Nokia : India activities

Monday, and I've to go through all the unread posts which I usually do not check on weekends. This time there were quiet some 'Nokia' and 'India' in the titles, thought I should share:

Nokia all set to overwhelm India with Ovi
Nokia realigns itself with market needs
Nokia production reaches 125 mn in India
Nokia brand worth Euro 35 billion, at number 5 globally

BTW, the biggest of the news is that India is fast approaching to be the 2nd largest Mobile Market, first being China. This is anticipated to happen by the mid of April. Right now US is the second largest but the way our mobile subscribers are growing by mid April we will surpass the US.

"According to CTIA website (an association of wireless operators in US), US currently has 256 million subscribers and adds about two to three million subscribers every month while China adds around six to seven million subscribers a month. India's monthly wireless subscriber addition of eight to nine million a month is the highest."

v21 firmware available for the N95

Firmware v21.0.016 is now available for the N95.
Early N95 adopters should now have less reasons to complain. Well I was among the early adopters of the N95 and was rather pissed of by the wobbly slider, leaking light from the slider and the keypress bug. I even went on to sign this petition where N95-1 users were said to be guinea pigs. But with v20.0.015 the keypress bug disappeared. And now according to Vaibhav Sharmas post we can even have the wobbly slider fixed(new mechanism).
This new firmware brings in WRT/Flash support and the usual bugfixes.
So with all these updates the poor old N95-1 is very much the N95 8G minus the hardware changes.(large screen,no lens cover, etc...)

Yahoo messenger for Reliance phones

The best messenger experience I have is with YahooGo which was once available for 2nd Edition devices. It was a Symbian application but with a desktop experience. Wonder why they discontinued it for 3rd Edition.

Although OctroTalk can be set up for a yahoo account, yahoo's own messenger would have been great. Now yahoo messenger is available on Reliance mobiles. From the site, it seems like there will be a lot of promotionss through TV ads and radio. Also logging on to yahoo messenger with your reliance phone could win you a MotoRaZr. But as I said in my last post I really hate Reliance's billing. They are charging Rs 5/login. 10p/10Kb is ok but Rs 5 for logging in is too much I think. The site does not mention handsets supported but it will be a J2ME application. Couldn't try the app myself so do comment if anyone has already done so.

Nokia N78, first brush with FP2

My first S60 FP2 experience, with the N78. Lots of new features

-UI Effects : Transitions, Slide in etc...
-3 softkeys like the S40 3rd Ed
-Standby Theme : Horizontal Icon bar/Basic/Vertical icon bar
-Menu View : Grid/List/Horseshoe/V-Shaped
-Access point priority
-The N78 has a sensitive navigation dial for menu/list navigation(something like ipod)
-FM Transmitter :Play songs in device through any compatible FM receiver.
-Radio shows 2 options : Visual Radio and Internet Radio
-Themes Icon now present in Tools

Nice features. Didn't get much time to spend with it but I think what they've done is added a lot of personalization. I personally didn't like the keypad. But even with so much of UI enhancements the phone felt quite fast.

Nokia is No.1 in India

Nokia is the No.1 handset vendor in India and China and Rediff has put an interesting article about why it is so. Although, I agree about its numero uno status, I never got any convincing answers about why it remains on top.

Every other brand out there has an equivalent phone to almost every Nokia model make-wise and price-wise. If you search the net there are plenty of posts about bad customer service at Nokia Care. Then there was this exploding battery thing last year.

I think that a few earlier models have done the trick for Nokia. It was the time when incoming calls were made free and the Nokia 3310 was within 10K. It was the top selling phone at that time with every other person with it. Then there was 3315, which even lowered the 3310 rates. At this time 3310 reached even the villages/rural areas. With incoming charges gone every one with a slightly higher budget would go for the 3315 else the 3310. Both these phones were very sturdy, without any flaws and had user friendly menus. So the word was spread, Nokia phones are sturdy with a good resell value and easier to use. This cycle keeps going on with Nokia coming up with just another model every year that was a hit. I think that this phone (3310) gave Nokia its loyal customers in India.

Google app makes searching faster

Well thats what their blog says. The Google Search application which was released for Symbian phones is now available for Windows mobiles too. According to google such apps make searching 40% faster. Well I agree since the app is always running and can be invoked with the pencil key, steps like going to the Web application-Clicking bookmark/typing address etc... are no longer required. The app remembers the Access point you chose last and the next time you just press the pencil key, even before typing the search keyword the app makes the connection and waits. Every possible waiting time like selection of access point, connecting after the keyword has been input etc... has been removed.
Although small this application is not complicated, saves lot of user time and makes use of most of the things which are already provided by Symbian/S60. Like they did not make an interface for showing the search results , instead used the built-in browser.
So this app goes in my list of must have applications ;)

Finally connected

Its been almost 3 months now I've shifted to my new place and finally today I've got an internet connection at home. I called almost every ISP for a broadband connection (Reliance BroadNet, Sify, TataIndicom, Hathway) but as my building is a new construction that too quiet far from city, always got a negative or no reply from them.
So I had 2 options now TataIndicom wireless or Reliance Wireless. After reading a lot of reviews and consulting friends I opted for TataIndicom because of better customer service. I've heard a lot of issues about Reliance's billing.
Got the connection within 3 days of applying, the speed is not great but good enough for surfing/mailing.
Will be able to make regular posts now, HURRAH ;)

Indian Railways go mobile

Now book tickets, view trains, check pnr status etc... via your mobile phone. Windows Mobile and Java applications available for download.

Official site here.

Requirements : A GPRS capable phone with the service activated by the operator.

Google Gears for Mobile

Google gears will now be supported by Windows Mobile browsers but will soon be available to other browsers as well.

Google Gears : Google's technology with which web applications run on the browsers even if you are offline.

Read more here.