Sanjeev Honakhande's Blog

iOS5 : Missing Apps & Confusing iMessage

2011-10-14T20:44:00.004+01:00

One the night of iOS5.0 release, I downloaded the software release with a great anticipation. I have come to trust Apple software releases so, I downloaded and installed the new iOS on my iPhone and iPad overnight. Then two things struck me morning after:

Dude, where are my Apps!

All my downloaded Applications, including purchased ones have disappeared from both the devices. In fact, I found an article on internet (http://recombu.com/news/apple-ios-5-where-has-all-my-stuff-gone_M15518.html) discussing iOS5 beta testing experience. It clearly identified occurrence of this issue and recommendation that one should reconnect their device to iTunes to synch up. So much to PC-Free promise of Apple!

Consumer experience gone extreme

iMessage which is widely spoken as great replacement for Blackberry messaging, left me confused. It is so seamlessly (http://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-5-imessage/) integrated that, we have no control on choice of sending a message as an iMessage or a SMS.

If you want to add ‘Instant Messenger’ ID (an Apple ID) for a contact, it is very cumbersome journey. Even after adding a new field to your contact, you cannot choose the Instant Messenger User ID / Apple ID (like one chooses a mobile number or email ID to compose a SMS or an email) to send an iMessage. This baffles me, because if I want to send a message (e.g. big text, images, & video) as iMessage, I have no control to ensure it will not go via a mobile network and won’t cost me substantially.

Then, I experimented with friend’s contact. I composed a new message, but instead of typing a mobile contact number, I copy pasted the Apple ID. The message title changed to ‘iMessage’ and after clicking send, the Blue bubble appeared indicating it was delivered via internet/iMessage service. When my friend started typing his reply back, I could notice he was replying.

At this moment, this is cumbersome way is the only way I know to send the message to iPad!

Blogging - a dying trend?

2011-10-10T22:42:00.005+01:00

I cannot really call myself a blogger as I hardly broke my average of single digit posts per year. However, I do keep reading a lot blogs by others. One of the reason, I used to read regularly a select list of bloggers was that their point of view on latest news, be that of world affairs or latest technology or changing media landscape. They often gave different prospective to own point of view of recent thing on net or at news stand.

However, over last few months, I have noticed that most of these serious bloggers are tweeting their recent find on internet or worst some bloggers are simply referring to those tweets in their posts (read the PS for who is "the worst of all"). I am finding myself 'following' these tweeters. (It has made very close to a virtual stalker, keeping a tab on who's attending which event or speaking at which event.)

With so many URL/Article being just pushed on to us, I started searching for an App or application which can consolidate all the latest articles tweeted and re-tweeted it. A friend of mine (Vikram) shared me recently a web site which allows me create my own Daily Newspapers, consolidating all that I like to read regularly. It is much more than a typical RSS reader as it allows to brings in facebook and tweets feeds to construct the front pages. Check it out : http://paper.li/~/publisher/484658.

From my early days of experimenting with it, a good restriction on select choice of tweets/sites/RSS feeds that you want to link-up is very important. Just like in RSS feed reader where too many subscriptions meant the RSS reader app has a lot of reading to offer at you and soon you lost control of amount of un-read data. I would recommend to have number of specialist Daily Newspaper set up based on narrow choice of feed.

PS: The Worst of All award goes to Times of India(TOI). TOI has uncanny ability to construct a front page news report from a single tweet by chosen famous person (in Indian context)!

Best transportation company in India

2011-01-19T22:45:00.007Z

Its always been a trend setting example from KSRTC (Karnataka) in introducing and adopting new technologies for public transport! It may be a basic requirement of public transport like adopting new comfortable seats or upgrading ordinary class buses etc. They are also the pioneering and still standing first in India for innovative and constantly upgrading the system in road transport. I still remember the days when we had to mostly dependent on buses for travelling.

In all my travel experience in public transport KSRTC gets upper hand compared to Maharastra, Gujrat, Tamilnadu, AP or Delhi.

Recently I chose to travel by bus to reach Bangalore airport from city. I was surprised to see free internet connection on bus with wi-fi enabled palm screen with few applications. For accessing net, we have to feed in our details and a pass code will be received on your phone. Its really a welcome move. I hope they will definitely improvise on speed and touch screen response time with lots of applications to make a bus ride a joy ride.

Authored by Avinash Raj

As to point out lack of update to the site?

Happy New Year Resolution!

2010-01-13T14:14:00.002Z

It has been nearly one year since I wrote my last post. Year 2009 has been both exhilarating and difficult year. It is sufficient to say that year 2009 will go as one of the not-easy-to-forget years.

Welcome to year 2010, a very happy new year to all my readers and those loyal friends who keep checking my blog once in a while. Quite interestingly, I still get a small steady stream of hits each day[hey, I am not complaining].

With 2010, I hope to be more regular with posts. With economic recovery promises, I hope UK industry will start spending, especially in media and technology space.

See you soon with a new post.

