'Using cellphones since all they did was make calls... barely'

Friday, March 11, 2005

the jabra bt800!

what an awesome bluetooth headset! order it now.. the link is to your right!! here are the specs in detail! http://www.jabra.com/JabraCMS/NA/EN/MainMenu/Products/WirelessHeadsets/JabraBT800/JabraBT800

get firefoX!!!

THIS SITE IS BEST VIEWED IN FIREFOX!! been using this awesome browser for a while now and not once has it failed my expectations.. the setup was easy, i got all my bookmarks and i love using it now! alot better then explorer and i would recommend all the readers to switch to this asap! trust me u wont regret! it looks good too and thats what changes the whole way u look at the web! u'll seriously enjoy browsing! get it from firefox.com or getfirefox.com

Telenor and Warid sign MoU

Telenor and warid telecom have signed a memorendum of understanding to lower their deployment and operational costs. Telenor has planned to invest $400 million this year and Warid $392 million but for me, the operator thats going to win is the one which provides more reliable data services such as EDGE and not just launches these services but works on its uses too and educates people about it! its not about coverage anymore.. mobilink has enough of that! we need cheaper and more usable GPRS and EDGE to really enjoy mobility! on 2nd April 2005 at sheraton towers karachi, there will be a telecommunication conference regarding the current scenario and both the companies CEO's will be there to discuss their operations and services.. hopefull telenor would have launched by then! btw, their advertising campaign has really disappointed me! they missed out on the continous series of ads in the print media and they are totally mixed up about the destinations! lets hope they 'get well soon'

Thursday, March 10, 2005

wow! some mp3 plaYer!

Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites)'s new Walkman portable music player NW-E507 is displayed in Tokyo March 9, 2005. The new flash memory player is equipped with an organic electro-luminescence (OLED) display and is capable of generating three hours of playback time with just three minutes of recharging, Sony said. The digital player, available in capacities of 256 megabytes, 512 megabytes, and one gigabyte of data, will be launched in April.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

the heat is up!

With telenors advertising campaign launched, now i just cant wait for it to arrive! watching the ads on tv and the newspaper coincide feels good.. i know what to expect.. i just hope their GPRS rates are cheaper and they do introduce an unlimited data plan for massive users like me! Elsewhere it is being rumoured that Warid telecom has bought Paktel GSM and will use its franchises (well duh..) but surprisingly paktels prefix 0304.. now thats something shocking.. but since i already have a paktel sim.. hehe i guess that means i wont have to buy warid! already got it :) news about a new virus is spreading quick on top cellphone sites.. this new trojan infects smartphones via mms attachments, the user downloads the file and installs it which results in some of the menu apps not working.. just like skulls.. but this is spreading more becasue unlike via bluetooth.. the user does not suspect mms and accepts it.. i know nothing like that is going to happen for sure here in pakistan.. since the number of people who use mms is only a handful.. im really craving a laptop these days.. i feel like i really need wifi and a laptop with me wherever i go! just cant stand going to the desktop again and again!! oooh im hating it! a friend ordered an ipod mini photo 60Gb from amazon,.. liked the price and trust amazon as it delivers to my country.. u can order it for yourself from here.. the link is in the sidebar.. really wanted an mp3 player and now he can share pics in it as well.. virgin radio has linked to my blog because i reviewd their application.. they say they really liked it and i hope most of the readers did too! will keep updating with reviews and news!

