Slouch trouble

From Economic Times Corporate Dossier today:

Various mobile Internet options

From the "Right Choice" magazine:

Sharing photos with friends

Way back in 2001, my uncle celebrated his 100th birthday. It was a great event in the extended family, and I had great pleasure in meeting so many relatives and celebrating the grand old man's birthday. My uncle was fully active, healthy, happy and could remember names and details of all his relatives of four generations there.

I also had a camera which I had just purchased in Japan, the Sony DSC-P1. This camera made lovely 1 MP photos which I could see as I shot them, and I could also share them via the Sony photo sharing application on the Internet. Overnight, lots of people in the family around the world could see the birthday photos and feel happy.

Since then, I have shot and shared several thousand pictures. I am into my dozenth digital camera, and I have the cult camera Canon 5D Mark II which shoots in 21 MP and HD Video using a full frame sensor!

The beauty of digital cameras, whether they are the ones on your cell-phone or other DSLRs or Cybershots, is that

1. You can compose and optimize the photo as you shoot it.

2. Show it around right away.

3. Save it on your computer for future viewing.

4. Share it on the Internet.

By definition, digital cameras have a way to transfer the photos to your computer from the camera either directly using a USB cable or by removing the memory card and attaching it to your computer through a USB card reader. Once the photo is stored on your computer, you can use your Google or Yahoo account to upload the photo to a web album and share it.

Step 1 : how to transfer photos from camera to computer using Picasa

Step 2 : How to share pictures on web albums:



Wow, blazing broadband at 999 all told

Installed ACT fibre/Ethernet at home. Performs at >15X speed that I was getting with BSNL BB Combo! See acttv.in for details.

Internet on the Mobile

I have been using the Internet on my mobile phone for over 11 years now. Of course I have used during this time a high-end "smart"phone with a slick interface, fast processor, camera and memory on board.

But you will be surprised how good even the basic Android phones are today.

In order to use the Internet on your phone, you need to have :
1.A phone with features like E-Mail and Internet Browser. This is different from SMS & MMS.
2. It should have a good enough memory capacity ( at least a couple of GB).

Then you need a phone connection with either 2G or GPRS service or a 3G service.
When you get the connection, the phone company will help you via SMS or via phone call, to set up your mobile for Internet access.

If you don't have your phone set up for this service, you cannot access emails or browse the Internet from your phone.                                                                                                                                                              

Í currently DON'T USE my mobile phone 2G or 3G network for Internet, since I have multiple computers and iPads and I want to reduce my bills. By not accessing the 3G service on my mobile phone, and by changing my service plan (Airtel example shown above), I have saved more than 50% of my phone bills! I used to pay over 2000-3000 Rs a month, now I get around Rs 1000-1300 Rs a month. That's for my smart phone.

I have an iPad 3G on which I have a 6GB+ Internet connection with a flat Rs.900 pm plan.

So summary of tips on using Internet or Email on your mobile phone:

1. Make sure you have a phone with EMail  and Internet features.
2. Set up your 2G or 3G service plan with your mobile service provider based on your planned usage.
3. Use the mobile internet SPARINGLY or you will run up huge bills.
4. If you are a smartphone user with heavy on the road usage, go in for a large screen/phablet device with a 3G plan like my 6GB plan. 
5. Use Wifi wherever possible (surely at home, office and common places like Coffee Shops and Hotels where they will give you courtesy access).
6. Turn off the Mobile Data while roaming or using Wifi as inadvertently you can run up huge bills otherwise.
7. Remember, watching You Tube clips, downloading concert MP3 files, or similar heavy files can be costly on a mobile phone.
8. Always sync your phone with a computer to save/back up contacts and photos/videos/audio files.

You can check the speed of your internet connection at speedtest.net. 2G  gives me download speeds like 1.7 MBPS and 3G on my iPad gives me above 3 MBPS (sometimes 7 MBPS!) with Ping below 70 ms. Wifi is a bit slower, thanks to BSNL, but I have a Rs 1111 plan with a 15 GB limit there.

India does not really have a 4G network yet. 

For those who do lots of office email:

Go for BlackBerry. They have good plans and use a BlackBerry server for mail as well as BB messaging (it's like SMS but more private).

If you really want lots of apps on your phone, some wonderful camera work, and want to show off your Internet skills, Android or iPhones are better.

3G Tablets are for those who consume lots of  You Tube videos, movies etc. as well as read ebooks and blog etc. on the move. 

Read more about Airtel Internet from their website by clicking below:

Link: http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/connect/airtel.in/airtel.in/home/foryou/broadband+and+fixed+line/

Credit card fraud

This came in today's ET. It gives the process for making complaints in case you're wrongly charged on your card due to fraudulent misuse.

Safer Internet.

The Young World article in The hindu today: