The Randomness of Randomness

OCC-Kol became OCC kAdda 2.x, I joined my first job, etc…

// September 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // BarCamps, Events, Gadgets, Life, Open Coffee Club, iPhone

The blog-lethargy is back..

There’s been a lot since I last blogged.

Now, I just got 1-month old at my first job at Convonix and I am enjoying it like anything. I find the environment much better and more flexible than those conglomerates around. Convonix has just grown out of the startup phase a short time back and is now over 4 years old. The learning curve is definitely going to be steeper and more diverse than what it would have been had I been with one of those biggies. Although there are some aspects I will miss out on, viz. large-teamwork and exposure to systems & operations of a company that is huge, but the diversity that I am in for here at Convonix clearly covers up for what I am going to miss.

Pulling off Open Coffee Club in Kolkata, which is now OCC kAdda 2.x, was a great experience in itself and it is really gratifying to see the shape that it is taking in Kolkata. Even more gratifying are the efforts of Amitabh right out of Bangalore, towards co-ordination of the kAddas.

The next kAdda is supposed to be held at the Oxford Bookstore, Park Street tomorrow(21st Sept 2008) at 12 PM. To be there check http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1103922/ and to join the Google Group you may visit http://groups.google.com/group/occ-kolkata.

Meanwhile, my desperation for the iPhone has been killed by the helpless Airtel & Vodafone. They have still not got their 3G licenses and they might have to pay premiums to acquire them. So, they priced the iPhone 3G as high as you must be already knowing, also banking on the Indian market trends of initial sky-high prices.

While my want for the iPhone 3G was already turned down, I evaluated my options, and zeroed in on the HTC Touch, but ended up buying the Nokia E61i after the Touch that was ordered for me by The Mobile Store guys had some issues with its packaging PLUS my friend recommended not to go for the Touch, because of his confirmed reports of service issues(he is a Dopod user). So, now my new 20-day young E61i is something that I am intrigued to use after having used Nokia 3315 for 2 years and LG RD3330(Reliance) for another 2 years.

With regards to events, here in Mumbai, we have been meeting up every week to plan the next BarCampMumbai4 which is happening on the 4th & 5th of October. The next meeting is tomorrow in IIT. For more about BarCamps & BCM4, check http://barcampmumbai.org

Airtel takes a sudden lead

// August 8th, 2008 // No Comments » // Gadgets, iPhone

I am a bit late to blog this, but was a bit tied up through the day to do it. The grapevine was abuzz that it would be Vodafone who would first launch the iPhone, and that would be 15 days before Airtel. But, Airtel has suddenly made the announcement today that it will be launching the iPhone 15 days from now, that is 22nd August. Although, Airtel has not given any hint about the price. Maybe they’re waiting for Vodafone’s offerings to be announced.

The quick action from Airtel may also be seen as an attempt from Airtel to boost up initial sales so as to avoid lower sales due to the bad name it has been earning. I have lately noticed that every now and then someone from Delhi/Mumbai is complaining on twitter, jaiku, kwippy and other microblogging platforms about their bad Airtel connections.

Anyways, it is too quick to comment on whether to go for Airtel or for Vodafone for our iPhones, and only time will tell who surfaces out as a winner in this race, which Airtel currently leads.

Too many rumours and too much hype about the iPhone

// July 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Gadgets, Personal, Technology, iPhone

I agree Tech 2.0 is big and can be relied upon. It is the one which triggered the news about iPhone 3G launching on 18th of August by Vodafone. But the grapevine, as notorious as it is supposed to be, has added all sorts of rumours about its price.

But it is for sure that if the iPhone does launch for the price of 12,000, I would really consider buying it, but only after I find out a bit more about the data plans that are going to be attached to it.

I eagerly await Vodafone’s & Airtel’s press releases to tell us more about the iPhone in India. That would decide the fate of the phone that would reach into my hands.

When will I be able to lay my hand on the iPhone 3G?

// July 11th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Gadgets, India, Technology, Wordpress, iPhone

Loads of Indians are awaiting the launch of the iPhone 3G in India. I am equally awaiting for the phone to unleash itself into my hands.

I was happy to know that instead of the earlier reports of the iPhone 3G being launched in October this year, the iPhone 3G is most likely to come forth around the end of August, although only with 2G operations.

Also, it makes sense to wait for the iPhone to join the bandwagon. For the same price-tag that the phones in market are available, I would get 8 GB instead of 2/4GB(which most smartphones are limited to) alongwith some really amazing features, an iPod and the future ability to use 3G.

Also, for all the bloggers around, I just thought of mentioning about one of the very very few free open-source apps coming up on the iPhone’s AppStore. The Wordpress for iPhone app is going to be a part of the apps going to be available in AppStore, using which we shall be able to blog on our wordpress.com blogs smoothly over the iPhone. Although it is not yet clear whether people with native Wordpress installs like me and many others would be able to enjoy this software.

Anyways, I have already pre-registered with both, Airtel and Vodafone and I hope to lay my hands on the baby soon!