Online video viewers numbers

2009-02-11T17:46:00.003Z

Read an article on online video viewership numbers of Channel 4, thought to the share the link: Television by internet gets under our Skins

Some of the key numbers in the news article for the program series "Skin" :

First episode attracted 283,000 online viewers versus 1.35million TV viewers. A 17.3%. The usual for other Channel 4 programs is 5%
Attracts a CPM between 7 to 40 GBP, a comparable to broadcast television in the UK

If the online runaway success like Skin receives "a comparable CPM", that means the usual programs are not attracting any good ad spend. In the absence of online viewers paying for the content, the UK online market is lagging behind US and continental Europe, where the Online TV Ad revenues make a good portion of total online TV revenues. UK makes about 47% of a total £102 million online TV revenues for 2009 (mostly contributed by BBC iPlayer). May be, killing the Kangaroo wasn’t that great at all, as the question remaining open – who will attract the ad spend (content , brand or the platform?)

(Total Online revenues of £2.8b accounts 15.3% of the UK’s total Ad Spend)

Good, Bad and Ugly of Kangaroo

2009-02-05T16:29:00.002Z

Finally there’s a news about Kangaroo. As Ashley Highfield may have foreseen before his departure last year, the Kangaroo has been finally stopped by UK Competition Commission. This is a bad news for ‘the trio’ - BBC, ITV and Channel 4; however is mixed one for the industry.

Viewers are confused about the various applications and platforms they required to download and install for VoD services. The TV-Over-Broadband experience lacks the ease & seamlessness of TV entertainment. The Kangaroo might have addressed this and may have created a single platform for consumers view/download. For the advertisers, this would have meant measurable online video market through a single window. Something analogous to the Digital Ad Networks that are on rise today. The success of the BBC iPlayer and UK's inventory of digital content would have driven a rapid adoption of the platform.

With a absence of such a single platform it would be difficult to exploit the brand or content or individual platforms basis (e.g. Joost) and will not give full potential to advertising companies.

UK government should look at establishing and funding the VoD platform like FreeView or a video aggregator similar to Google. May be BSkyB or BT/Virgin Media could fancy the new channel to reach through subscription or ad-funded models.

If government keeps its promise of 2Mbps for all the UK homes by 2012, (Digital Britain) it makes sense to leverage such a geo-reach by establishing a platform for new media content delivery. Alternatively, the government could fund/help funding a private startup which can create a new media aggregator and delivery platform; a platform that is open to UK and US content, subscription and free content, ad funded and pay-per-view. Its technical and new media opportunity – it’s good that Kangaroo has failed, otherwise just the content owners would have heavy handed the future platform.

Now UK CC should take a critical look at BBC Video Local plans as the publishing industry needs the opportunity to revive itself through its online ambitions.

Web 2.0 - machine's learning

2008-10-16T15:48:00.004+01:00

I saw this video recently that beautifully explains the how web is allowing machines to learn the content, context and interconnection.

With explosion of user participation using Web 2.0 technology/tools, there are growing types contents, that are being linked and interlinked. Text was linear, in digital world now its hyperlinked with various forms of content, especially the rich media.

With growing capabilities of search, soon the machines will be able to connect the text with face on the picture or snippet of a speech in video segment. This capability will build up exponentially in coming years, it wouldn't take decade. The future will bring about the platform connecting this data and user interests with new set of web applications or logic bots which are self contained, defined, discoverable, interfaceable with web agents requiring some sort of processing. Such an ability of net will require some sort of smart-linking or discovery mechanism so that machine can find the existence of the application that will process the given data and provide the best action. This whole thing should be as intuitive as creating a hyperlink to a text or a image and sharing a URL through email or over phone.

In such scenarios, the browsers will continue to play a prominent role and hence no wonders the online technology company like Google released its first desktop application Chrome.

iPhone 3G Problems

2008-08-31T22:00:00.018+01:00

I have been using new iPhone 3G for some time now. All the great things about this device are true! Its sexy, easy to use, has bright and crisp display, no key pad, great set of Native Applications, functions like zooming, rotating, touch screen, and new enterprise communication functions that make iPhone a very good business mobile phone. In conclusion, its one of the best phones; I have liked it to an extent that I have already dumped my Blackberry.

Since I have noticed that thousands of blogs have been already written to praise and re-praise how great this phone is, I have decided to pick up some of the problems that iPhone 3G has. Even with the iPhone Software 2.0.2, it is an immature smart phone! There are quite a few not-so-easy-to-use features, lack of common-sense features and problems on iPhone. Some of them includes:

