45 cord from modem to laptop or PC, and set up dial up connection. You are ready to connect.	As LAN card’s MAC address is required for authentication, whenever you want switching not possible just that way, Best is to use a WiFi router.
Sometimes disconnection problem persists	Such issues are almost nil.
Unlimited plans sucks bigtime as BSNL wants to follow Airtel Broadband	Most of them are unlimited plans + night speed upgrade + Peering speed starting from 5 Mbps to ~80Mbps
Customer care over the phone sucks. Local exchanges can be a help if officials are good.	CC over phone may be good. But service depends on local cable walas. Make good rapport with them to get good services

Access Free Twitter on Desktop [on Reliance 3G]

Trick is simple!

Use mobile.twitter.com instead of www.twitter.com on your browser.

Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1 [Factory Seconds from Gobol.in]

Model Name	Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1
Camera Type	Ultracompact Digital
Resolution	12.1 MP
Optical Zoom	5x
Optical Sensor	CCD, 1 /2.33”
Image Stabilizer	Optical
Warranty	Factory Seconds, 6 months Seller’s Warranty
Gobol Price	Rs 4280

   
If you don’t know about Gobol.in, let me introduce it. Gobol.in is just another Indian e-commerce site, but unique in its offerings. It sells factory seconds or refurbished electronics at heavy discount and with warranty from manufacturer or from the seller side.  

I earlier reviewed Samsung Galaxy S 3 – a refurbished unit from Gobol.in. This time they sent me a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1 – a compact digicam.

Reliance Jio Infocomm - Updates #4 [Jio to use Rcom's OFC network]

Continuing from 3rd post on Reliance Industries owned Jio Infocomm's 4G launch....

Outlook discusses all aspects of RJIL. 

GroundData discusses Jio's giant plans to launch 4G in India

Sandip Das to join RJIL - Telecomlead

Sandip Das - the start up man
How Reliance Jio will leverage Maxis’ mobile data success through Sandip Das - TelecomLead

3G4G.in details issues to be faced by RJIL to roll out 4G voice.

Ambani Brothers Reunited - RJIL to use RCom's OFC network in India.

Coverage by
LightReading,  
Voice&Data,  
Voice&Data Analysis,    
BGR India,    
Telecomtalk,    
TelegraphIndia,    
WSJ,  
EconomicsTimes,  
ET-2nd Coverage,   
TimesofIndia,  
Reuters,  
MoneyControl,  
Medianama,  
3G4G

Following the passive infra sharing deal between Jio and Rcom, ET suggests DoT should open to spectrum sharing too. 

The deal between Reliance Jio and Rcom is very big and with wide importance for both of the companies. The deal was announced by Rcom as it informed Bombay Stock Exchange. Rcom owns huge OFC network across India which gives Jio headstart to kick off 4G services in India.

Sanjay Mashruwala Is Reliance Jio Infocomm MD by EconomicsTimes

Reliance Jio may hire as many as 32,000 towers from Reliance Infratel, the tower conpany under Reliance Communications, as reported by IndiaToday.

VoLTE - the next leap, Voice&Data

Medical Websites & Forum Listings

Though I generally don't post medical stuffs over my blog, as on this field there are many people who know stuffs better than me. However I am to list the websites as well the forums where you can get your MBBS and post-graduation study stuffs, tips, ebooks easily.

RxPG
It has wide coverage including a Wikipedia page.
The homepage is http://www.rxpgonline.com/
the forum link is: http://www.rxpgonline.com/forums.html

AcrossPG - has wide network
Exam page: http://www.exams.acrosspg.com/
Forum: http://forum.acrosspg.info/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AcrossPG
Jobs: http://medicaljobs.acrosspg.com/
Blog: http://prepgindia.blogspot.in/

AIPPG.com
http://www.aippg.net/forum/forum.php *down*
Can not pass comment, but might be it was good before NEET saga.

TargetStudy
http://targetstudy.com/

studytemple.com
Another forum for medical students, now packs other fields like engineering, biology, various competitive exams and others. Medical forum was ok, now not so good.

FeedUrBrain
http://www.feedurbrain.com/forum/forum.php
There is a medical section - it's great for USMLE!

MedicalGeek   // seems *down*
http://www.medicalgeek.com/forum.php
Once very active, now bit slowed down. Good for undergraduate students as it has quite good stuffs (though many links are broken over there)

MedxForum *down*
http://medxforum.com/vb/forum.php
Forum is active, posts various staffs with recent advancements.

CafeMedico *down*
http://cafemedico.net/forums/ - another forum in town!

PG Blazer - Blaze your way towards a medical PG seat!
http://pgblazer.com/
These one delivers all updates on India's post graduation medical exams and others.

