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What does SONY takeover mean for Sony Ericsson fans ??

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 00:15:00 +0530

First of all, I must say this is my first post after a brief hiatus of 6 months. I ran out of topic and kept myself away from blogging for a while. But now I am back again with an interesting topic (at least for myself !)

Sony and Ericsson

Sony and Ericsson were separate companies and still they are. A common thing between both these companies - their loss making mobile ventures. Yes ! They were in mobile business with their own brand names Sony and Ericsson respectively a decade ago. In fact Ericsson was the world's no.3 handset maker at times. So Sony and Ericsson decided to join hands and try their luck in Joint Venture which resulted in birth of Brand 'Sony Ericsson'.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson was established on October 1,2001 as a joint venture between Japanese consumer electronics company Sony and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones. The main reason for this venture is to combine Sony's consumer electronics expertise with Ericsson's technological knowledge in the communications sector. It has been a decade exactly since this not-so-successful mobile venture was formed.

Hits and Misses
Sony Ericsson has had their initial success with Walkman and Cyber-shot branded mobile phones. As their name suggests, Walk man and Cyber-shot are music and camera special phones respectively. Some of the famous phones include C902, C905, W800, W810i, W902 and W995 to name a few.
Sony Ericsson launched its first Xperia line of smartphones, X1 in 2008 which featured Windows mobile OS. This was followed by another Windows Phone X2. The Windows OS then was a complete disaster and not-so-user-friendly. It was during that time Google's very own Android came to the scene. By the time Sony Ericsson realized the power of Android, other handset manufacturers like South Korea's Samsung and HTC were way ahead of Sony Ericsson. Not to forget the IPhone from Apple which was a huge hit.

Success with Android

Sony Ericsson tasted some success with their Android phones especially with their 2011 line up of handsets. The Xperia minis, Xperia Arc S and Xperia Ray are some of the best devices. But the much awaited phone Xperia Play, a Playstation Certified Mobile failed to live up to its expectation.

Sony takeover

Recently Sony Electronics bought out the Ericsson's 50% share of Sony Ericsson and integrated the mobile phone division with other Sony products. This is due to the fact that Sony Ericsson market share is continuously decreasing 10% when it was at its peak to 1.7% now in 2011.

What to Expect from Sony

Sony's move to buyout Sony Ericsson is too late. But I believe it's better late than never. Now Sony will try to strengthen its R&D in smartphones section and expect to launch much better phones than Sony Ericsson did. There's is a possibility of Playstation phone coming with features we can't even imagine of. The takeover is a bit of gamble to Sony as they are too late to enter the smartphone segment. But who knows. If HTC can become a success within a short span of time, why not Sony? With all the technologies in hand, Sony mobiles can be a runaway success if they are serious about the business.

My View as a Sony Ericsson fan

I myself is a huge fan of brand Sony Ericsson and I've been using Sony Ericsson phones for past 5 years which accounts for 50% of brand's existence ( 10 years as you know! ). Sony Ericsson W810i is by far the best mobile I've ever used and Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S are the best mobiles I've ever seen ( I might end up buying one of these 2 ;-) ). Sony Ericsson has always produced best mobile phones but not best enough to attract people to buy their phones. This is one area Sony must concentrate on. From what I have seen, Sony Ericsson has a huge fan base and only people using Sony Ericsson mobiles are opting for another Sony Ericsson mobile.

Sony Ericsson to be Re-branded

As Ericsson doesn't own Sony Ericsson's share anymore, there definitely will be change in brand name which is a huge disappointment for Sony Ericsson fans. I have seen my buddies ( including myself! ) buying Sony Ericsson mobiles just for the brand name. The question now is not why but when? I guess Sony will use The Mobile World Congress 2012 to be held in Barcelona in February to launch the products with new brand name which might be just 'Sony' or 'Xperia by Sony' if I'm right ( wild guess!! ). Rumors are afloat that Sony will be launching their first dual-core HD recording mobile with a 720p display 'Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc HD' ( or just 'Sony Xperia Arc HD' or 'Sony Ericsson Nozomi' as some people say or whatever!! ) which definitely will be a good start with a new brand name. Let's hope that the best is yet to come from Sony Ericsson ( or Sony ) and I wish them to retain at least the bubble logo if not the brand name. Miss you brand 'Sony Ericsson'.
Dedicated to all SE fans. Your comments are welcome !