Non-ability to switch between the applications. This problem is acute if one often clicks on the URLs within Emails. Reverting to that Email takes a few wasted taps
While I have 'mastered' the typing on iPhone, its not easy to type an URL inside the Safari address bar. At least Apple could have pre-filled it with http://www./ Anyway, this meant that, I use the Safari's "Google Search" even to go to BBC News site rather than typing http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Lack of Copy and Paste - this is really astonishing design decision from Apple. This is a basic feature that even a junior designer would have thought-of but is missing from the iPhone. Apple may have some genuine reasons for not implementing this feature but I am not sure about is the content/applications/license revenues that Apple is attempting protect by stopping its customers from copy-pasting. It's painful - if someone has emailed you a meeting address and you wish to find that location on the map. What's the point of having a smart phone if you have to resolve to pencil-n-paper to achieve the same.
One more trivial design elements that is missing is the lack of forwarding the SMS. With one of the most expensive phone and the best design, you can not forward a SMS!
No search! With a disc space of 16GB, iPhone doesn't provide any search capability. You cannot search your email, notes, or your music/video content. I am also surprised by the fact that Google hasn't released the Search for iPhone while the Google Application Pack has many of other tools
Application icons could have been a bit smarter and dynamic. The Clock and Weather applications' icon could have reflected the actual time and temperature
iPhone software speed is slow. The Contacts application reacts very slowly if you have over 100 contacts. You cannot start typing-in the name of the contact when you wish to make a call, either on directly the Phone application or the Contacts. You can only do that at the top of the scroll in the Contacts, but that's painful if you start from the bottom of the scroll
Within the EMail application you cannot attach a photo. You can send a photo from the Photos application though. You cannot save Email attachments other than the photos! Again, Apple's walled-garden approach could be the reason
Safari can not browse more than 8 pages at the same time. iPhone doesn't bring all of the Internet as you can not watch the Flash applications. I assume, it Apple has allowed Flash plug-in installation, it would have defeated its "App Store" approach and control
Prior to 2.0.2 update release, I experienced data coverage issues in the city. While that seems to have improved with the 2.0.2 update, but I still notice iPhone continuing with a lower data speed network even if a high data speed network becomes available. e.g. it will continue using 3G even if an authorised Wi-Fi is available
The biggest of the iPhone 3G problems is its battery life. I have tried various combinations of Edge, 3G, Wi-Fi, manual email refreshes, no iPod use and low brightness; my conclusion is that iPhone has THE worst battery life. It can hardly deliver 10hours without re-charging it. Pathetic!

But, still iPhone 3G is an awesome phone and its a must
have!

O2 can't do!

2008-07-11T15:56:00.003+01:00

I read this news article stating that O2 has been rejecting the fact that today morning their iPhone activation system has been crashing. Here is the picture of their sales representative apologizing to the customer for the delays.

iPhone 3G

2008-07-10T23:06:00.002+01:00

I have been eagerly monitoring the international launch of iPhone through the Engadget's blog, which is just amazing: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/iphone-3g-international-launch-lineblog/
One of the first purchases ifixit has already dissembled the iPhone 3G: http://live.ifixit.com/images/oEHBJQC3PWMANSKt-large.jpg

Population, Mobile, Toothbrushes, Computer and Newspapers!

2008-07-03T10:04:00.003+01:00

I wish to compile stats similar to the following, any more?

Total population of the Earth is 6.68 billion
Total number of mobile subscription is 3.3 billion
Total number of toothbrushes 2 billion
Daily newspaper circulation 1.7 billion
Number of personal computers in use 1 billion

What a match, what a blockout

2008-06-26T15:25:00.005+01:00

Yesterday's Euro 2008 semi-final between Germany and Turkey was pure thriller. Amazing match.
But this match suffered world wide TV blackout - thanks to BBC. What a mess!

William Henry Gates III

2008-06-23T19:51:00.003+01:00

Thank you Bill for MS DOS and for autoexec.bat, attrib and format. Enjoy your bills...

Video: Bill Gates' Last full day at Microsoft

Challenges for successful implementation of digital media business

2008-06-11T13:28:00.007+01:00

No industry has gone through the changes as fast and as drastic as the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. The technology has completely transformed the industry to an extent that the business models of the industry segments have been put to their survival test.

Many media executives continue to deny these "drastic changes" and argue that the demand for the passive consumption of information and entertainment exists (for example April 2008’s UK TV viewership saw a sharp rise of 13.5%). While there is some truth in their arguments because in reality, neither have the presses stopped printing nor have the satellites stopped beaming the signals towards the earth.

However, the question that remains wide open for consideration is, how to capitalise the rising need for information and entertainment at any place, at any time and on any device. The changing consumer behaviours are driving these needs, which in turn have created new revenue avenues. It is this opportunity that the industry must capture.

To successfully adopt the digital supply chain operations, the organisations must address a set of inherent challenges. These challenges can be grouped into categories and have a common approach to address them.

Digitisation
To adopt and successfully operate in the digital economy, beyond the digitisation of assets and processes, the organisations should give a thorough due-diligence about the amount of archive that will be digitised. This is because not all the content can be monetised and not all the parts of a specific asset will return similar returns.
Organisation should consider a digital asset management system that offers asset control at a granular level, interfaces with existing content management systems, workflows, integrates with digital rights management (DRM) and digital distribution systems (DMD) effectively and importantly, that is scalable. These interconnected systems should be designed to adopt fine granularity of assets’ rights management and distribution (this is more so at publishing or news agencies). While the above critical success factors were all about IT systems, the people and processes are equally important. A successful digitisation should consider change management of people and of processes, so that the future digital operations will go-live smoothly. Another critical aspect that needs to be accounted before an organisation goes online is the creation of well-defined internet/network security policies.
Digital Media Distribution or platform choices
This is one area which may bring the media strategists head-on. While there are so many platforms, formats, and outlets available for the media companies to consider, there’s no concrete answer whether a given choice of DMD will deliver maximum returns. An organisation should consider a digital distribution platform that will allow adopting current devices, platforms, formats, and that is scalable for future technologies. Though that’s easier said than done, this forms the basis for the success of a new media business.
Web 2.0 should be considered as an important delivery platform. Social networks, viral linking, blogging, podcasting, etc could provide new revenue avenues. Another important element of a successful distribution model is effective metric collection to drive the subscription, loyalty, advertisement, syndication, and even billing!
Advertising
In the new media world, the advertisement will command higher prices as they will be relevant, specific and attract viewers/readers full attention. The key to this successful will be the sound implementation of data collection and real time analytics. Going forward, the companies and systems need to be scalable and flexible to absorb M&A or partnerships. (e.g. In the UK, the Kangaroo project may bring ITV’s, BBC’s and C4’s online inventory, ad sales and ad placement systems together)
Consumer experiences
As I have explored earlier, the ability of organisations to respond to the changing customer preferences in the technologies, consumption platforms, time, content type and media format means there are many technical options for a company to choose from. It also means difficult decisions to make. Again, the key element here is the implementation that will allow (a) relevant & personalised services to customer, (b) customers to find the content or services easily, and (c) customer participation.

In summary, the online co-existence for a traditional media & entertainment organisation is inevitable and is complementary. The only question is ‘do you want to be an early adopter?’ or ‘be left behind’. In my view, as the media & entertainment companies have always responded to customers’ needs and desires swiftly, they should take small steps towards these new platforms, devices, formats and trends – experimenting with smaller regions or groups first.

IPTV - What, Why, and Will?

2008-01-09T15:10:00.000Z

What is IPTV?

A good place to start is wiki (may be till Knol or Wikia).

In summary, IPTV is delivery of Television on any IP enabled device through broadband. Though, IPTV definition in itself is still shaping up; hence the examples may vary as per one’s definition. Until a commercial model successfully establishes itself, IPTV definition will continue to evolve.

Ironically, the current definition IPTV by some leading analyst (An Introduction to IPTV)does not reference the very devices that kick-started the IPTV eco system like time-shift (e.g. Tivo), place-shift (e.g. slingbox), the mobile phones, iPods and other mobile entertainment devices. This year’s Ofcom’s report on Communication Market does a good justification by including telecommunication, new media and content companies.

Some of examples of IPTV are BT Vision, itv.com, joost, babelgum, Tiscali, etc. However, youtube or iTunes like services, i.e. just watching video over internet isn’t IPTV. But if Apple TV to effectively ( with its ease of configuration, navigation, search, etc) bridge the gap between its services and TV set – one may end up viewing these services as part of IPTV eco-system. This could be further accelerated if the key manufactures start making TV sets with WiFi built into them…but then, will that be a TV or a computer with 42”LCD screen. I will hope for the success of such Television set, as an easy to use and value added kit compare to current Telco's IPTV equipment which is package of – a setup box, a TV and ugly interface.

Why IPTV?

The roots of IPTV are in the changing behavior of entertainment consumption that started with video consumption over Internet and with availability of time-shifting boxes. Once for the niche and savvy users only, the choices like relevant content on a preferred device and at preferred time, content-on-demand, zero search, value added services (like interactivity, social communities, information, news, etc) have become part of basic expectations from an IPTV service.

The above consumer behavior is supplemented by two other factors that are driving the innovation within the Telecommunication and Broadcasting industry. First is, the declining in the fixed line revenues. Telecommunication companies are forced to find the new avenues of the revenues. Second factor is, the convergence of markets with new media firms moving into the broadband with voice offerings coupled with info-entertainment and other add-on services.

IPTV Market

This is interesting bit! Every month, a new report quotes a different market potential of IPTV in UK, each with different CAGR. One analyst firm has also released a report which discusses the different predictions by different analyst firms! Some facts (source: Ofcom, ScreenDigest and MRG Inc):

Hong Kong is the world’s leading IPTV market
In Europe, France is ahead of the game with subscription over 2.5 million(end of 2006)
UK is just over 100,000 subscription, mostly BT Vision subscribers (43,000 at the end of 2006)
57 IPTV services across the Europe (leading IPTV product vendors include Tut, Tandberg Television, Harmonic)
Top 5 (FY2006) leading IPTV operators include Orange, Telefonica, Free Telecom, Neuf Telecom, Fastweb
Revenues: 470 million Euro in FY2006, 1 billion Euros expected in FY2007
Subscribers: 2.9 million in FY2006, 5.6 million expected by FY2007
Broadcaster’s advertisement revenues are falling (ITV, ABC; UK - 2.2% in 2006, compare to 2005), while subscription spend increase by 3.5%
More than 50% households have broadband with average bandwidth over 4 Mbps
With rollout of Tiscali TV, 15% of UK households now have IPTV coverage

While I have already noted the customer expectation in IPTV world, the trends for future would continue to be: always available personalized content, personalized advertisements, and mobile seamless entertainment.

