Information Credit: DORK by Penguin 

Image Credit: Tojosan

I am a gadget lover but by no means a freak. There is a hell lot of difference between the two. I read TechCrunch regularly and Engadget often. There lies the difference, if I am in my senses.

While Steve Jobs is adding to the orgasm of Apple fanboys across the world, I have been trying to figure out, how does anything Apple affect the online ecosystem. It’s beyond the power of any agency to build such an ecosystem, community or fan following around any thing. Apple is again a brand.

The sheer ability to build great products is the only reason that I see people getting crazy for such an event. Of course, Steve Job’s’ presentation might just be another reason for people to swarm networks and websites and cause them to go down!

This is a great social effect which could lead to #apple and #ipad trending in minutes on Twitter, timeliness getting flooded with similar updates after every miniscule detail revealed by Apple. Which other brand can think of doing it, at this scale?

Amazon has always ruled the industry for the tablet/reader segment with its Kindle. It would be interesting to see how do things take shape now. Do we see a price war? Apple for sure would not get into it. Apple products have always been priced slightly higher, but it’s a matter of fact that it still excels.

For 499$ for a 16GB WiFi enabled tablet, Apple’s iPad might just attract gadget lovers across the world to opt in. A 3G version is slightly costlier but I guess that’s more value for money when it comes to developing countries where WiFi hotspots aren’t yet very popular. But then, people still get things done over a netbook, which according to Steve, doesn’t do anything great!

I wonder how many people in this part of the world aren’t ready to compromise on the ‘great’ factor, when they get a fully functional netbook for as low as 300$ This is still debatable.

Coming down to the key features of an iPad, it is/has;

• Half inch thin,
• 1.5 pound in weight (approx 600 gm)
• Slimmest Tablet
• 9.7 inch diagonal screen IPS type
• Capacitive multi-touch
• 16 to 64 GB Flash storage
• 1 Ghz A4 Processor
• WiFi 802.11n Wifi
• Built In Speaker
• Built In Microphone
• Accelerometer
• Compass
• 10 Hours Battery with One Month Standby
• iPad 3G models are unlocked
• Will be available in 60 days worldwide
• Comes with Wifi and / or  3G
• USB Sync with iTunes
• Uses new GSM micro SIMs

Price Watch

That’s the matrix. Which one are you opting for?

Thanks to Rohit for collating the technical specs!

Last week, we did an experiment to put alternate Saturdays off, giving all of us a extended weekend once every fortnight. The trial was a hit!

The day is undoubtedly much more calm and peaceful than several other Sundays Thanks to the day off yesterday that allowed me to sink in to the bottom,  sleep like a log, gorge on food and have a serene lonely walk in the evening. All this followed by wrapping up the routine tasks like paying bills, making calls to friends and family and other stuff.

Sunday it is and I am all the more composed, uncluttered and with a fresher mindset. Last night was fun writing blog posts, editing a couple of them and making grilled cheese sandwiches at 4 am! I was high on productivity.

Time to get ready and push off for lunch at a friend’s place. I love invitations for lunch! If my laziness allows, shopping is on my charts, next! End of season sale is on across stores. I guess it’s time to pick up some stuff today.

Wish you a happy Sunday and alternate weekends!

Photo credit: Jurvetson

Yesterday, I was glad to be invited to Mobile Advertising and VAS Conference – Mobile Conclave 2010 at Amity University, NOIDA.

The conference was an outliner to where we as consumers stand for the VAS players and telecos. India has always had high usage trends when it comes to infotainment on a media. Be it television, the internet or mobile. Inherently, VAS services like games, jokes, astrology, flowers on demand, etc. have been there since the inception of VAS in India.

But that by no means Indicate that we as Indians are satisfied by the operators or the VAS services, for that matter. There is a huge different between a commodity being an accessory and that being a necessity.  How many services actually target the later?

Checking PNR status is one good service I would say. There might be a handful of others. But do we ever see a – doctor on call, lawyer on call or a mentor on call service? I would want a provider to incorporate these. Is there a VAS player who would possible build a service which can lead me to the closest physician while I am travelling in an area that’s 1000 miles from my residence, without having an access to the internet? This is a need, not an accessory.