Ebooks
http://mediepedia.blogspot.in/
Great source of new e-books, frequently updated.

drnajeeblectures.com
If you are looking for video lectures, this site is for you. Though Dr. Najeeb has some video over youtube, it is not FREE, comes for $99 for 2 years (1year + free 1 year). I personally checked some videos Dr. Najeeb is nice to clear your concepts.
** Over torrent there is a collection of Dr. Najeeb's lecture, you can download for free. Size: 95 GB

Explore: https://www.drbeen.com/
I am yet to explore. But this one is promoted as 'Medical Netflix'. 

www.mbbsdost.com
Not exactly a forum or website, rather a online center for MCQ, test for NEET. Most services are paid. Have a facebook page*.

* The fb app of this website, has a bad habit, to post pictures on your behalf. Please take care (don't allow the permissions while installing it on facebook)


Medical Council of India


----------------------------------------------------------------------
NOT WORKING ANYMORE !! #RIP

https://sites.google.com/site/rahulshetty872/books - had good collection, but links are not working.
mdebooks.blogspot.in - last updated in 2008, links are invalid
gigapedia.org - once my fav site to search ebooks, now the website removed.
usmle-download-zone.blogspot.in - removed
medical-ebooks-download.blogspot.in - removed
usmle-downloads.blogspot.in - zero post

PagalGuy (PG) - http://www.pagalguy.com/
Not truly for medical students, actually for MBA students, but if you like to do MBA after MBBS you can take a chance here. Forum: http://www.pagalguy.com/forums/

------------------------------------------


NOTE: THIS POST IS PUBLISHED WITH MY PERSONAL R&D. IF YOU KNOW MORE SITES SIMILAR IN NATURE, PLEASE SHARE THEM BY DROPPING A COMMENT.

Am Frustrated to Keep AntiVirus Updated!

I generally keep AV in auto update mode, but the problem is on my old low-end PC whenever I start internet connection my Avast! AV takes loads of RAM and it slows down the performance, specially if I am about to run Opera, Chrome or Firefox. Also I hate Avast!'s sudden voice that says it has been updated.

So I put Avast! AV in no update mode, no big deal for me, as I know what I am doing with my computer.

But whenever I try to update it manually, even with very high speed connection (upto 7.2 Mbit/s) it takes hell of a time and keeps loads of RAM occupied. Only solution is to download Avast! AV update file from its server in exe package and run it. But it is nearly 50 MB in size, which sucks bigtime.

What I can remember that one of my friends had Kaspersky Internet Security - paid version (now KIS is an utter shit, coming to this point in next para) and what I saw it is always updating its database. Even the computer is 2 hours off, it started saying your KIS is not updated. WTF !!

Now-a-days if people ask me to recommend security software, I don't recommend. I just say I am using Avast! AV, not Internet Security. If you are on genuine Windows get Microsoft Security Essential otherwise choose anything you want. Get paid version of Norton or QuickHeal or whatever free Avast or AVG. Your choice, and you may get fucked up even with all precautions.

Unless you are a porn addict or download shitty programs over torrent or other sites as they free, I don't feel that everyone do not security programs. Best is to shift to Linux. There virus are less, but adware or spyware may be there if you are a jackass. Even on Android there are some badware. One of my close senior told me that people need to be digitally literate, and I also believe so.

Sharing My Android Xp

• It says you are not smart unless you use 3G/WiFi on your smartphone. But with 2G you can do email, facebook and twitter with ease. 3G/4G/WiFi is for those are into video!
• Google Play Store may take long time when I am on 2G :(
• Are you fear about Rooting of your device? Don't worry it is like removing block to access your system32 folder on Windows. Most rooting programs offer unroot - it is necessary if you are going to claim free warranty.
• Vanilla flavor of Android is best on all devices, but don't try launchers on your 512 MB RAM running devices - too slow! Samsung's TouchWiz is ok, just ok on low end devices. 
• If you change your Android devices too frequently, get the .apk (similar to Windows' .exe) from other sites. [Or root your device to get the apk]
• How to get apk files on your rooted device - under mnt/asec or data/app. Recommended app to go this folder and copy to other folder - Root Explorer/Total Commander.

Will be updated!

New Avast! 8 - Looks You Never Had on AntiVirus

I am a long term Avast! Free Antivirus user, and I recommend it to my friends and family as a free AV. Inspite of recent rise of Microsoft Security Essentials on genuine Windows running laptops many of them are old Windows XP users. So Avast! does do a decent job.

Avast! was probably the first AV which has a long history of playing with UI. The first one I used had a media player like UI and there were tons of skins for it. Avast!7 had another cool interface, and the latest one just blows me!