Will IPTV succeed?

Today’s IPTV offering from Telecommunication industry is in its infancy. Some of the reasons for this include:

Architecture – current protocols and infrastructure cannot support “real time” and “live real time” streaming due to inherent bottlenecks due to limited bandwidth and data packet loss. This problem becomes more profound with UK's growing interest in HDTV(in UK, a 1.7 % of total households) and multiple channel viewing at homes
Lack of content, interactivity, content-push services and mobile entertainment

Web TV or Video-On-demand services will find its audience (as currently) with BBC iPlayer, 4oD, Joost or proposed Kangaroo services from BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

However, both the models cannot support even a fraction of today’s audience at a given time. For example, as per UK TV viewing pattern, the highest viewership is during the evening time(after 2115Hrs), with 48% of households turning on thier TV sets. If a fraction of this audience is to tune into a program, say, X-Factor Final episode on BT Vision V-Box?!

The future isn’t all that gloomy with the BT’s current investment of 10billion GBP in deploying Next Generation Core Networks (NGN). Only remaining question to answer is, which revenue model will succeed?

Yet another blog post on IPTV!

2008-01-09T15:08:00.000Z

Over the last two years, the industry has seen too many conferences focused on IPTV. Though, I have not seen any improvements in the quality of these conferences. To a major extent the speakers have repeated well known hum-drums of IPTV; typically of great potential and great growth forecasts but hardly giving any concrete account of their IPTV experience and challenges.Only memory that is left of these conferences are odd ones like, a false fire alarm (IPTV Advanced) or downpour of water (European Media Summit, Nov 2007) or 2GB thumb drive give-away!!
Oh well, when people can pay to listen to the same feel-good-story, why not write one about it……IPTV - What, Why and Will?

Frohe Weihnachten

2007-12-15T16:52:00.000Z

नये साल की हार्दिक शुभाकामानाये

FreeRice – automated grains generation

2007-11-20T14:19:00.000Z

While the FreeRice worked on its noble intentions, may have failed to account the geeks of the world. A basic error in implementation of page impressions based advertisement revenues – may be this development was inevitable.

The scripts, Ricebot or RiceMaker as named by the developers, exploits the simplistic logic implemented in the plain Java script:

http://smokyflavor.wikispaces.com/RiceMaker http://www.freewebs.com/quangntenemy/freerice/index.html

It’s time for FreeRice.com to replace the current implementation by better one, may be a Flash version of the game.

Play and feed hungry people

2007-11-11T18:53:00.000Z

http://www.freerice.com/, a web game that provides free rice for hungry people through UN's World Food Programme (WFP).

The game checks vocabulary of the player, for each right word, the UN donates 10 grains of rice through its World Food Program. The game has began on 7th Oct 2007, as of 11th Nov, over 1 billion rice grains has been donated.

This program is funded by advertisements of the leading companies across the world. I wish every company sponsors this campaign.

Let's play:

Customer experience expectations in new media world

2007-11-05T18:59:00.000Z

Media & Entertainment industry is undergoing a major transformation due to changing consumer preferences and availability of many key technologies. These changes are making dramatic impact on the industry – multiplatform consumption, numerous controls of consumption time & formats, and consumer created content are few of them. This is resulting in companies to adopt new business models and improve the efficiencies of their current business processes. It has become important to track & leverage rapidly changing consumer preferences and offer relevant choices, easily and fast – retaining the quality of entertainment and brand value of the company.

Some of the key trends:

Linear viewership will fall by 30% by 2011
66million GBP was UK Video on Demand revenue for 2006. Growth forecast: 50% pa
Explosion of broadband and mobile connections in UK: 58% by 2007 and 70% 2011. A growth of 8% per annum
UK Online revenues are higher than print media and TV ad revenues together
Google UK revenues(£327million) over took that of ITV this quarter(£317million)
UK Advertisers to increase their online spend by over 12% in 2008
Rise of social networking – MySpace users count has crossed 10million and youtube take 120million views per day

In the new world of two-way media, the above trends open up a new set revenue streams. Knowing & retaining customers, and delivering personalised content & services are crucial. Customer experience management has become crucial component than ever before. Painfully, the consumer expectation of content is rooted in ‘free of cost’. Adopting right business model and distribution strategy has become critical. For example, when US Television company ABC made Desperate House Wives available for free through their websites & iTunes after a sluggish pay-per-view download trail; the online viewership increased by 16 times.