Facebook keeps 'deleted' photos for years!

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:25:00 +0530

The social networking site has reportedly admitted that it had been keeping deleted photos for a 'limited' amount of time, according to technology site ArsTechnica. And this 'limited' period can go up to 30 months! When you delete a photo that you have uploaded on Facebook, what happens to it? If you thought it would be deleted forever, you are mistaken. All those 'secret' photos you no longer want to keep online are still lying there, even after you delete it. Eventually what happens is that the users who have kept the direct link to photos that were originally uploaded to the social networking site have been able to still gain access to them months, even years after deletion, the report said referring to one report in technology site ArsTechnica.

As per the report, a Facebook user said he had deleted an image from the site 30 months ago and that it was still available to see on the site. Another said a photo from April 2009 was still accessible after it was deleted.

Facebook spokesman Simon Axten told technology site that the company is actively working with its CDN on this issue, said the report. “It's possible that someone who previously had access to a photo and saved the direct URL from our content delivery network partner could still access the photo,” Axten said. “However, again, the person would have to know the URL, and the photo only exists in the CDN's cache for a limited amount of time. We're working with the CDN to reduce the amount of time that the photo remains in its cache.” He said the company is currently working with the CDN on a fix that will delete photo and video content from the CDN's cache shortly after it's removed on Facebook.

The revelation comes as encryption expert and author Bruce Schneier slammed the site at the RSA Conference in London overnight, saying social networking companies were deliberately killing privacy for commercial gain, reported Sydney Morning Herald. “Less privacy makes a better market for social networks. Facebook is the worst offender - not because it's evil but because its market is selling user data to its commercial partners,” The Register quoted Schneier as saying.

ICC World Cup 2011 Official Anthem

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sun, 6 Feb 2011 00:19:00 +0530

Mobile Number Portability Data as on 31st Jan 2011

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Thu, 3 Feb 2011 02:14:00 +0530

Source : Telecomtalk

Mobile Number Portability ....And the Winner is Vodafone !!

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:41:00 +0530

It's been two weeks since MNP has been launched in India and there is a overwhelming response among the people to switch operators without changing their mobile number. So far, almost a million users have opted to change their service providers. It is learnt that nearly 270,000 users have switched operators till now. The major gainers of MNP are Vodafone (1.09 Lakh), Idea Cellular (56,000), Aircel (52,000) and Airtel (29,000). The losers are BSNL, RCom and Tata Indicom who together have lost considerable amount of subscribers.