How to Configure Internet Settings on Unlocked MTS MTag Smartphones

If you are looking for cheap, entry-level CDMA Android smartphones, you simply can not ignore MTS India's MTag series. The imported CDMA smartphones are pricey - most of them are over 10,000 bucks. So what if you have decided to burn the pocket less - unlocked MTag smartphones can be your best buy.

Now there are several MTag phones available - MTag Livewire (resistive touch= obsolete), MTag 3.1, MTag 351, MTag 352, MTag 401, MTag 353, MTag 281.

Though MTag 401 and MTag 353 are my choice, till now I didn't find any unlocked variant of them appeared over online - ebay or other sites.

MTS India - Circles & Services [IMAGE MAP]

In the recently concluded auction MTS did pull out from more 3 circles - Mumbai, Maharastra & Goa and Uttar Pradesh East. 

UCWEB - The Issues I Faced

If you are on mobile internet, you probably heard of UCWeb browser. It claims to be the most popular browser in India on mobile front. I used it for around a week and I find it not so good.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (formerly Infotel Broadband) - Updates #3

I am leeching all news updates of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RIL Infotel Broadband) for some months as I am closely following the developments over internet.

Earlier I made two posts, which continue in this post too.

Reliance Infotel - Updates #1
Reliance Infotel - Updates #2

Reliance Infotel Broadband is now Reliance Jio Infocomm - TimesofIndia

Reliance Infotel To Launch Video Ad Network - MediaNama

Reliance is looking for financial services, PoS with differnet banks - MediaNama

Navi Mumbai may get first 4G flavor from Jio Infocomm -  HinduBusiness
Street lamp posts will be added with smaller BTS.

DoT: voice calls are allowed over 4G/LTE with payment of Rs 1650 Crore. Details!

LightReading's 4G updates - Airtel, Aircel, RJI, Videocon, Tikona

Airtel tested voice over LTE/4G in Pune, and planning to rollout services. Airtel also plans to start 4G in ChandiGarh in March 1st week.

Is Mukesh Ambani making a telecom comeback with Reliance Jio? - firstpost

Row over voice services on broadband gets shrill - TheHindu

Mukesh Ambani’s $10-billion telecom foray set to alter telecom order - ETT

$10-billion telecom foray

 Telecom foray will cost Ambani $10 billion, of which RIL has spent about $4 billion in getting licences and on infrastructure development. The company would spend $6 billion in the next three years to launch and stabilize operations. Riding on the success of its deal with BP, the company is eyeing to get the largest foreign direct investment in the country by selling a little over 25% stake in Reliance Jio for $3.5 billion to US-based AT&T, valuing the company at $14 billion — 60% more than the combined market cap of Idea Cellular  ($6.14 billion) and Reliance Communications ($2.4 billion) or 63% of Bharti Airtel's market cap of $22 billion, even before its launch.

Aims to be No. 1

It aims to become India's largest telecommunications player within three years of the launch and to break even by the end of third year. Analysts believe Ambani will definitely change the pecking order in the world's third biggest telecom market as most players are reeling under huge debts amid falling margins . Sunil Mittal got the better of the Ambanis when the latter disrupted the Indian telecom market a decade ago. The jury is out on which way the wind would blow the second time.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm dares GSM players to face competition; denies charges -  ETT

Change Opera Desktop's UserAgent to Any Mobile Browser's!

Opera is my primary browser on my Windows XP, and I carry Opera@USB over several machines along with my bookmarks, notes and other stuffs. There is no problem.

But as I find myself in slow network; and I have to stick to slower 2G network I find that mobile websites load faster. Actually on my Opera's Speed Dial there are mobile facebook and mobile twitter, while my bookmark includes mobile gmail.

The URLs are:
Mobile Facebook: m.facebook.com
Twitter Mobile: mobile.twitter.com
GMail Mobile: m.gmail.com -> reloads to another page, but opens up mobile Gmail.

Now I find that Opera can load these pages easily but as Opera is not everyone's favorite, the UI of these pages are old-aged.

You can change the user agent string on Opera desktop and get the refreshed UI of GMail Mobile or Facebook Mobile.

Just open up: opera:config#UserPrefs|CustomUser-Agent
and put up your favorite mobile browser's user agent.
Don't forget to scroll down and save your settings. Unfortunately you can not save multiple user agents at a time.

How to get the user agent text to insert there?
I got messed up, and Google became my best friend once again! I found this page: http://www.useragentstring.com/pages/Browserlist/ Good collection but there is long list but no details about mobile browsers. :(

Now I find there is website called: http://whatsmyuseragent.com/
Open it with your favorite mobile browser and check out the user agent.