Specific to the broadcast industry, the UK has been early adopter – by delivering digital media on multi-platforms like mobile TV, broadband TV and IPTV. BBC released its iPlayer in July 2007, Channel 4 for has its 4oD (VoD) service. Both services offer access to archives and latest content. On other hand, ITV has adopted within-website-application to deliver its content and experience. The new form of entertainers on the rise includes British Telecom, Virgin Media, Babelgum, BlinkBox and Joost.

The bottom line, that is no more a subject of speculation at conferences – consumer behaviour along with technology has completely transformed the broadcasting industry. However the key is not which technology is adopted or how it’s adopted; the key is still the content with exclusive rights and effective leverage of brand value at online & onscreen.

Consumer would expect same trusted quality content, seamless delivery and entertainment experience on IP devices as it is on the telly. This is important that along with these expectations – newly found expectation likes ease of use, search, interactivity, and receiving only the relevant content or advertisements.

Two gadgets for this Christmas

2007-07-15T15:34:00.000+01:00

Two gadgets to look forward during this Christmas in UK

First one is iPhones. Internet is full of the hypes, reviews and artistic destructions…I am fairly impressed with the gadget for its user interface design and screen size. My only worry is battery life as it seems, runs out within 8 hours of use. O2 seems to be leading the race for being Apple partner in UK.

Second device is not hyped or covered by BBC as many times it has covered iPhone. This is new technology revolution which is about hit computing world this year. Solid state memories have found a standard use as USB flash disks for some years now. Now, Samsung, SanDisk and many more are releasing the NAND based solid state drives (SSD) to replace the hard disks on laptops and PCs. They have already started manufacturing for OEMs – 32GB to begin with.

Let me list some of the gains I noted on manufacturers' site:

1. Windows Vista OS boots at 50% faster (some tests quotes: in less than 35 seconds!)

2. Reads at speed from 53 to 62MB per second

3. Write is 100 to 150% faster than of hard disks

4. For a sample file, hard disk’s access rate was 55 seconds and 19 milliseconds where as the SSD's rate is 0.12 milliseconds

5. Uses 50% less power than HDD

6. Weighs less

7. No moving parts. Less susceptible to socks and mean time between failures: two million hours

Waiting for these to hit to the nearest retailer…what are your favourites for this Christmas?

Rise and fall of social networking sites

2007-06-26T12:37:00.000+01:00

Once upon (5-6 years ago!) a time, online communities and sharing common interests meant, at most the newsgroups or Yahoo groups, at their highest level of sophistication. Discussion forums were at their peak usage.

Since then there has been rapid growth of social networking phenomenon fuelled by the ones born after 1991 - an interesting fact I heard Bebo’s president make. She noted, when Digital Natives were in their nappies, the SMSs were just hitting the roads and when Digital Natives went to high school for the first time, iPods were already in market. Natives flocked Myspaces’ of the world to freely express themselves and live the parallel digital life.

However, it is seems these audience are hard to stay with one site. Churn has become major issue at Yahoo! and Myspace. The question in the industry is – how to survive as generalist. Many specialist social networking sites have also sprang up recently e.g. last.fm for music, orkut for networking and so on.

No one site can claim sustaining viewership in 2-3 years term like in case of YouTube, Bebo has more than 35million users just within 2 years of its existence. Will Orkut keep its appeal as facebook storms the social network world as preferred site? Or will die the death of Friendster? This may be the first incident of Google experiencing death of one its brands.

I have tried Orkut, LinkedIn and facebook. Today, I have decided to move from Orkut to facebook. Orkut has become very boring and I don’t see any fun in visiting orkut site just to respond to a scrap or keep scrapping each other. Search and networking tools are absent from orkut.

LinkedIn is good and 6 degree separation concept has been well implemented. LinkedIn is still a sound business networking tool. However, I wish there was a bit fun into it and it seems facebook is filling that need of social networking. May be its time for LinkedIn to use facebook’s API to provide social networking features.

Vodafone's Loosurfing !

2007-06-24T15:05:00.000+01:00

When I observed and noted in my blog – it was a good Google joke and I didn’t realize one day it may become a brand message of a leading mobile company.

Vodafone has put up posters across London stations and roads as part of its ‘The Internet is now Mobile’ TV and print campaign. One that caught my attention is Vodafone’s Loosurfing advertisement’s graphics and color choices. Check out!

I do not think Google will complain about it. But, Google should update its TiSP - ‘going-with-the-flow’ product webpage and should include Vodafone as the first mobile client. This will establish the TiSP as a preferred Loosurfing technology for Mobile Internet!

Future of BBC or Channel 4 as Public Service Broadcasters

2007-06-24T12:02:00.000+01:00

Digital-TV take-up in UK is over 80%, over half of UK adults have broadband at home, linear viewership is reducing, time-shifting & personal scheduling is increasing, popularity of YouTube, Joost or Babelgum is on rise and last year’s UK online revenue has crossed £2billion.

The question is - what is the future role of PSBs and nature of government funding.

