Wi-Fi enabled, Mobile Ready, Solar Tent

I really struggled to think of a suitable title for this post. There are so many things about this innovative tent concept that you just can't describe it with a few words.

Anyway let's get started:

1. Do you notice that the tent is glowing in night as shown in the image to left? Now isn't that cool. Here is how exactly it works. You send a SMS to your tent and it starts glowing to tell you its location, so that you don't loose it :-)

2. This tent uses a special fabric to capture solar energy which can then further be used in many ways in your tent.

3. Wi-Fi and Mobile Charging - Yes true you have wi-fi inside this tent to use internet and you have a charging facility to charge mobiles or any portable device. Charging is done by using magnetic induction so no wires are required.

4. Internal Heating - Now the energy generated by the tent can also be used to automatically heat tent's groundsheet once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

This tent concept is a vision by Orange and has been designed in association with Kaleidoscope. For official Press Release click here.

Now I don't know how many people will actually like to use wi-fi or charge their mobiles while camping but I think automatic heating, night glow will definitely be handy and charging can be used to charge cameras as well. So let me know what do you think about this tent concept? Thanks for reading :-)

Best Mobile Handset

Mobile World Congress 09 is over and as expected there were lot of product and technology launches, you can read Marin Perez's post for a quick round up of the event. 

So I am not going to talk about MWC here, but I am going to talk about something which is equally exciting and that is a new mobile phone called INQ1. INQ1 won the award for Best Mobile Handset beating likes of Nokia E71 and T-Mobile G1.

INQ1 is first phone launched by a company called INQ. INQ likes to call its phone a Social Mobile as it has Skype, Facebook, Windows Messenger and Last FM built right in. For a test drive of this wonderful phone head right here. 

I think these phones will have a mass appeal not just because they are really great, I hear the pricing is equally great as well. You should be able to lay hands on these phones by shelling out just little over $100. Now that will really help in this recession  :-)

Before ending my post I would like to mention about very interesting approach to packaging of this phone.  In their own words they chose to turn its packaging into an object to cherish, not chuck, so an artistic illustration is what you find on the box cover. For more details about their ART connection click here.

To sum up they have got the concept right, have got the pricing right and have even got the packaging right. Oh my god - I really love this company.

Mobile RFID in India

Today Microsoft announced the general availability of its BizTalk RFID Mobile integration software, which it released in beta form in April. The software enables mobile computers and other devices that run either the Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows CE 5.0 operating systems to integrate data directly into Microsoft's BizTalk server environment.

BizTalk RFID Mobile empowers businesses by giving their workers tools to make them more efficient and more productive," Microsoft senior product manager for application platform Paul Sanford told RFID Update. "We are seeing very diverse adoption, both by industry and size of company."

As an example, Sanford described how RiteCare, a pharmacy chain in India, used the beta version of BizTalk RFID Mobile to support its growing operations. The 10-store chain uses RFID to identify incoming shipments at its warehouse, cross dock shipments to stores when goods are needed quickly, and to manage warehouse inventory. Working with S3Edge, a Microsoft partner in India, RiteCare created an RFID system that went from pilot to production in just four weeks.

Source: http://www.rfidupdate.com/news/12082008.html

Free Group SMS and Google SMS Search

I am going to talk about 2 interesting but India specific Google offerings here. Although Indians don't SMS/text as much as they used to in good old days, there are reasons to chear courtesy Google. These 2 SMS services are called:

1. Google SMS Channels - Here you can create a Channel or SMS Group and all the subscribers will be getting the channel content by SMS for free. Now this Channel can pull content from Google News and Google groups so once you point your channel to any group or news, you will be getting new content automatically by SMS. Cool isn't it? But it does not end there - You can even pull content from your or any blogger powered blog or any RSS source, but the best part is that you can use the channel to send same SMS message to all your friends and contacts. You can just create a personal channel and invite all your contacts to it and when you post message to channel via web or by SMS it will reach everybody. So practically you can now send multiple SMSes at the cost of one sms or even for free if you use web option. Try now

2. Google SMS Search - Google SMS search is plain, simple and straight-forward like all things Google. You just need to send you search query as sms to Google India No.  9-77-33-00000 and they send you search results by sms immediately. I have tried it and it really works and here is one more Google advantage for you - since this is a normal 10 digit no and not a special no, probably you will be charged for sending only a normal sms, which is as low as 10 paise with some SMS plans. So probably Google is not looking to rip you off by having a special 4 or 5 digit no. 

BTW you can use Google search for many useful things beside search like - cricket scores, Indian Railways train schedules & ticket status, PNR, horoscopes, movie showtimes, restaurant information and more. For more info you can go here.

Oh I forgot to tell you, you can subscribe to my blog by SMS from here :-)

Virgin rings in India, pays you to recieve call

Virgin Mobile was launched a few days back in India in traditional Virgin (read Path-breaking) style. Timing couldn't have been better for me as I just finished reading his autobiograpy.