Safari on iPad:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/7B405
as found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent)

Opera Desktop:
Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux i686) Presto/2.12.388 Version/12.12

Google Chrome on Lava IRIS 501:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.0.4; IRIS_501 Build/LAVAIRIS501)
AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Mobile Safari/535.19

UCBrowser on Lava IRIS 501:
JUC (Linux; U; 4.0.4; zh-cn; IRIS_501; 480*800)
UCWEB7.9.0.94/139/444

You can use this useragents, but I think it would be better if you use the useragents from your device.

My personal favorite:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.2.2; Nexus 7 Build/JDQ39) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/18.0.1025.166 Safari/535.19

Why Should You Do This?
1. You are on slow internet - dial up, CDMA 1x or GSM/GPRS/EDGE network.
2. You like to use mobile websites of facebook, twitter, Gmail for faster connectivity, while you are on slow internet
3. You don't like the outdated UI of these websites as it is shown on Opera browser on desktop, and like to get modern UI on the same Opera desktop.

Update: Not very much successful

1. Gmail is showing cool UI, but can not open any mail :(
2. Facebook is cool, but the images are loaded too big - framing the whole display (on my 15.6'' laptop).

Overall: FAILED PROJECT !!

Operator-branded Mobile TV Apps on Android: Digivive vs Apalya

Almost all mobile operators in India have their own branded mobile TV app - on Java at initial stage, and now extended to Android platform also.

I did a look-at on Google Play Store and found that majority of mobile TV apps are made by Digivive Services and Apalya Technologies.

Just check out the screenshots:

Interestingly Idea Cellular has apps from both companies, while BSNL, MTNL and MTS choose Digivive; and Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel have apps from Apalya.

BSNL Kolkata USSD Codes

Send:*123#
Receive:MainBal:Rs 34.26 Validity:May 30 2013.

Send:*123*1#
Your Local SMS STV Bal:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*2#
Receive:Your Natl SMS STV Bal:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*3#
Receive:Your STD OnNet Balance:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*4#
Receive:Your plan Local SMS Bal: 0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*5#
Receive:Your LOCAL Voice OnNet Balance:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*6#
Receive:Your OffNet Balance:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*7#
Receive:Your OnNet Balance:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*8#
Receive:Your DATA STV Balance:0MB Validity:-.

Send:*123*9#
Receive:Your OnNet Video Balance:Rs0.00 Validity:-.

Send:*123*10#
Receive:Your DATA STV Balance:44MB Validity:Jan 29 2013.

Send:*123*11#
Receive:You have entered an invalid voucher.

Send:*123*12#
Receive:You have entered an invalid voucher.

Send:*123*0#
Receive:You have entered an invalid voucher.

Send:*123*123#
Receive:You have entered an invalid voucher.

Send:*346#
Receive:UNKNOWN APPLICATION

Send:*121#
Receive:UNKNOWN APPLICATION

Send:*123*11#
Receive:You have entered an invalid voucher.

Send:*1#
Receive:Failed

Send:*2#
Receive:Failed

Send:*786#
Receive:UNKNOWN APPLICATION

Offers received with USSD:

• Rc103 For300 min Local Call,500 Local SMS &300 MB DATA for 30 Days,STV 91 for anycall(L+N)@40p/m(90days).
• FULLTALK:TOPUP Rs220/440/550.
• Rc39for Local BSNL@20p/m,Other@35p/m(30 days), Rc103(300m loc,500loc SMS&300MB DATA/30days).
• COMBO RC101(2G)&RC346(3G)-SMS@10p,Call BSNL@30p/m,Other@50p/m,Data1GB&(all Video call@70p/m for3G).
• For Migration to Per Sec Plan Rec Rs 42(Validity-180 Days) & Get1200SEC ONNET& 600Sec OFFNET for 30 days.
• Rc300 for LOCAL BSNL UNLIMITED/30days&28/150/500 for unlimited free all BSNL(local&nat)for1day/7days/30days.

Reliance CDMA STV94 for Data & SMS - All Details

If you don't know I am a guy who embrace CDMA technology over GSM. Reasons are many, and I told them many times on this blog or on telecomtalk.info. There is high chance that you don't know that Reliance offers an awesome data plan for its CDMA customers - for Rs 15.66 you will get 1GB high speed data & unlimited local and std sms for a month! Recharge with Rs 94, and get the mentioned benefits for 6 months.

Now the worst part is there is almost zero promotion of this plan from Reliance. I came to know about this via Rimweb.in - the ultimate forum for CDMA fanboys in India. Last week I went to Reliance WebWorld store at Barrackpore, the nearest one from my house to recharge STV94 on my prepaid CDMA number. They told it has been withdrawn. Even a retailer also confirmed that, while most of them are not aware of such plan.

Happy New Year 2013