3G auction schedule

Auction design, bid document to be prepared by November 30
Inviting operators to bid: December 15
Prequalification of bidders: December 31
Auction to be completed by January 15
Signing of contracts with successful bidders by January 25
Depositing of first tranch of auction money by January 31

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MOTOMING A1600 launched

Motorola has now launched their next-gen, GPS-enabled, touch screen mobile phone, the MOTOMING A1600 in India. The MING A1600 provides consumers with lifetime free access to fully navigable maps and landmarks of 30 major cities in India, allowing voice-guided navigation across major national and state highways. For an additional 130 major cities in India, consumers can view major landmarks in the city. The handset features inbuilt GPS navigation and a full package of productivity, mobile music and multimedia functions.

"MOTOMING A1600, our first GPS-enabled mobile phone in India, is powered with next-generation features and applications in an extremely attractive design," said Lloyd Mathias, senior director and head of sales and distribution, India & South West Asia, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Our GPS navigation service is free with no activation charges, independent of mobile networks and can be used even without inserting the SIM card. We have ensured that all major cities in the country are a part of this unique service. This Diwali, we invite Indian consumers to experience the next-generation GPS-enabled navigation device, the MOTOMING A1600."

The latest in the MING series, the A1600 has the distinctive "MING" transparent flip cover with a slimmer, sleeker, stylish design. It supports turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation and easy search of points-of-interest. It also provides coverage across national and state highways in India. Motorola’s MotoNav application offers unique features like route simulation and location based reminders. Consumers can set alerts and reminders when approaching chosen destinations and plan a route before starting a journey and view a suggested route summary or read a list of directions.

MotoNav offers three modes of navigation from which to choose - shortest, quickest or pedestrian path, along with points of interest that show up on the screen as the users approach the site. The MotoNav application allows users to mark favorite destinations for quick navigation guidance and to retrieve a history of previously traveled paths. It also allows users to send SMS location information to friends. Powered by MapmyIndia, India maps come preloaded on the memory card of MING A1600.

The MOTOMING A1600 comes with a 1GB MicroSD card and an expandable memory capacity of up to 4GB. The mobile phone also comes with an in-car charger that lets users utilize the GPS voice-guidance over long drives while keeping the phone powered.

The on board 3.2 megapixel camera comes with geotagging. All that the consumer needs to do is add location details on the captured images utilizing the GPS navigation feature and later use this data to map the images exact locations onto sites like Google Earth. A Panorama mode is also available in the camera’s features. Other features include mobile e-mail, a business card reader, document viewer and Motorola’s handwriting technology.

The MOTOMING A1600 comes with features for cricket fans. Consumers can learn cricketing strokes from former Indian captain Krish Srikkanth; download free video batting tips of more strokes; and keep track of live cricket matches with live text commentary, partnership charts, and wagon wheel. In addition, the MOTOMING A1600 comes with three full-fledged cricket games. It also has Motorola’s Music ID and provides users direct access to MOTOMUSIC. The MING A1600 also provides video capture and video playback at 30 fps. It supports Class 2 Bluetooth wireless technology.

MOTOMING A1600 is available at a best buy price of Rs. 14,599 (MRP: Rs 15,847) at MOTOSTORE. The MING A1600 includes a 1GB microSD card (preloaded with navigation maps), 27MB of user-available memory expandable up to 4GB through a microSD card, a wired stereo headset, a CD-ROM with Roxio PC software to transform videos to a format compatible to the MING A1600, and a MOTOMUSIC scratch card offering 50 free wallpapers and music video downloads.

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Airtel Corporate SBI Plan 149/-

Look at the plan AIRTEL gives to its SBI (State Bank of India) Employees... in Mumbai....(only to SBI people strictly)

Plan Charges. 149/- Monthly Rental ( no clip charges for lifetime)

SMS Charges

Airtel to any mobile in india - .30 paisa (Flat)

Call Charges

Airtel to any mobile (local) .30 paisa per mint.
Airtel to landline (local) .60 paisa per mint
Airtel to STD (Airtel) 1 Rs
Airtel to STD any other 1.5 Rs.

Now The BEST PART OF IT....

FREE FREE FREE FREEEEEEEEEEE

350 MINTS LOCAL (ANY MOBILE)
200 SMS LOCAL ANY MOBILE
50 MINTS FREE STD ANY MOBILE OR LANDLINE

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limited edition HP Pavilion DV 4 and HP Pavilion DV 5 series

Hewlett-Packard (HP), has unveiled three new inspirational HP Imprint designs – 'Intersect', 'Renewal' and 'Intensity' imprints on their HP Pavilion DV 4 and HP Pavilion DV 5 series.

The imprint range boasts of an infinity glass finish, which enables edge-to-edge high glass screen for ultimate viewing pleasure, yhas an illuminated logo and color matched keyboards.

Users can add fun to video chats with special effect filters, animated avatars using advanced face tracking technology and video recorded clips with the Cyber Link YouCam 2.0. Edit clips, add sound tracks, effects and files and make their videos fun with the Cyber Link DVD suite.

The laptop is powered by Intel Centrino 2 Processor. and features the NVIDIA Ge Force 9600 M GT.

