Why Amazon Kindle Fire will be a success

IMHO there will never be an iPad killer. *Ever*. That out of the way, the Amazon Kindle fire will in all likelihood be a winner. Here are my reasons

• Price - All said and done, the price matters a hell lot. If Kindle Fire is priced right around $250 it will sell well. There are a whole lot of people who cannot afford the iPad but need a good alternative and Amazon can plug that hole. It was ridiculous of everyone else to price their tablets anywhere close to the iPad and well some of them are already history
• Content - Content is the king and at this point of time apart from the Appstore, the only content worth consuming is from Amazon. They seem to have a sound strategy around ebooks, magazines and their own app store which will grow leaps and bounds once their devices start selling.
• Online sales - Some nifty offerings to people who buy content from Amazon can lead to a whole lot more of sales and i am sure Amazon will exploit that to the hilt. I do not believe that the tablet strategy will be independent of their other offerings (e.g Amazon prime, Music Streaming, Cloud Storage, Kindle reader will all be tightly integrated in the tablet and will be a seamless experience for the user)
• Distribution - They need to have stores around the world for them to really take off. This is a sore point for Amazon. They dont have the stores like Apple has and if they can work out a distribution strategy for non US/Europe countries (read BRICS), the price point will be a significant factor in ensuring the sales take off

 The next few weeks should clear the air. I don't own the iPad but not too far in the future, i see myself owning both the iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

WD Live Hub Review - India

I bought a Western Digital (WD) Live Hub media streamer a month back. I got it from the Golcha shop on SP Road, Bangalore (www.golchhait.com/) for Rs 9500/-. It was a good deal becuase it seemed to mirror the prices in the US and about 3000 cheaper for the same box in Croma. I dont own an LCD TV as yet and was a bit apprehensive about Live Hub working with my old Philips 21 inch TV. I unboxed the unit, connected the power cables, powered on, put the ethernet cable from my wireless router to the Live Hub and voila! got the neat and clean Live Hub UI running with the network configured and ready to go. it was one seamless installation and i dint face a problem. Tried youtube and some internet radio stations and they work beautifully. i get lags on my laptop while watching youtube video's but have never experienced a buffering issue in the tonnes of video's i have watched so far. Every feature works neat and i only wish WD has more local content. They should bring bigflix and other local content as apps. having a blast of a time watching my favorite content on the Live Hub. The 1TB HDD that comes along with the Hub should last me for the next couple of years at least. 


The WD Live Hub is definitely value for money.

Amazon Android App Store in India

Amazon's android app store is now available for android users in India. Hope this signals the intentions of Amazon to launch amazon.com in India as well. A recent report suggested India being the 3rd largest economy and its time Amazon sat up and took notice.

 Interestingly the price point of Amazon tablet is something which would find a lot of traction in India as well. At 250$ or about <12,000 INR, the sub 35 year population in urban India will find it affordable and enticing. iPhones, iPads are still extremely pricey and not really affordable.

Things to buy in Japan (Updated)

Been to Japan after 4.5 years and although it still seemed to be the same place i have known, i found a few more things that one can buy and usually available only in Japan

• Harinacs Stapler - Its an amazing invention. Staples without pins. Buy it, use it and believe it (i guess its available on Amazon as well). its available in Tokyu Hands
• Pilot Frixion Ball Pens - Can erase the ink once written. Of course avoid them for legal documents. Available in Tokyu Hands
• Plastic Sheet Flower Vase - Got one in the shopping mall at Shinagawa station. Its a printed plastic sheet and can be filled with water. Once filled, the base expands and stands like a vase. Using it home and it looks pretty neat. Lots of designs availabl

Mail for Exchange with Nokia E63

I'm trying to use the Mail For Exchange utility on my new Nokia E63 and it doesn't see to work with my corporate exchange server. I googled a lot and couldn't find a good solution that would work seamlessly until i understood that its not going to be possible until the exchange server settings were changed. Blackberry devices work perfectly for the push email.

Nokia will eventually go to a paid setup for their messaging service, waiting eagerly for the service to be announced in India. Only then will i be able to check my official emails on my E63, till then i will have to do with the browser using a GPRS connection that Airtel provides.

My Nokia E63

Its been a long time since i blogged and 3 long years with my phone, a Z550i from Sony Ericsson. i finally made a move to a business phone and bought a Nokia E63. It was a no-brainer decision for me as this was the cheapest business phone available. 10-11K was the budget i had in my mind and this fitted the bracket perfectly. Im very impressed with its capabilities so far. I have configured Gmail, OviMail, Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz IM and found the going easy so far. The QWERT keyboard is quite convenient to use. The hitch so far has been that i havent been able to get the mail for exchange configured with my coprporate exhange servers.

I got the Airtel Weekly Unlimited GPRS connection enabled for Rs 140 (Weekly) and the speeds have been quite good. Yes it going to be costly but im waiting for Nokia to announce their paid messaging service with Airtel (Similar to Blackberry's). I hope it similar to what Airtel-Blackberry offer at Rs 299/- cause a couple of my friends picked up Blackberry phones and avoided a nokia precisely for the lack of push email. Sometimes i wonder what the fuss is..about push and pull. For me a pull client is good enough no?

