Technology Blog of Vikas SN

The much hyped iPhone 3G is coming on BSNL networks soon. According to BSNL, it plans to launch the phone by Dec 2008 along with the launch of 3G network.

This might be a severe blow to its competitors Vodafone and Airtel, who currently hold the license to distribute iPhone in India since BSNL phones will support 3G network right from its inception unlike themselves.

But the big question is that whether BSNL will also carry the same price tag as its rivals Vodafone and Airtel or will opt for a price cut on the phone?

The only answer to this is to wait and watch.

Hoping that the BSNL's entry will lower the price of  iPhone. :)

What do you say?

BSNL Customers are having a tough time these days, with many of the prominent sites banning them from accessing their websites. The latest to join this bandwagon is 'Youtube'.

The Youtube site (http://in.youtube.com) has reportedly banned all BSNL Broadband users having IP Range of 59.x.x.x almost around 3 days ago. Although the new users of BSNL Broadband i.e. users with 117.x.x.x range have escaped this ban and can easily access the site directly. The reason for this sudden ban is still unknown.

So those who fall in the above mentioned range, can either access it through http://uk.youtube.com or you can access the website using proxies like Guardster or kproxy etc.

Update : After the ban of 4 days, Youtube is finally back :)

Vodafone has finally announced its prices for iPhone 3G. It is 31,000 for 8GB model and 36,100 for 16GB model. Therefore even a minute chance of buying it for me goes off!!!

What do you say? Do you still wanna buy iPhone 3G?

So you still interested ha!!! Then hurry to Vodafone Stores coz they have very limited stock it seems and also be ready to cough up 10,000 rupees as an advance to confirm your booking. The iPhone 3G will be available at select Vodafone Stores.

All you need to do is drop in at any of the select Vodafone Stores between August 20 and 21 and make the advance payment by cash or credit card. Don´t forget to show the iPhone booking SMS, which you would have received from us, when you visit the Vodafone Store to pay the advance. To find a Vodafone Store near you, click here.

Once you pay the advance, they will immediately give you an appointment date and time, starting August 22 when you can come and experience a full demonstration and collect your iPhone, all ready to use with your contacts and settings, by paying the balance amount.

And for Non Vodafone people i.e. people who do not have a vodafone connection, you will have to buy a vodafone connection.

Happy buying :)

Google has now stopped accepting new registrations for Google Pages. Existing users though need not worry, they can still continue using this product.

All your files, images and web pages stored in Google Pages however will get shifted to Google Sites later this year. This may cause a problem for people who are using its links in their websites as it will lead to broken links since Google Sites have a different URL structure as compared to Google Pages.

However a big difference between Google Pages and Google Sites is that Google Pages lets you upload externally created HTML pages which is missing in Google Sites. Thanks Amit.

In a significient step today, telecom regulator TRAI allowed ISPs to offer unrestricted Internet telephony services, a move that will further increase the competition in the domestic long distance segment and will result in lower STD tariffs.

"It is envisaged that customers will ultimately benefit from cost effective and innovative Internet telephony service. These recommendations will put Indian telecom sector in tune with global trends. The grey market tendencies shall be curtailed," TRAI said in a statement.

This move will now permit calls from personal computers to fixed line and mobile phones. Presently, a voice call can only travel between two computers and not from a mobile or a fixed phone. This is expected to open up huge channels of revenues for Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

TRAI also added that all ISPs interested to provide unrestricted Internet telephony should install "Lawful Interception" equipments, to make Internet telephony secure.

All I can say is Awesome!!! :)

Source: IBNLive.com

Effective from a few hours before, Rapidshare has banned all the IP's of BSNL, India. When a user tries to load the rapidshare page, an error is being displayed saying "Massive RapidShare hack attempts detected. IP block 59.90.0.0 - 59.99.255.255 blocked. Please call your internet provider."

There is no idea as to when Rapidshare will unban the IP's. Will update you on the situation ASAP. Keep watching this space.

Update 1: Rapidshare has banned all MTNL IP's also.

Update 2: Rapidshare is back!!!

Its official now!!!Firefox 3 has managed to set a Guinness World Record for the "Most Software Downloads in 24 hours". The final figure is 8,002,530 downloads.Congrats Mozilla on this feat.
Source: Spread Firefox.com

The Co-founder of Microsoft and one of the driving force in the company, Bill Gates spends his last day at the office on Friday. Bill Gates who was famous for his boyish face and nerdy manner epitomized the US software colossus. However Gates, aged 52, will remain the chairman of the Microsoft board of directors and the company's largest shareholder.