Government and Ofcom are set to review (independently) the funding mechanisms for PSBs in digital future, particularly after 2013. However, as of now government seems will continue funding short-term needs of PSBs, e.g. £14million for Channel 4 from BBC funds to help address digital-switch over woes.

With changing consumer behavior and increased preferences for broadband/IPTV television – what is the role of PSBs? How government can use or support technology/telecom companies whose audience reach is growing day by day? Does PSBs continue receiving funding where consumer s’ spend on catch-up and VOD services is increasing?

As the final control of content consumption choices lies with customer (not a viewer anymore) one of the ways the government can regulate and effectively implement The Communication Act – is via funding and regulating at content level. This content can be sourced and distributed by likes of BT or Joost along with Channel 4 or BBC. BBC & Channel 4 may continue receiving government funding for creation of content and make additional revenues of licenses and non-linear services.

Previous polls at SanjBlog

2007-06-16T11:16:00.000+01:00

If there was an interactive shopping service on TV, would you TRUST and do the payment over the TV using its interactive service? 13/Jun/2007

Do you like the London Olympics 2012 logo? 05/Jun/2007

How much do you trust TV?

2007-06-13T14:42:00.000+01:00

Vote your opinion at Latest Poll

Chinese Farmer's Robots

2007-06-11T22:45:00.000+01:00

This decade’s technical innovations are shaping the world rapidly than ever before, enhancing daily life…like street navigation. Check out this new service from Google Maps – Street View:
While many innovations are coming from USA, China seems to be catching up faster. Until now, this Chinese farmer Mr. Woo was unknown. He has been ‘growing’ robots for years:

Google could use his rickshaw robot instead of the designer/illustrator Ryan Germick …good work Ryan.

The London Olympics 2012 logo...gone wrong!

2007-06-05T14:41:00.001+01:00

What is it? "SO R" ? A swastika? Kid's hand writing?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6719805.stm

UK public is outraged by the new logo of 2012 Olympics. Reportedly UK has spent 400,000GBP of tax payers money on this!!!

Please share your views and vote:

1825...

2007-05-25T23:47:00.001+01:00

Save an offline copy of every interesting webpage, online!

2007-05-20T13:31:00.000+01:00

If you are a serious blogger – then you sure are one of the biggest consumers of information on internet. Obviously, you might have faced the problem to recall “that” interesting article that you have read few weeks ago and would like to reference for the new blog entry...if true, then this blog entry is for you.

Dr. Srini (DS) is a professor from a prestigious US university and I met him during early 2005. One aspect that came to my notice was DS' meticulous practise of printing and archiving every important article that appeared on New York Times, WSJ, FT, and some innovation/R&D sites. DS printed these articles every morning after his 6AM Yoga. That meant that he always walked into our offices with a fresh Day’s Folder filled with many new articles printed from the websites. He would have marked each page with appropriate tags and would have highlighted key words, sentences or contact names.

Organising each print into folders and then stacking it up at his library; I was curious: why does he do this? Why doesn't he simply save bookmarks of those pages? His answer was, he wanted to read them again & again and wanted them to be easily accessible. Then my suggestion was, why not store each HTML page onto his hard disk. For which he mentioned, for his technical understanding, it was a bit hard to ensure the content was saved 100% offline, as the FT and NYTimes made their content premium in 3 or 4 days after publication. He had experienced difficulties in loading that page again without really trying some workarounds with Notepad or Write. The closest comfort zone for him was IE browser’s History; however, back then his issue was that it was not possible to retain history of any webpage after 99 days (max).

I am not sure what DS does now...but I have learnt the importance of collecting important articles, organising them effectively and the ability to find the article again, easily. But print versions were for me. With Google Desktop Search, finding any digital content on desktop was becoming very easy. I went ahead with printing each interesting web page into the PDF and storing it locally onto my disk (of course in different folders – however the challenge still is to ensure a meaningful and correct filename to the PDF).

This was amazing and works very well, till you realize that either (a) you are using an office PC, which one day will be upgraded, formatted or simply allocated to someone else anytime or (b) have a space crunch.

Today, there are many sites offering online bookmarking that can be accessed anytime and from anywhere (and you can share them with your friends too!). Main ones include Digg and Del.icio.us. However, these sites lack one major feature – the ability to store a personal copy of the webpage along with a bookmark. With such a feature, the interested content can be stored and accessed from where ever and whenever you want to. Some of my favourites are Yahoo! My Web and furl (Google has no such service!) Now amongst the above two, I suggest furl - because it offers a very important feature compared to others - i.e. to download all your personal copies at any later stage as an archive. Check out another wow of the Internet world: http://rss.furl.net/furlFeatures.jsp

Mac Wows inside Vista

2007-05-19T12:16:00.000+01:00

Finally, yesterday I migrated my laptop to Microsoft Vista OS. My first wow was - "WOW, this is so much like Mac OS X"!