The limited edition HP Pavilion DV 4 and HP Pavilion DV 5 series will be available in India from the first week of November 2008 in the range of Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 55,000.

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ROKR EM30 in India

The EM30 features a 2-inch TFT display and although it may not have a touch sensitive keypad it does have specific application-centric keys that are activated depending on the application that’s activated. Other features include a 2MP camera media player, FM radio with RDS and microSD card support (up to 8GB). The EM30 also has Bluetooth with A2DP, supports EDGE/GPRS and USB 2.0. You can also opt to use your own earphones since the handset has a standard 3.5mm earphone socket. CrystalTalk is of course Motorola’s standard for all their new handsets and the EM30 is also compatible with downloads from Motorola’s online MOTOMUSIC site.

The handset is priced at Rs. 8,959 which seems like a better price than the E8 obviously, but let’s hope the handset fares better in the review. Stay Tuned.

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Best Buy Laptops and Computers, these Diwali

Diwali is normally a season of happiness and joy in India. However, given the somber atmosphere that prevails as the country’s economy slumps and recession sets in, some predict a low-key Diwali. But I'm optimistic – while sales may be down at the moment, I have no doubt things will look up soon. So here is a list of products designed to cheer up any computing enthusiast this Diwali.

Acer Aspire One

One of the biggest developments in 2008 has easily been the introduction of netbooks. These light and portable machines have achieved a perfect balance between functionality and price and brought about a price point revolution in mobile computing. With this new segment emerging, there has been a rash of releases with each manufacturer trying to outdo one another.

In this mad rush, our clear favorite is Acer’s Aspire One. The Aspire One has a styling reminiscent of the company’s Gemstone Blue range and is designed to look more like a stylish high-end ultraportable than the budget laptop it actually is. Its lid has a mirrored finish, with a range of available colors: dark blue, green, red, black, and white.

The LCD panel is an 8.9 inch backlit LED panel with a native resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, and offers a very good experience. Connectivity-wise, the Aspire One is similar to other netbooks. It has three USB ports, a 0.3 MP camera, a multi-format card reader, VGA-out and standard audio plugs for speakers/headphones.

The Aspire One is priced at Rs 21,000 for the Windows XP variant.

Dell Studio 15

Dell, which has virtually monopolized the laptop market in India with its Inspiron range, recently introduced the Studio range – a hybrid creation combining the budget Inspiron and the stylish XPS. The new range has inherited design elements from the XPS M1330 and M1530 laptops, including a wedge-shaped profile and a drop hinge design. The range also borrows from the Inspiron laptops with regard to optional color-coordinated accessories and peripherals such as backpacks and slip covers, mice, and more.

While the design element makes the laptop looks funky, its specifications are pretty sound. It offers a variety of Intel C2D processors, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and a 15.4-inch LCD panel. For further details about this range, check out this link.

Sony Vaio TZ38

The latest iteration of the Vaio TZ series is as impressive as its predecessors. It has a beautiful, slim body with dimensions of 227 x 198.2 x 22.5 mm, and weighs a mere 1.17 kg. The design is superb, with a thin frame that manages to mesh the lid, keyboard area, and underside in a very sturdy frame. The construction is very solid – it's made of nothing less than carbon fiber.

The screen is vintage Sony. It’s a backlit matte-finish LED panel that offers a widescreen resolution of 1366 x 768 (16:9) in an 11.1 inch frame. For a small laptop, the TZ38 is well-equipped. It offers a dual-layer DVD-RW, fingerprint reader, 2 USB ports, a Firewire port, 2.0 EDR Bluetooth and a 3-in-1 media card reader. On the wireless front it supports 802.11n and this is a good thing.

The TZ38 sports an Intel C2D UV 7700 processor (1.33 GHz); 2GB of DDR-667 RAM, a 48GB SSD, and its graphics are powered by Intel GMA950 graphics subsystem. It costs Rs 1,40,000.

Apple iMac 20-inch

One could write reams on the iMac and still fall short. The now-iconic desktop range has seen sharp growth, ever since Intel became a staple feature in the Mac universe. The latest iteration of the 20-inch desktop is now cheaper than before, and comes fairly loaded.

The 20-inch entry level iMac sports a 2.4 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 20-inch Backlit LED panel , ATI HD 2400 XT GPU, and a 250GB HDD. The best part of course remains the Apple OSX, which in its current incarnation (Leopard) offers what's probably the most sophisticated GUI experience of any current-day OS. It’s incredibly intuitive and, despite being fairly closed-source, can do everything a PC can – and do it arguably better.

HP Touchsmart PC

Taking a leaf out of Apple’s book, HP recently introduced its Touchsmart PC which is designed in a manner similar to the Mac – an integrated CPU/monitor monolithic design. The Touchsmart however takes things a step further, by offering Tablet-like functionality. This, coupled with Windows Vista, makes for a very intriguing experience.

The Touchsmart comes fairly loaded, with a 2.16 GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, a 22-inch LCD panel with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050, and a 500GB HDD. We currently have the Touchsmart PC in our labs and have so far found it to be an excellent product. (The review should be live tomorrow.) It retails for Rs 87,000.

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