Monday, March 07, 2005

Virgin 3G radio application Review

I guess its been a week since this marvellous application has been launched and already it has more than a thousand downloads! For those of you who do not know about it already, the Virgin 3G radio application has been developed by sydus mobile for Virgins 3G network in the UK. This application lets cellphone users from around the world stream Live radio to their phones via GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA. Currently their are 3 virgin stations available, namely they are: Virgin radio, Virgin Radio Classic Rock and Virgin Radio Groove. I'm using GPRS which is relatively slow and yes it does hang somewhat when buffering and playing. When you start the application, it asks you to select an accesspoint. When the accesspoint has been selected it tries to connect. When connected successfully it displays the names of the 3 radio channels for you to select, click on one and it starts to buffer and after a little pause begins to play. I was impressed at the quality of the sound that i was getting. You can control the volume by moving the Navi-key left or right to decrease and increase the volume respectively. Even with GPRS, although not perfect the streaming was very good and i was impressed with the speed! I wish i had stereo earphones to plug into my 7610 and listen! but the loudspeaker works good too. The application is easy to use and i particularly liked the simple yet attractive Menus and images. Previously i had never streamed data onto my phone using GPRS (i had tried avec radio but it had never worked for me.) So this was the first time i've ever done it and boy am i happy! I only wish i had an unlimited data plan now. Perhaps the best thing about the application is that it is completely free and not just people on Virgins network are able to use it but people like me in Pakistan are able to listen to UK radio LIVE on my phone, i was able to impress and amaze alot of my non-geek friends who reacted, "No way! it must be recorded" but its not! its live as live can be! I have always found radio to be better then stored MP3's or AAC music files. There's just something about being able to listen live, not just the same old songs again and again! you get choice and it gets you going! I have not once failed to connect to any radio station during my one week of using it and my phone has given no errors. I would recommend this application to anyone who wants to know what their series60 or UIQ phone can do and what mobile internet is really about! If you are lucky enough to have EDGE or unlimited GPRS plans then im sure you will not get enough of this! The application can be downloaded from www.allaboutsymbian.com or www.sydusmobile.com One of the best ever series 60 applications i would say and also ranks as one of the best freewares! enjoy!