Richard Branson came flying down a Hotel to launch the Virgin Mobile logo. Virgin Mobile is a youth targetted mobile service and is available on CDMA networks of Tata Teleservices which operates its Mobile services called Tata Indiacom.
Mr. Branson talked about briging 10 firsts to Indian telecom market, the most interesting in my opinion is their offer to give 10 paise per minute to their users for every incoming call.

The launch was followed by daringly different TV commercials. I am personally very excited by Virgin's entry in Indian telecom space even if they don't own a network here. I hope they will bring in lot of excitement and set benchmarks in customer services as they have done everywhere they have gone. However I am not sure if they can achieve this with Tata Indicom running support operations for Virgin. Tata Indicom's customer service has generally been very poor like most other telecom operators in India.

Tata and Virgin are not in complete sync was also evident from statements from both the sides during the launch. Richard Branson said "At Virgin Mobile we believe that the existing operators are all pursuing the same strategy: to get as many subscribers as quickly as possible. We want to deliver a more tailored, more relevant offering for a single, distinct segment,"

and in the save event Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Teleservices, said, "This association would support our efforts to be the fastest growing mobile network in India."

I guess that means while Branson wants to not pursue strategy of just getting a lot of subscribers quickly, Tata's are just concentrating on a lot of subscribers as their primary mission.

Well good luck to Virgin and I hope some of Virgin culture and craziness will rub off to Tata Indicom as well in due course. I am too sad that I won't be able to have a first hand experience of Virgin service myself as I don't want to change my number and I am on GSM as of now. May be Richard Branson should put his wait behind in ushering in the Number Portability regime in India so that users from other networks can choose Virgin if they want to.

A personal note to Richard if he ever reads it: I always admired you and after reading your Autobiography I am in awe of you and will probably even risk a balloon flight to meet you :-)

Use iPhone from India or just anywhere

Update on 15th July 09: This is a very very old post and I notice that many of you are reading this because you want to use your iPhone in India. You will probably be dissatisfied after reading the rest of post as it does not talk much about iPhone, but about an interesting remote device testing/experience service called DeviceAnywhere. So to make your visit worthwhile I am updating this post so that you probably get what you were actually looking for.

To answer your questions about using your iPhone in India - Yes you can ofcourse use your iPhone in India by following ways:

1. You can roam on Indian service providers' network. Roaming charges apply.
2. If you have an unlocked iPhone, you can just buy and use any Indian SIM card and pay local call charges.
3. If you have a locked iPhone you can get it unlocked by most mobile shops in India, it takes just 10 mins and does not mean opening your iPhone or tampering with hardware in any way.
4. If you are technically inclined you can even unlock the iphone yourself. Just check out - iPhone Dev Team, Installer and Cydia.
5. I have also read that Airtel is now also selling unlocked iPhones and even unlocking the already sold iPhones for free.

------------------- End of Update, Older post follows --------------------

Well its true you can really press keys of an iPhone with a live network sitting anywhere in the world. Ofcourse you won't be really able to touch the iPhone but you will be able to do anything with the phone, except probably throwing it away ;-)

This is made possible by using subscription based services from DeviceAnywhere, which allows you to remotely access real handsets over the internet.

They support all types of handsets on multiple networks and are basically targeting mobile developers who would like to test their applications on variety of handsets without owning each one of them.

However in my opinion potential mobile handset buyers can also use the service to get a feel of the handset and test the UI before actually going and buying it.

And since iPhone has been such a craze all over the world, I am sure enthusiasts from countries where it has not been launched yet would be interested in accessing it remotely and they can do it by paying a monthly fee of $200 and $18 for per hour of usage. But hey here is the good news, they give away 3 hours for free to anybody who signs up and I think its enough time to try out a new phone or even an iPhone so I think you guys should just go ahead and give it a try :-)

Update on 7th Many 08: Vodafone bringing iPhone to India in September 2008

Google Search using SMS

Just read on Alootechie about the launch of Google SMS in India. You can now search by simply sending an sms to 54664 (5GOOG) from your mobile. It will cost you upto Rs. 3 for each sms you send, however BSNL postpaid subscribers pay just 80 Paise for sending sms.

Some example of queries include: pizza andheri west mumbai, movies hyderabad, translate hello in french, weather Delhi etc. You can perform 9 types of searches/queries using Google SMS which makes it very very useful in my opinion. Currently this service is available only in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

As an Google admirer I welcome Google SMS in India and await their rollout in more cities and with more service providers. Incidently google is also experimenting with mobile advertising and it will be interesting when google starts inserting ads in SMS and shares revenue with service providers and mobile users can use the service for free, I mean they don’t even pay for sending the message. That will surely be a google way to do the things. I am keeping my fingers crossed till then.

Now book your Yatra on Mobile

Good news for all the the travel-lovers, now not only you can Make Your Trip on Mobile, but you can also now plan a Yatra on mobile. Seriously www.yatra.com another big travel portal from India, follows MakeMyTrip in launching mobile application to book flights, hotels, cars etc.

Its also a java application like in case of MakeMyTrip so it will run on many mobile phones available in India, you can check out list of compatible mobile handsets here. So if you have a GPRS enabled handset with Java support you can YATRA to 2622 and they will send you link for download.