At the conferences, there were talks on social networks being accessed over mobiles and then facebook adding 45million people to their mobile users within first 8 months of the launch. How many Indians are willing to afford a Rs 500 worth of an EDGE data plan on their carrier beyond the usual monthly rental and that of the resident internet connection, say broadband. How many Indians do have a phone that has a WiFi? Leave all that, India still has just over 8% of broadband penetration. Still the users of Orkut, Facebook and Twitter are very high in India as compared to rest of the world. That doesn’t mean we, the Indians are heavy users of social networks on mobile.

If this small a market is good enough to advertise and get a good ROI, I would love to be directed to a few case studies on mobile internet based marketing case studies in India.

I liked the thoughts of Mr. Milind Pathak, Vice President, Comviva. Crystal gazing through the year 2010, he said, “Netting the un-netted is a big area which shall need to be looked upon. Also, there exists a payments asymmetry in mobile commerce in India.” According to him, there is still a wait for 12-18 months to see 3G as a service which we as a consumer can benefit with. I agree to his opinion. For the twitter updates of the event, you may check out the timeline of MediaRedefined and look for the hashtag #mobilecon.

While all of us are eager for the spectrum to roll out and 3G to arrive, using mobiles for many is still limited to voice and sms. SMSgupshup comes in handy as an API to use and build products around social networks. SMSTweet is one good example.

Looking forward to the year 2010, as in what we get to see and how accurate is the crystal gazing we did yesterday at the conclave.

Way to go!

Image Credits: WATBlog

Ships that pass you in the night
Are like dreams that don’t quite
Feel real in the morning, but
When you happen to see them
During the daytime, they seem
Strangely familiar: deja vu.

Or I guess, a little before!

No clues how did these lines originate but I was in love with them the moment I read them. I have always loved ships, as much as I love peace and serenity. One reason for me loving them is probably my love for the sea.

When I talk about keywords, there are times when I mean them beyond social media or the web. Not too sure if I was mistaken but there was just one keyword I wanted to put a dent on. ‘Life’. That sums it up pretty much.

No matter how rich and pleasing your periphery is but at night, when you come back, lie down and ponder, there is much more to it. If at all it matters. The core has to be dealt with. The periphery keeps changing.

One other context that made me disappointed is that Delhi doesn’t have a sea shore, leave behind a harbor! So the ships that pass by me are illusions for sure.  The multinational consumer electronics or the international apparel gig were not small but then, it was ship that took my mind.

I wish you stayed longer and the time stopped, only for good. I know it will. Once again, while we would sit, talk, walk and stop, smile and say something, say and say nothing. Then there would be the lighthouse which we would gaze all night over a bottle of wine. Trust me, it’s far more pleasing than looking into the moon, at times.

Tum Mile (slow version) continues to play endlessly, while I hit the publish button.

And yes, I am not a sailor, nor a writer. I am the same guy whom you would have almost missed like a train. Not sure if you already did!

Image credits: OneEighteen

Anything that has a blend of technology and sociology always seemed to fascinate me. Not for now, but ever since I modeled myself around the idea of “group studying” while in high school! The truth however was to to play, tweak and watch movies on computers, all in a very social fashion

This post originates with a backdrop of today’s entertaining meet for bloggers by Samsung at Choko La, Khan Market, featuring confirmed geek, Kishore Bhargava and India’s leading interior designer Rekha Nambiar.

It was my first acquaintance with Kishore after having heard about him, countless number of times from my colleagues Honey and Gaurav. Undoubtedly, he is a humble person and a good speaker. It was an entertaining session with one of the best presentation aesthetics. I admired the way he put forth his bio on the slideshow, followed by a number of humorous and sensible stories. I am sure, him being a geek is just one side of what a person he is.

Kishore elaborated on how we consume media for entertainment. Typically the storage media over the access medium. WiFi is the word and seamless connectivity is the need of the hour. With most digital devices used for entertainment@home having ports like HDMI and USB along with WiFi in many cases, the idea is to build, organize and manage a single repository of media – be it music, movies or pictures and stream it across devices within the periphery of your home. In case you can understand what a static IP is, and can manage a fast enough Internet connection, you can have the privilege of running a media server too! Now that’s entertainment 2.0.