A look into the telecommunication industry of Pakistan

Over the years Pakistan, a really backward and poverty-stricken country of a population of a 150million people has now become a powerful economy of the worlds largest continent, Asia. It has developed vastly in terms of technology, finance and other major sectors.. but im not here to talk about that. I’m here to tell you about the major developments that have taken place in the telecommunication sector and what ‘I’ as a cellphone freak would like to happen next. Pakistan has currently 7 cellular operators providing mobile communication at an affordable rate compared to other developed countries.. two of these seven operators operate on AMPS/TDMA so lets leave them aside and we are now left with 5, namely Telenor; the 12th largest cellular service provider in the world ranked by the GSM association. Warid telecom which is backed by the Dubai-based Sheikh Al Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan. This group also owns a well renowned bank in Pakistan. Mobilink which was the first ever GSM provider. It started its operations 10 years ago and still is stuck on GSM and sadly is the largest network with the largest coverage but what matters to people like me is not coverage of villages and sub-districts but upgrading technology rather then staying on GSM. Mobilink has invested up till now $750MN on its network expansion and customer subscription base. It has 63% of the market share. (the total cellular subscriber base is around 6.5 million users) Here I would like to point out that Telenor and Warid at the time I am writing this article have still not commenced their operations here. They claim they will start in march 2005. Anyway back to the networks. Ufone which is my favorite because it offers GPRS. I still own a mobilink but don’t use it at all. Ufone has 30% of the market share and has cheap outgoing rates thus it’s my preference. lastly Paktel which also operates a TDMA network by the same name. I also own a paktel chip because its good for calling after mid-night.Mobilinks service is intolerable mainly because its expensive and does not offer any kind of data services on its pathetic GSM network and has a huge customer base. Telenor and Warid have stated that they will be offering EDGE or EGPRS as soon as they arrive which interests me. At least something better then slow-speed GPRS would be an achievement and streaming content will be offered and can be used like the recently developed Virgin Radio for series 60 devices. I personally own a Nokia 7610 and am quite happy with it because I can use it for all my needs and there Is no use upgrading to another device until the networks here upgrade. What’s the use if I have a Nokia 6630 3G phone but don’t even have 2.75G or EDGE in my country? I believe in using a symbian device to its total and extreme potential and is why I chose ufone as my operator and a 7610 because it does not offer anything more then GPRS in terms of data services. It can take mega pixel pictures and I can use agile messenger on it. GPRS by ufone is like $0.25/mb which still seems expensive to me and I dream about ufone one day offering unlimited data plans like In the US so I can stay online from agile wherever I go and can use wireless IRC all day because the 7610 does not have Wi-Fi. Let’s move on though as I think most of the people already know the features of the 7610 and don’t need a recap. After the Nokia 3310 and the Nokia 2100, I think the most common nokia cell phone in Pakistan would be the Nokia 6600. it was launched more than 18 months back and is still sold brand new and second-hand devices still get very good prices. A symbian device so common? According to nokia, Pakistan will be its second-largest market in the world by 2007 and it will be starting its manufacturing plant here and it will be operational by the end of this year. That’s good news for us as some people hope the prices will drop but I doubt it. I think nokia has its own standards. It can’t let cell phones be so cheap but still the cheapest sim-free rates are here in Pakistan! You don’t get upgrades or contracts here, a connection costs $3 and you can get a cheap cell phone by brands like Db-tel or Viva or Bird and you’re on your way! I on the other hand cannot settle for anything less then a symbian device. Or a wannabe phone like the Nokia 6230. It too has a good amount of sale as people like it due to its small size and good looks. Moving on, by the way this is my first ever article/analysis on telecommunication. The 6600 the most common symbian phone here but 99% people who use it and I mean it, don’t know what system it operates on, what tri-band is and they don’t know how to use it either. All the things will be left on mainly because they press the ‘red key’ which they think closes the application like in the series 40 phones. But im not making fun, these people have not been provided with the appropriate information about the things they own! Just imagine if they did know all the stuff. They would use it in their lives and would make good use of it. But sadly, that is not the case. Only a few people and I do mean a very few ever spend time to know more about their device or to know its full capabilities. A friend of mine who is a typical example of what I was mentioning earlier bought a Nokia 9500 and almost calls me everyday to ask stupid questions like what is ‘WLAN’ I so wish people knew what they are in for when they choose to buy smartphones. Many small-scale cell phone manufactures have tried to make their way and have their piece of pie in the market of cell phones but what everyone here believes is ‘Nokia is Nokia’ and they don’t trust other brands. I once offered my driver a cell phone a Nokia 2300 to be precise and can you imagine what he said? ‘ I want a Nokia 3310!’ just because everyone had told him that 3310 was the best. He didn’t care about radio or polyphonic ring tones or the cool display and lightweight features. He asked for the cheaper in price and bulky in size 3310! Even a hawker here has a cell phone because a) the connection is cheap and b) phones are cheap too. Pakistan has a HUGE potential for cell phones and networks and mobile technology and I do hope that once telenor and warid arrive, other networks fill be forced to upgrade to EDGE or maybe (by the time im married) 3G which is my dream! Would love to have NTTdocomo as my network operator one day! a trip to a restaurant can show how many people leave their Bluetooth on and accept anything that is being sent to them from anyone! They consider them the hip crowd of the city and when asked what symbian is left munching their tongues. People need to be educated and I as a single person am trying my level best to bring people to reality and educate them about everything. Not just cracked applications and games!Apart from cellular operators Pakistan has also just recently awarded 14 WLL (wireless local loop) licenses but until now only one two such providers have emerged like GOCDMA and PTCL(Pakistan telecommunication limited) V-tel. More information about the licensees can be found on this website Incase you are getting bored I have decided to end this article for now and hope to see good comments about it by the readers. This was my first ever one so please be easy on the critique. I hope you enjoyed reading. Adios!

schumi didnt even finish!

boy do i hate these new formula 1 rules and regulations.. no tire changes on the weekend and the q1 and q2 times added together.. its brought people like fisichella to WIN the grandprix.. and michael couldnt even finish due to a stupid crash with nick heidfeld tried the virgin radio app and i must say i Am VERY impressed by the quality i got using GPRS not even EDGE or 3G. the app is small and simple.. great thing! i wish some radio station in my country gets it developed Telenor is set to launch the coming week hopefully! heard its going to be VERY Cheap and will have EDGE but now i dont have the funds to buy an edge enabled phone.. but i do hope their GPRS charges are less so i can listen to virgin classic rock! hello from picasa wont work and i cant upload the great pictures i've taken with my 7610 recently.. btw amazon has started taking orders for the latest harry book, the link to which can be found on this pages right.. u can preorder it :)