Otha Sollala HD - Aadukalam Video Song

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:44:00 +0530

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:14:00 +0530

Date	IST	Match Details	Venue
Feb 12	09:30	Kenya vs West Indies, 1st Warm up ODI	Colombo
Feb 12	09:30	Sri Lanka vs Netherlands, 2nd Warm up ODI	Kandy
Feb 12	14:00	Bangladesh vs Canada, 3rd Warm up ODI	Chittagong
Feb 12	14:30	Ireland vs New Zealand, 4th Warm up ODI	Nagpur
Feb 12	14:30	South Africa vs Zimbabwe, 5th Warm up ODI	Chennai
Feb 13	14:30	India vs Australia, 6th Warm up ODI	Bangalore
Feb 15	09:30	Ireland vs Zimbabwe, 7th Warm up ODI	Nagpur
Feb 15	09:30	Kenya vs Netherlands, 8th Warm up ODI	Kandy
Feb 15	14:00	Bangladesh vs Pakistan, 9th Warm up ODI	Mirpur
Feb 15	14:30	Australia vs South Africa, 10th Warm up ODI	Bangalore
Feb 16	09:00	Canada vs England, 11th Warm up ODI	Mirpur
Feb 16	09:30	Sri Lanka vs West Indies, 12th Warm up ODI	Colombo
Feb 16	14:30	India vs New Zealand, 13th Warm up ODI	Chennai
Feb 18	14:00	England vs Pakistan, 14th Warm up ODI	Mirpur
Feb 19	14:00	Bangladesh vs India, 1st ODI	Mirpur
Feb 20	09:30	New Zealand vs Kenya, 2nd ODI	Chennai
Feb 20	14:30	Sri Lanka vs Canada, 3rd ODI	Hambantota
Feb 21	14:30	Australia vs Zimbabwe, 4th ODI	Ahmedabad
Feb 22	14:30	England vs Netherlands, 5th ODI	Nagpur
Feb 23	14:30	Pakistan vs Kenya, 6th ODI	Hambantota
Feb 24	14:30	South Africa vs West Indies, 7th ODI	Delhi
Feb 25	09:00	Bangladesh vs Ireland, 8th ODI	Mirpur
Feb 25	14:30	Australia vs New Zealand, 9th ODI	Nagpur
Feb 26	14:30	Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, 10th ODI	Colombo
Feb 27	14:30	India vs England, 11th ODI	Kolkata
Feb 28	09:30	Canada vs Zimbabwe, 12th ODI	Nagpur
Feb 28	14:30	West Indies vs Netherlands, 13th ODI	Delhi
Mar 1	14:30	Sri Lanka vs Kenya, 14th ODI	Colombo
Mar 2	14:30	England vs Ireland, 15th ODI	Bangalore
Mar 3	09:30	South Africa vs Netherlands, 16th ODI	Mohali
Mar 3	14:30	Pakistan vs Canada, 17th ODI	Colombo
Mar 4	09:30	New Zealand vs Zimbabwe, 18th ODI	Ahmedabad
Mar 4	14:00	Bangladesh vs West Indies, 19th ODI	Mirpur
Mar 5	14:30	Australia vs Sri Lanka, 20th ODI	Colombo
Mar 6	09:30	South Africa vs England, 21st ODI	Chennai
Mar 6	14:30	India vs Ireland, 22nd ODI	Bangalore
Mar 7	14:30	Canada vs Kenya, 23rd ODI	Delhi
Mar 8	14:30	Pakistan vs New Zealand, 24th ODI	Kandy
Mar 9	14:30	India vs Netherlands, 25th ODI	Delhi
Mar 10	14:30	Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe, 26th ODI	Kandy
Mar 11	09:30	West Indies vs Ireland, 27th ODI	Mohali
Mar 11	14:00	Bangladesh vs England, 28th ODI	Chittagong
Mar 12	14:30	India vs South Africa, 29th ODI	Nagpur
Mar 13	09:30	New Zealand vs Canada, 30th ODI	Mumbai
Mar 13	14:30	Australia vs Kenya, 31st ODI	Bangalore
Mar 14	09:00	Bangladesh vs Netherlands, 32nd ODI	Chittagong
Mar 14	14:30	Pakistan vs Zimbabwe, 33rd ODI	Kandy
Mar 15	14:30	South Africa vs Ireland, 34th ODI	Kolkata
Mar 16	14:30	Australia vs Canada, 35th ODI	Bangalore
Mar 17	14:30	England vs West Indies, 36th ODI	Chennai
Mar 18	09:30	Ireland vs Netherlands, 37th ODI	Kolkata
Mar 18	14:30	Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, 38th ODI	Mumbai
Mar 19	09:00	Bangladesh vs South Africa, 39th ODI	Mirpur
Mar 19	14:30	Pakistan vs Australia, 40th ODI	Colombo
Mar 20	09:30	Zimbabwe vs Kenya, 41st ODI	Kolkata
Mar 20	14:30	India vs West Indies, 42nd ODI	Chennai
Mar 23	15:00	TBC vs TBC, 1st Quarter Final ODI	Mirpur
Mar 24	15:30	TBC vs TBC, 2nd Quarter Final ODI	Colombo
Mar 25	15:00	TBC vs TBC, 3rd Quarter Final ODI	Mirpur
Mar 26	15:30	TBC vs TBC, 4th Quarter Final ODI	Ahmedabad
Mar 29	15:30	TBC vs TBC, 1st Semi Final ODI	Colombo
Mar 30	15:30	TBC vs TBC, 2nd Semi Final ODI	Mohali
Apr 2	15:30	TBC vs TBC, The Final ODI	Mumbai

Lionel Messi wins FIFA World Player Award for second successful year

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:23:00 +0530

Argentina forward Lionel Messi was named World Player of the Year on Monday, beating Barcelona team mates Andres Iniesta and Xavi to win the award for the second time in a row. Messi, 23, scored an astonishing 60 goals for club and country in 2010.