I seriously enjoyed the session!

What followed next at Samsung bloggers’ meet was a session by Rekha Nambiar who traversed us through the slides talking about how shall an ideal home be set up using technology, products and likewise. From the importance of proper lighting  to ergonomics, she kept a tab on all things that make a good home entertainment experience.

Joining me were around 20+ bloggers, Mr. Madhavan Narayanan and a handful of other guests. In an exciting contest, Hardik, the Xbox evangelist at Microsoft, who recently moved in to Delhi from Mumbai, and was trying to beat the cold, won a Samsung LCD TV! Congrats dude. I might drop in someday for a gig and I do not drink water post 6 pm.

What all of us carried back was a T-shirt with our twitter handles and some good memories to share .:)

I admire the new concept for the bloggers’ meet where we had a blend of tech and otherwise. Not to mention Choko La served us a good assortment of food and drinks. Oh yes, with that I mean coffee

Kudos to Blogworks team including Rajesh, Amita, Manpreet, Rajika and other pretty girls whom I might have missed

I look forward to more such events in Delhi, not just by Samsung but by anyone who forms a part of Delhi and a larger set, India.

Image credit: Abhishek’s iPhone

There are times when this otherwise dormant blog of mine rises up to salute its readers! Today is one such day. After a jam packed fortnight followed by a peaceful entry to the new year, I was again fighting an emotional battle.

However, life around me is better now! Delhi is cold, swamped by dense fog as I draft this post and desperate to get a hint of sunlight to set things rolling.

The farewell to 2009 was awesome. We  had a great party (pics coming soon!), danced and ate like pigs and drove back to glory at 2 am! What preceded this was moving into the new office of Media Redefined in NOIDA. After a week long hunt for a quiet, cozy and clean place to get my team in and host some new folks, I settled down for the new den, 5 minutes from my residence. It’s been a week for I have been enjoying walking down to my office. It’s almost the new home for me now!

I am glad that 2 young folks are joining in our team this month, followed by 4 more from SRCC in May’10. I am looking forward to a new team to complement the requirement of the new assorted services on social technologies which we’re working on.

What’s next? A big thing! I am in talks with a leading multinational company for a large social media objective. Fingers crossed!

Not to forget, Media Redefined has it’s first anniversary on the 19th day of this month! Some surprises to get revealed. Watchout!

Wish you all a great year ahead! Cheers

We shall row it, on and on.

It’s 3 am and folks at MediaRedefined are at work. A couple of them are out to get some food. No we’re not at Kargil but at our cozy office in Vaishali. Warm jackets, half a dozen notebooks, A4 sheets, music, foot on table and redness in most eyes – guys are striving hard to get the project ready for the release.

A dozen pet bottles, empty packs of smoke and wafers died out midway before they reached the trash can in the kitchen. It’s chaos! But just as I believe, the best of the works one can ever do is done under chaos. No ease or peace can get you productivity as compared to the one achieved when the deadlines make a whistling sound in your ears and pass by.

Tonight is one such night. Yesterday was another one. May be I shall talk about it later sometime.

We’ve read, heard and said countless number of times that life is tough. Yes it is, but there is a toughness you might just love to see in your team. No, this was not to prove that we have one of the toughest teams in the world at work. But yes, there aren’t many I have seen like this before!

It’s been more than 12 hours since folks haven’t moved their asses off the chairs which I feel have lived their age. It’s time to get new chairs for the office. Before that, we need a new office in the first place.

Amongst a dozen people I answered and justified (or atleast, tried to) my choice of being an entrepreneur is that you see and mould things in your own good way and not just wait for them to happen. I know it’s easier said than done but I still love the fact. I am sure you getting it. Did I mention by now that I ain’t high? Trust me, if at all I am, it’s due to the lack of sleep and not an overdose of booze.

I have already crossed 300 words and still not sure of what to title this post as. It happens with me quite a few times that I think of a title when I am done with my appetite of adding words to it. I guess I am not done yet.

Yesterday, I was having a discussion with my co-founder, Gaurav that we could have screwed up the business within 4 months of starting up, or to sum it up, we nearly made no money in the first couple of months and how much is enough! Yeah, there is nothing as enough when you’re out to make money but there is a bare minimum to everything – just as it is 3 pegs to get to the tune – warna to gala bhi gila nahi hota!