Gates will now turn his attention to the philanthropic organisation "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" he established with his wife which is by the way, the world's biggest philanthropic organisation.

Paul Allen, who teamed with Gates to start Microsoft in a garage in 1975, will be among those attending his farewell party at a gala dinner affair Friday night.

Gates leaves Microsoft in a time when the computer era is changing rapidly with new inventions being done every now and then and challenges from Internet Superpower "Google" and long time rival "Apple" (who make Macintosh Computers) are increasing slowly.

3 top executives from Microsoft will look into the duties of Bill Gates namely Ray Ozzie who will take over the duties of Chief Software Architect, Craig Mundie who will look into Bill Gates's chief research and strategy officer duties and Steve Ballmer who will be the CEO of Microsoft Corporation headquartered at Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft is losing Gates at a time when "cloud computing" (E.g. Google Docs) is fast becoming the next big thing and shaking the "packaged software" foundation (Microsoft Office comprising of Word, Excel and Powerpoint etc) on which the company's fortune is built and also Windows Vista has flopped big time with users still preferring its previous version Windows XP and also when Microsoft Zune, once considered iPod's competitor, has failed to create an impact.

But after 33 years at the helm of the company he co-founded with Paul Allen after dropping out of Harvard in 1975, Gates, who has virtually achieved his initial goal of putting a PC in every home, will leave the problems for someone else to sort out.

BYE BYE!!! Bill Gates, we will miss you.

Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla Group firm is on the verge of taking over Spice Communications, as the talks have reached the "advanced stage". The ball now is BK Modi's (Largest Share holder of Spice Communications) Court as he is in talks with Idea about the buyout price for his 40.8% stake in the company. According to the sources, the share price may lie between 77 -78 rupees per share i.e. around 22 billion rupees for Mr.Modi's stake.

After the merger, Idea Cellular will become the 5th largest mobile operator in India after Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone Essar and BSNL unseating Tata Teleservices.

This will also help Idea gain a strong foothold in Punjab and Karnataka circles where it had no representation though Idea already has operations in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra, the four circles where Spice had been granted licence to operate in but is still awaiting the spectrum allocation before it could roll out services.

Being a Spice customer myself, hoping that this deal would happen for better and the services of Spice improves and not vice versa

The exponential growth of the city in the last few years had robbed it from its much famed green cover. Many people had blamed and criticized the IT industry for this. But now the things are slowly changing in the "Garden City Of India". Many of the IT biggies likes Infosys, Wipro and TCS are doing their bit for the environment and developing eco-friendly buildings/campuses. The building are being made of natural stone and the canteen have been made plastic free, the water fountains using recycled water.

As Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys quoted in an interview "It is about doing things in a way in which water is recycled, waste management, so it's a whole host of things, which reduce the energy, water, and footprint of the building”.

Other Companies like SAP Labs are also chipping in to do their bit. The SAP Labs' facility in Bangalore are functioning mainly on natural light. The company sources say that they do not switch on the light till 6pm in the evening. Wipro is promoting their green computers, which uses a minimum amount of hazardous chemicals.

Though it is not just in Bangalore, Infy is planning a similar building in Jaipur and TCS is also opening a "green" campus in Bhubaneshwar.

Bangalore's Real estate sector is also jumping into this to provide the much needed infrastructure. "The Indian Green Business Council, which is part of the CII, in just the last 60 days has received applications for green home ratings for 50 to 60 million square feet of buildings,” says CEO, Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd, C Hariharan.

The potential of this "Green Building" market is pegged at 30 to 40 billion dollars and even though the initial costs are higher, IT companies are flocking towards this idea as it will help them earn some goodwill and also earn some brownie points or in this case "Carbon points" :-).

Of late, Celebrities have been hit by the blogging Virus. Be it the "Big B" Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir "The perfectionist" Khan or the industry's bad boy Salman Khan.

But now even politicians are entering into this territory. Our own Lalu prasad Yadav has opened a blog on mypopkorn.com and he intends to post every week on his blog. This has created a lot of interest among people because knowing Lalu's sense of humour, it would be a nice and humourous blog to read.

Though the first post is seriously political regarding the Gujjar's agitation and mishandling of the same by Vasundhara Raje's Government. Nevertheless his forthcoming posts may be packed with humour for which he is famous for.

To visit his blog click here.