Mobile advertising platform from mobile-worx

On June 21 I wrote about 160by2.com, an advertisement supported free sms service from smscountry.com. Just came to know about zestadz which is a complete mobile advertising platform and it allows advertisers to advertise on SMS, WAP sites and even mobile games.

Interestingly they are inviting game and content developers to join them and embed their ad-displaying code in their mobile games/content. They will share revenue with them as well, which I think can prove to be an attractive proposition for many developers and content developers.

They claim 1 million impressions per month on SMS traffic, however they don't reveal if they have some tie-up with carriers to send such sms or have some users signed up, who have opted for letting them embed ads in their sms in return for free sms or other goodies.

Anyway a good mobile advertising option, I must say.

160by2.com offers free SMS service for India

160BY2.com a website by the SMS solution provider - smscountry is offering free SMS to any mobile phone in India if you allow them to send the contextual advertisement with them. From what I have read on their website, they seem to mimicking the Google Adwords model.

Nonetheless I think its a good option. College students and youths can use it to send unlimited text messages to their friends for free. However I feel there are 3 issues with this service:

1. They don't allow to send sms/text directly from user's mobile phone. One has to visit their website to send sms. I think technology is there which can make it possible to send sms from mobile. Probably they are first experimenting with this approach and if they get some advertisers hooked up, they will begin offering sms originating from mobiles to be delivered to the designated mobile without the need for website.

2. As a policy to prevent spams they offer option to opt out to receiver, but you need to again goto their website to opt-out. This can be very annoying for someone when he is not able to go on internet to opt-out. There should be someway to opt-out using sms itself.

3. They don't allow sending SMS to a list. You can only send sms one by one to your friends, so that kinda puts you off from forwarding some joke to all of your friends.

I feel if they are able to tie-up with some operators like Hutch, Airtel on revenue sharing basis then they can really rake in the moolahs from advertisers and operators can offer a special SMS package to willing subscribers and subscribers can send unlimted SMS messagees for free. I see this will be a win-win situation for everybody.

Overall I think its a good service and I wish them all the luck. Currently their service is by invitation only. However you can reach their invitation page at - http://160by2.com/requestinvite.aspx and request for an invite.

MS advertises Windows Mobile devices in India

In a clearly visible agressive marketing campaign Microsoft is advertising about windows mobile powered phones on behalf of device manufacturers. I saw recent ad with devices from i-mate, O2, HP, Motorola and HTC. Interestingly in India Symbian dominates the mobile OS market with Nokia leading the way in terms of device shipments.

India being 2nd most populous country in the world and with a swelling mobile subscriber base, it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to advertise windows mobile powered devices and in-turn make its mobile os popular and replicate the windows success once again with mobiles.

Another interesting fact is that there is no piracy concerns for a mobile OS as of now as its pre-installed on devices so Microsoft will surely get its royalty from manufacturers :-)

For those of you interested in buying windows mobile powered phones, here are some communication channels:

Website - http://www.microsoft.com/india/windows/mobile/

For i-mate - SMS SMART A to 8888 or Call 011-41523030/90, 41523730
For O2 - SMS SMART B to 8888 or Call 9350263618
For HP - SMS SMART C to 8888 or Call 1800-4254999, 30304499
For HTC/Dopod - SMS SMART D to 8888 or Call 9910193399
For Motorola - SMS SMART E to 8888 or Call 1800-111211, 39026686

If you buy one from these guys, tell them that I told you about them, they may give me some commission ;-)

For those who are thinking, what to do with such a phone - Just post a comment to this blog or mail me at sachin AT palewar DOT com

My company develops business solutions for mobiles and mobile field force, for more info please visit our website www.palewar.com

Chat from your Mobile

Atul Chitnis informs on his website about the release of Mundu IM V4. Mundu IM v4 is an Instant Messaging client for mobile devices. Initially for PalmOS and Windows Mobile based devices.

Using Mundu IM v4, you can (via GPRS, WiFi, CDMA, etc.) access all your IM contacts on Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, AOL and generic Jabber services while on the road - and all at the same time. No PC required!

You can chat with your contacts, send them photos and other stuff from your device, and even (between selected services) do a cross-service chat - you can have a conference with users on different services as if they were all on the same service.

To read more and download free trial, please visit - http://messenger.mundu.com/prd/php/smartphone.php

Mobile technology in Indian Railways

Just read this post regarding Indian Railways Getting Tech Smart on Techtree. Its good that Railway has also recognised that mobile solutions can really help them be more productive or atleast provide better services to their travellers.

Here is the piece from the article:

A proposal to provide hand held computer terminals to TTEs in reserved coaches is on the anvil. How it will work is that the TTEs will feed in the current vacancy position, coach wise and berth wise in the hand held terminals, which will be directly linked to passenger reservation system (PRS) to enable allotment of vacant berths to wait-listed passengers at ensuing stations.

Read on at:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Indian_Railways_Getting_Tech_Smart/551-79733-547.html