I hope the propositions I  am working on mature well enough for us to ram into the projections.

I could go on, but may be the smell of food that the folks have just brought in is tempting enough to put a stop for tonight.

I shall keep them rolling, off and on – something which I love to do the most – wish it was the only thing I had to do – blogging! That get’s me the title of the post

Way to go!

Image credits: Alphageek

Update: The contest is over now and I have won the first prize – A Samsung Corby Phone + INR 10,000/- cash

Samsung is back with a yet another online campaign. This time, it’s a twitter contest. The idea is simple; 5 teams, each with a nominated team-lead tries to get 200 people in his team for the minimum to stay in the competition. Surprisingly, there are no women team leads to compete with

A twitter user who sends out any tweet with the hashtag of team’s name, for example #SamsungCorbyPink (that’s mine!) joins the team. Just one tweet. No change of teams allowed and no need to follow someone.

The contest has been on for a while and shall end up tomorrow, EOD. Our team has been leading throughout with some good competition with other teams. It has been fun with crazy support from fans, friends and friends of friends! Thank you one and all!

If all this was Greek for you, just hit the contest page and come back to support me! All you need to do is click on the this tweet and support my team – I am with the leading team – #SamsungCorbyPink. To join me, RT and win a Samsung phone + 10 movie tickets (courtesy team lead)! 

If the team emerges out as the 1st winner, you stand a chance to win a Samsung Corby Phone + 5 random people get couple movie tickets from me to watch a movie of your choice!

What are you waiting for? Join the bandwagon!

When life is fast, you need to follow up the gaps!

Winters are back! Back with a bang. The first breeze took me for a ride and now I am bed driven! Thanks to cold and fever that has been prevalent for the the past couple of days.

However, the atmosphere has turned to be a scenic beauty. While I write this, I can see nothing outside the window on the 6t floor, except the fog.

Work has kept me busy for the past couple of weeks and I am still left with a lot of to-do’s for now. Last month has been fun where in we started a campaign for the promotion of a brand, a product and a concept that’s new, unique and cool. The irony is, the concept is not to be revealed unless the portal goes live this month! We’re still running the contests and if you’re one contest freak, you might want to check it out!

A couple of developments have taken place in the past few months. Gaurav, my co-founder at Media Redefined has got a new car, while my car touches 5000 km mark this month! Honey, my other partner got a bicycle out of his sheer senses and craving! We’ve been looking out for a new office space with no success. It needs time and space, something which I need more than anything else today!

The good news is that we’ve  been contacted by SRCC and NSIT, Delhi. Two of the prestigious institutions in Delhi to hire folks for employment/internships. To add to this, I am also visiting my alma mater to hire a few interns from MCA for their 6 months vocational training, this Monday. It is so very nostalgic when your T&P officer speaks to you and invites you to your college to hire stuff, trust me!

Yesterday, I also received an email from L&T Infotech, the company that helped me keep many mouths shut while I was in the final year of my engineering! They’re asking me to give a confirmation against joining them in Jan-Mar’10 period. I was polite enough to reject the offer, despite all odds.

Media Redefined to me is more than a startup, it’s more than a firm/brand/company or group. To cut it short, it’s a family. Making money was easy for all 3 of us, much before we graduated or started this venture, for that matter. Infact, I made more money as a freelance professional blogger and web journalist than the salary I draw today at my own venture. But the amount the satisfaction, strength, willingness to work and excel I get today is matchless. No other company, in my thoughts would be able to give it to me, today. It’s not just about making money. There is a lot of augmented  learning that has come along in the past 11 months. We’ve grown to 6 from a team of 3 and we’re still expanding! Wanting to join the bandwagon? If you feel you have it in you, do not hesitate to write to us.

There are a couple of things which are under observation and shall soon be revamped at office. The same needs to be done with the personal life as well, only if think of it much!

There is a lot more that has happened and a lot of it is still going on. It’s difficult to put them all in one post. May be my subsequent fillers would do some justice to the thoughts.

More later. Cheers!

Image courtesy – ClawzCTR