Update on 8th August: Airtel starts selling iPhone from 22nd August 08.
iPhone's official launch is getting near and to fuel the excitement both Vodafone and Airtel have started booking for iPhone.
To book iPhone on Vodafone click here or sms IPHONE to 56789.
To book iPhone on Airtel click here.
For those who still don't know much about iPhone, click here to have a 360 view of it.
While I am waiting to finally lay my hands on iPhone when its launched in India in a few months, I am also very excited about what I would like to call a Gphone.
Technically there is nothing called a Gphone, instead there is a mobile OS called Android released by Google. T-Mobile USA is expected to launch first Android device this year and reportedly its manufactured by HTC which is numero uno windows mobile device manufacturer. Interesting :-)
Android Community released first live images and videos of Android demo phone last month and I was really impressed by the great user interface on that phone. In many ways its looks quite similar to iPhone's interface where you can do most of the stuff using your finger, but you expect Google to do some innovations, don't you? And that's what Google did.
I really liked the phone unlock option on the demo phone, you can just slide your finger in a preset pattern to unlock the phone. They also demonstrated how the built in compass in the phone lets you pan-around the location based images just like you are into some kind of virtual tour of that location. That's very cool I must say. Anyway to check out all the images and videos you need to click here.
So go ahead and see for yourself what Google has to offer and let me know what do you think.
Blogging scene in India is suddenly hotting up with many celebrities joining in the bandwagon. Some recent posts from Amitabh Bacchan and Aamir Khan on their respective blogs have been in news for all the wrong reasons. Anyway I welcome these celebrities to blogosphere and wish that more and more people take up blogging and connect with each other on one to one basis.
Here is a list of some Celebrity Bloggers from India:
1. Amitabh Bacchan - The biggest movie star
http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/
2. Aamir Khan - Another great actor who is also called Mr. Perfectionist
http://www.aamirkhan.com/
3. Salman Khan - Another great actor
http://duskadum.blogspot.com/
4. Rahul Bose - The sensible and subtle movie star
http://blogs.ibibo.com/RahulBose
5. Ram Gopal Verma - Film Director, Powerful and hard-hitting drama
http://rgvarma.spaces.live.com/blog/
Then there is:
6. Very popular politician and current Railway Minister Laloo Yadav and
7. Famous movie director Vikram Bhatt
Airtel and IFFCO have formed a JV called IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) to provider mobile services in villages specially designed for farmers and as per press release by Airtel:
"On offer will be affordable mobile handsets bundled with Airtel mobile connection. The farmer will also get access to a unique VAS platform that will broadcast 5 free voice messages on mandi prices, farming techniques, weather forecasts, dairy farming, animal husbandry, rural health initiatives and fertiliser availability etc. on a daily basis. In addition, the farmer will be able to call a dedicated helpline, manned by experts from various fields, to get answers to their specific queries.
Bharti Airtel will offer competitive calling rates @ 50 paise/minute for calls between IFFCO members."
The Economic Times further reports that: "The JV will bring several hand-cranked products of common use. These include transistors, community radios and torches." It also goes on to say that farmers will be able to charge their mobile phones without power by using some wind-up charger, which I think is really interesting.
I personally welcome this initiative as its a good example of technology working at the grass-root level, however talking about farmers in India also reminds me of very serious issue of farmers' suicide and I just hope that something could be done to improve this grim situation.
28th June - Book iPhone
Update on 12th May: Airtel going to launch the iPhone as well.
Its official now. Vodafone India announced that its going to launch the much awaited iPhone in India later this year. Media speculates that it will be launched sometime in September this year. I am already on Vodafone so that's good I will not need to unlock iPhone to use on other carriers if I buy one.
This news is everywhere but I am taking CIOL's word on it being an official announcement by Vodafone. Unfortunately Vodafone has no press release on its website. Infact their latest press releases are dated February 2008. Considering that I have never received a response after leaving feedback on their website and that their website was hacked last year, it seems Vodafone does not take its website seriously.
Anyway coming back to iPhone, media is of the view that its going to be priced around Rs. 27,000 to Rs. 30,000 range so its not going to be easy on your pockets however die-hard fans will buy it anyway for any price I guess. 8GB version will be launched initially followed by 16 GB version in a few months.
Related post: iPhone is here...