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Rajasthan Royals

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:40:00 +0530

Ross Taylor for $1 million
Johan Botha for $950,000
Rahul Dravid for $500,000
Paul Collingwood for $250,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Sahara Pune Warriors

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:38:00 +0530

Robin Uthappa for $2.1 million
Yuvraj Singh for $1.8 million
Angelo Mathews for $950,000
Ashish Nehra for $850,000
Graeme Smith for $500,000
Callum Ferguson for $300,000
Tim Paine for $270,000
Nathan McCullum for $100,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Kochi IPL Team

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:32:00 +0530

Mahela Jayawardene for $1.5 million
Muttiah Muralitharan for $1.1 million
Ravindra Jadeja for $950,000
S Sreesanth for $900,000
RP Singh for $500,000
Brad Hodge for $425,000
VVS Laxman for $400,000
Brendon McCullum for $475,000
Parthiv Patel for $290,000
Steven Smith for $200,000
Ramesh Powar to Kochi for $180,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Mumbai Indians

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:24:00 +0530

Rohit Sharma for $2 million.
Andrew Symonds $850,000
Davy Jacobs $190,000
James Franklin for $100,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Kings XI Punjab

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:20:00 +0530

David Hussey for $1.4 million
Dinesh Karthik for $900,000
Piyush Chawla for $900,000
Adam Gilchrist for $900,000
Praveen Kumar for $800,000
Abhishek Nayar for $800,000
Stuart Broad for $400,000
Ryan Harris for $325,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Kolkata Knight Riders

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:15:00 +0530

Gautam Gambhir for $2.4 million
Yusuf Pathan for $2.1 million
Jacques Kallis for $1.1 million
Manoj Tiwary for $475,000
Shakib Al Hasan for $425,000
Brett Lee for $400,000
Eoin Morgan for $350,000
Brad Haddin for $325,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Delhi Daredevils

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 19:06:00 +0530

Irfan Pathan for $1.9 million
David Warner for $750,000
Morne Morkel for $475,000
James Hopes for $350,000
Aaron Finch for $300,000
Naman Ojha for $270,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Deccan Chargers

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 18:56:00 +0530

Dale Steyn for $1.2 million
Cameron White for $1.1 million
Kumar Sangakkara $700,000
Kevin Pietersen for $650,000
Pragyan Ojha for $500,000
Ishant Sharma for $450,000
Amit Mishra for $300,000
Shikhar Dhawan for $300,000
JP Duminy for $300,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Royal Challengers Bangalore

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 18:47:00 +0530

Saurabh Tiwary for $1.6 million.

AB de Villiers for $1.1 million.

Zaheer Khan for $900,000.

Cheteswar Pujara for $700,000.

Dirk Nannes for $650,000.

Tillakaratne Dilshan for $650,000.

Daniel Vettori for $550,000

IPL 4 Auctions : Day 1 - Chennai Super Kings

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 18:42:00 +0530

R Ashwin for $850,000

S Badrinath for $800,000.

Doug Bollinger for $700,000

Michael Hussey for $425,000.

Dwayne Bravo for $200,000

Wriddhiman Saha for $100,000

Live IPL 4 Auction

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 12:06:00 +0530

Player                           Team                     Price

1. Gautam Gambhir        KKR                    $2.4m
2.Yusuf Pathan               KKR                    $2.1m
3.Yuvraj Singh               Pune Warriors       $1.8m
4.AB De Villiers    RCB $1.1m
5.M Jayawardhane    Kochi $1.5m
6.Ross Taylor    RR $1.0m
7.K Pietersen    DC
8.Zaheer Khan              RCB                     $900k
9.T Dilshan                   RCB $650k

Unknown facts about IPL 4 Auction

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 23:12:00 +0530

The much awaited Players' Auction for the fourth edition of IPL will take place in Bengaluru on 8th and 9th of January. Here are some of the facts about IPL 4 Auction.