Chrome OS

Now thats a missile directed at Windows 7 and MS, When everyone has been touting android on netbooks or even notebooks, Google surprises everyone with a chrome OS. It will be fast, lighweight, new and based on the linux kernel. This is good. It will be opened up to public similar to Android.

I expect this to be up and running in under 5 seconds. Ubuntu has plans for a 10 second boot. Google chrome Os should be a lean linux kernel, with a new lightweight windowing system and of course chrome running.

This will truly tie all the ends for google. Google OS, Google Browser, Google Apps (like Office) and Google clouds. Why will anyone want MS then?

Microsofts is getting tested for sure.

Hyperspace Fast Boot

Phoenix Technologies is offering a 21 day trial pack of their fast boot product called Hyperspace. I dowloaded it but then it requires XP + SP3 which i dont have on my laptop. So till i get to SP3..id have to wait to evaluate the fastboot. 

Picasa Photo Viewer

Image via Wikipedia
The Picasa 3 has a nifty new feature called the Photo Viewer. Click on any image and this is what it will look like.


Its got a very cool effect to it and looks rather snazzy. I feel its got a very 'mac' look to it.

You can zoom in and out of the picture by using your mouse or the up and down cursor keys.

Chrome Bugs and the opera connection

That Chrome incorporates a lot from Opera is not very good news. So google themselves did a Microsoft dint they? (for MS having taken a lot of Apple Mac features). Well the bad news certainly stems from the fact that are we running out of ideas and features for browsers? Even if they had launched 6 months later but with features that were really unique and enhancing user experience, it would have well been the effort. Well the fact also is not many use Opera and hence using chrome would definitely provide a enhanced and newer experience for the user.

Well news is also that there are bugs in chrome (of course) and they are coming out fast. People are going to tear chrome apart especially for the fact that its a BIG product launch from google.

Google Chrome Vs Firefox

Image via Wikipedia Googles official announcement about the impending launch of Chrome, their own scratch up browser. Well what does this do to Firefox? The second ranked browser in terms of market share has never had it going so good. A recent record number of downloads for Firefox 3 and the new features have only added to Firefox'es popularity. Well now with chrome coming out, what does this do with google's association with FireFox? Google being inherently more popular than the Firefox brand, a download chrome link on their main page may get a whole lot of users trying out their new browser. This will of course impact Firefox and even IE, but then users will really decide that. 5 years down the line, will Firefox and chrome compete? will they merge into one? will Firefox fade like how Netscape did? or will users simply reject chrome? Not every Google product is successful and well that might simply be the answer.

OTOH, if chrome is a really good design and can fit into embedded devices as much as it can into PC's them well it may well still be a really successful browser.

My Maruti Swift Breaks down

Image via WikipediaThis happened a couple of weeks back. I was planning to drive down to the Kamat's Restaurant on mysore road (About 65KM from Bangalore on the Mysore Highway). Diya had lost her shoes and we decided that we better get a new one before we started on the drive. So we drove up to the IBP petrol pump in Koramangala, filled up the tank and then bought her a pair of shoes from the Kids n Gifts Shop. As we were returning home to pick up my parents, my car (Maruti Suzuki Swift VXi) suddenly stopped...i mean it just lost acceleration and power and the engine just switched off. I luckily managed to park the car on the roadside. I just dint understand. I tried switching on the engine but it dint budge. I was bewildered. I just couldnt grasp what happened. The car was having power, i could use the power windows, the viper but the engine just wouldnt start. I'd filled the tank up so there wasnt any question of low fuel. For a second i thought, maybe i filled diesel by mistake. But then i had paid the price of petrol, so there wasnt a question of filling the wrong fuel. I asked Megz to go back home as there was no point spending time in the car and not knowing what to do. I then walked to the petrol pump near Raheja Arcade and asked if anyone could help. It was a sunday and of course there wasnt anyone to help. As i walked back, i called Kunaal. He asked me to try calling Just Dial. I called Just Dial and they were of immense help. They provided me numbers of 24 hour breakdown services in koramangala. In the next couple of minutes i got a call from one of them and they offered to send one of their mechanics to check the car. I immediately told OK and got the mechanics mobile number. He was on Airport road and told it would take about 45m to reach my car. I decided to wait. As i rummaged through my documents, i realised i had all the phone numbers of Mandovi Motors from where i bought the car. They also had a 24 hour breakdown service number. I called the guy and he said it would take him quite a while to come to Koramangala and that it would be better if i called the call centre and informed them. They would send the nearest mechanic. I was anyways waiting for the first person and thought i'd try this option later or if things dint work out too well. As promised , the mechanic and his partner turned up in a van about 40m later and then started checking the car. After about 10m, they told that something was probably wrong with the Fuel Pump of the car and that petrol wasn't being pumped to the engine. I was completely shocked. They said they would have to tow the vehicle to their service centre. i wasn't too happy to hear that and thought i'd use the second option of getting mandovi motors to check the car. I asked these guys if they could tow the car back to my home but they weren't very willing and ultimately said no because i wasn't sending the car to their workshop. i then called the mandovi emergency number and he again asked me to call the call centre. Finally i called the call centre and they registered the complaint and told a mechanic would reach withing half an hour. Half an hour passed and apparently i gave them my phone number while i was using Megz's phone. So calls to my phone went unanswered. Meanwhile Megz got the managers number at Mandovi whom we had met during our decision making on which car to buy. I called him and Mr Samrat was very helpful. He advised me to give the car only to Mandovi (Also because its registered in my company's name) and told he would talk to the Mandovi emergency guy (by the name John) . I called John again and asked him for a rough time when he could attend to my car. He said it would take about 1.5 hours, so i went back home, had lunch. Called John again and he said he would reach in 15m. I took an auto to get to my car and J arrived as expected. John and his partners rechecked the car and confirmed the suspicion . T fuel pump did seem to be the problem and they had to tow the car. They said they would tow it to Wilson Garden where Mandovi Motors has a workshop. They provided me the service document and then i came back home heavy hearted not knowing what had gone wrong. It less then 2 years since i bought this car and it never had given me any problem whatsoever. I just couldnt belive for the fact that something had gone so wrong.