Total teams participating - 10

No. of Players up for grabs - 350

Time to be spent in bidding - 16 hrs

Total amount to be spent in auction - $75m

No. of matches - 74

Venue - ITC Royal Gardenia, Bengaluru

Players retained by Franchisees - SR Tendulkar, H Singh, K Pollard and L Mailnga (Mumbai Indians), MS Dhoni, S Raina, M Vijay and A Morkel (Chennai Super Kings), S Warne and S Watson (Rajastan Royals), V Sehwag(Delhi Daredevils), V Kohli(Bangalore Royal Challengers)

Narain Karthikeyan back in Formula 1

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 00:10:00 +0530

Narain Karthikeyan, 33 is all set to make a comeback in Formula 1 after a gap of 5 years. Narain has signed a deal with Hispania Racing Team (HRT) for 2011 season. The deal means that Narain will be on the grid for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix from 28th to 30th October 2011. "Back in F1 in 2011. Signed a deal to race for HRT. I've always maintained that my time in F1 was not over & now making good on that promise" Karthikeyan tweeted in his twitter page.

IPL 4, A 10 team, 74 match affair

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Thu, 6 Jan 2011 00:17:00 +0530

With Rajastan Royals and Kings XI Punjab being cleared to take part in IPL players' auction, the fourth edition of IPL will be a 10 team, 74 match affair as per the decisions taken by IPL Governing Council on September 5. IPL 4 will have 70 league matches and 4 play-off matches. The teams would be divided into 2 groups of 5 teams each. Each team would play the other 4 teams in its group twice - home and away, One of the 5 teams in other group twice - home and away and 4 of the 5 teams in other group once - either home or away.

Michael Bevan appointed as Kings XI Punjab Coach

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Thu, 6 Jan 2011 00:01:00 +0530

Former Australian Cricketer Michael Bevan has been appointed as the coach of Kings XI Punjab for the upcoming fourth edition of Indian Premier League. After Bevan's appointment, the promoters of the franchisee said, "We are thrilled to have Michael Bevan as our coach for the upcoming season. His rich experience, vast expertise and sheer commitment to the game will guide the team to perform and enhance their skills. Nicknamed the 'Finisher', we believe Bevan will mentor Kings XI Punjab to finish at numero uno position at IPL IV". Bevan, 40, represented Australia in 232 ODI's and scored runs at an average of 58. Commenting on his appointment, Bevan said, "I have been following IPL since season 1, and now thanks to my new role as coach of Kings XI Punjab, I am part of this enthralling cricket tournament. I love this game and I am quite excited to coach a team that is driven by the same passion. The immediate focus of course is on getting the right pool of talent in the upcoming auctions in Bangalore. Post that my boys and I promise to deliver some great cricketing moments this season of IPL."

Kaka likely to join ManU ?

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 23:09:00 +0530

Manchester United fans have another reason to cheer. Brazilian superstar Kaka is likely to join the Reds in a loan deal this month. If sources are to be beleived, Sir Alex Ferguson wants the 28-year-old on loan until the end of the current campaign, which could potentially lead to a €55 million transfer during the summer. The Brazilian Midfielder has previously been linked with a move to Inter Milan but ManU has now emerged as clear favourites with Real Boss Jose Mourinho.

Micromax Andro A60 - Cheapest Android Mobile in India

noreply@blogger.com (VJ) — Sun, 2 Jan 2011 23:20:00 +0530

Micromax, India's 4th largest mobile handset manufacturer has recently launched its first Android mobile named Andro A60. With this launch, Micromax has joined the likes of Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Videocon and Spice who already offers mobile phones with Google's Android Operating System. The Andro A60 runs on Android 2.1 and has 2.8 inch Resistive touchscreen. The mobile also comes with 3.2MP camera with autofocus and is powered with 600MHz processor. The phone is priced at $155(Rs.6,999INR).

Specifications

Display: 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen

Camera: 3.2MP camera AF

3G: HSDPA 7.2Mbps / HSUPA 5.76Mbps

OS: Android 2.1 Eclair OS

CPU: 600MHz microprocessor

Connectivity: WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio

Weight: 105 gms

Dimensions: 106.8mm x 59.2mm x 14.0mm

Storage: 150MB internal, expandable up to 32GB (microSD)

Battery: 1280 mAh