SMS Advertising

I noticed quite a few auto rickshaws carrying an ad for mginger. I dint know mginger until one of my friends (Kunaal) told me about it. mginger does sms advertising. Basically they send ads to your mobile phone and you get paid to read those ads. Ive just registered to receive their ads and and well i dont think id be a member for long. I'm just trying to get a feel of how things work. :)

New blog - Stock Market Investments

Image via WikipediaI have a new blog about my experiences with the stock markets. Blog will detail my ideas about stocks, futures and options and trading in the Indian stock markets in general.

Diya joins a tribe

Tribal and Cultural day at the creche

Firefox has been my mainstay browser for quite some now. There are five Firefox add-ons or plugins that i usually use

1) DownThemAll
2) Sage
3) Zemanta
4) IE Tab
5) Gmail Manager

HP Cartridge cost , Pricing and ink levels

I have an HP All-in-one C3188. Its proved to be a worthy buy and i have used it quite a bit. My cartridge's ink seems to be very low now. First thing, i wasn't able to make out the current ink level on the cartridge. On right clicking the HP Printer icon, on the "Printing Preferences" menu, on the features tab, i can see a "Printer Services" button. This button doesn't work when i click on it. Well anyways, i decided to buy a new cartridge. There were 2 options, buy a new one or refill the older oner. I guess the latter is the unofficial way of doing it. I enquired at the BDA complex in Koramangala. There are 4-5 stationary shops there and one of them refilled Black cartridges at Rs125/- and coloured ones at Rs 300/-. As i walked way after the enquiry, he called out for me and said, he would refill both at Rs 350/-. The enquiry for a new cartridge numbers 851 (Apparently i was enquiring for the wrong number, i should have been asking for the number 850 which is compatible with the C3188) was surprising. I got 5 different prices from 5 different shops within the same BDA complex building. Prices varied from Rs 740 to Rs 825. I of course ended up buying the Rs 740 one and then later realized that it was not the correct cartridge. I ended up buying the correct one for 675/- only to later realize that the HP website was offering one for about 8-10 rupees lesser. I'm sure if i'd gone through the entire procedure of finding prices again, i would have got a better deal. This reminded me of the lecture by Dr Preston of Yahoo which i attended at the Leela Palace, Bangalore some months back. A very insightful talk about pricing.

Bangalore Traffic Status

This website BTIS provides details on the current traffic conditions on roads in Bangalore (and some other cities as well). Alos listed are the routes to the new Airport in devanahalli. Very useful site with details on where the bus stops are.

BSNL Broadband, Wireless Issues with Huawei and DNS address

I have had trouble this month connecting to the BSNL broadband service. On a particular weekend, i just couldnt connect to the internet. I called up the customer care at 1500 and they told me they were experiencing server problems. Again last weekend, i faced similar issues. i finally decided to check if there was something i could learn by logging on to my wireless router (Huawei).
I logged in and it showed me as connected. I then checked the system logs but dint see them too well. A little later i figured out the logs showed the complete bootup of the router and it did show 2 DNS address which i wasnt using in my network configuration. I used a static ip actually and have not enabled DHCP. The new addresses were 218.248.240.24 and 218.248.240.208. These were different from the 61.1.96.69/71 addresses i was using earlier. I used these new addresses and well i was able to browse without issues.

Another peculiar problem im facing is my laptop doesnt work with the huawei wireless router at home. Im wireless all the while at office and so it definitely is a problem with the router at home. I chan check my ralink wireless utility and it shows the wireless signal going off and on every 5-10 seconds or so. i now need to investigate this in greater detail, maybe first with google and them later again with the utilities available on the router.