I have been using Google Desktop Search for more than two years and with this migration, with Vista Instant Search, I thought, I should be able to use powerful search capabilities directly out of the box. Like many, I am disgruntled user of Lotus Notes' search features and I had found my solace in Google Enterprise Search - which offers amazing Lotus Notes search capability.
However my hope didn't last long, to find that unlike WDS 3.0 (which I have used and also posted a comparison with Google Desktop), the Vista Search doesn't support Lotus Notes. I have to wait for future updates for IFilter support...till then, I am back again to Google Desktop Search.

You may face problem integrating Lotus Notes Plug-In for Google Enterprise Desktop Search. Each time when you try to enable Lotus Notes Plug-In (did you know: IBM and Google co-developed the plug-in) you will receive the message: "Installation of the IBM Lotus Notes Plug-in for Google Desktop was not able to be completed. Please verify that you have the most recent version of Google Desktop and try again."

There is no need to download any recent version. This problem is related to Microsoft Vista's new feature UAC. (another Wow from Mac, which allows admin lock/unlock feature but is not as annoying as UAC!).

To enable Google Desktop Search's Lotus Notes Plug-in, run the Notes application as Administrator. This can be done via Properties tab. If you want to get rid annoying messages each time, simply turn off UAC through User Accounts. Álas, these options will require admin rights! Ideally, I hope Google will release the next version of Desktop Search which is compliant with UAC.

Finally, I had to choose between the sidebars. After trying Windows sidebar and my favorite gadgets, I decided, Windows sidebar is far better than that of Google's. This view of mine is in terms of UI experience, quality of gadgets and most importantly very easy to use and smart feed reader..Wow!

Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater (Mann’s Chinese Theater) Pictures

2007-05-11T16:09:00.000+01:00

As a movie buff, I was excited to be in Hollywood. I walked the Hollywood Walk Of Fame several times, clicked photographs like a frenzied tourist. Then I visited 6 Chinese Theaters. I would like to share few nice pictures of Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater (Mann’s Chinese Theater). (Some more pictures are at http://www.graumanschinesetheater.net/), specifically of interiors’ which I think is amazing for a movie theater. Click for high res. pictures.

Hollywood sign from distance:

Hollywood Walk Of Fame:

Mann’s Theater Pictures:

Kodak Theater Pictures:

Interesting Blogs

2007-05-07T14:19:00.000+01:00

Visit the blogs from my friends:

Love Stop is seeing you watching
Rambling at 33
Fish n Chips at poetic The Angler
Salt and Pepper by Ask Sharmaji
Kool Koed

Google's googly

2007-05-07T11:59:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I created few blog entries and posted within few minutes. I had to reedit one of them several times due to picture alignment problems; then suddenly, the sanjblog and blogger.com became inaccessible with the “403 Forbidden” error message.

Screenshot:

URL: http://www.google.com/sorry/?continue=http://www.blogger.com/
A blog on the matter: http://blog.clickfire.com/google-error/

From then, I was not able to access my blog for an hour or so during that period, I went through frustration and thoughts of loosing my blog, homepage, online albums, web email, web application, youtube & orkut entries if THE Google to decide one day to deny the access to my accounts completely.

Few weeks ago, I had a problem connecting to Google search site; the Internet without Google window is very difficult world.

Is dependency on the Google becoming overwhelming? Unfortunately there are not many decent search engines...try yourself, what is the second best search engine?

Knowing alternatives has become more important than ever.

Though, I am not happy with any of these search engines, as none came close to Google in providing good/relevant results. Alternative search engines: Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask Jeeves

I do not have alternatives for blog hosting websites; do you know any good ones (wordpress/typepad)?

Welcome A380

2007-05-07T02:36:00.000+01:00

The world's largest plane's first visit to India. Welcome

Peacocks and Ugli fruits

2007-05-06T18:33:00.000+01:00

Until recently, I thought Peacock is a type of birds, rather than male gender of Peafowl. Also, I thought, only Indian Peacock (Asian) exists in the world and all are with beautiful blue-green feathers. Wrong again! There is a white peacock too! Check out the pictures, beautiful (click for high-res).

More from Wikimedia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Pfau_imponierend.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/White_peacock.jpg

Today morning while browsing through exotic fruits stall, I looked at a fruit and thought ‘wew, that’s ugly!’ What a surprise, that fruit is called 'ugli fruit' and another shocker was it is a fusion (bred 1914, Jamaica) fruit – between a grapefruit and a tangerine!!!

Any more such weird fruit or brand names you know?

Microsoft's Yahoo!

2007-05-06T18:32:00.000+01:00

New York Post’s report on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo!

The industry and web is a buzz with news of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo! (at 50 billion US dollars!) - A remote possibility of such over reaction to Google’s growing dominance in search and advertise revenues. Microsoft is desperate to overcome Google, by offering mirroring services like MSN portal, Live websites, Earth and Maps, but it is getting tired since each month Google Lab churning out another web application. Acquisition or partnership with Yahoo! will be good for Microsoft, providing a break through to establish itself as an internet software company.

Reuters for sale

2007-05-06T17:46:00.000+01:00

Reuters being warm to Thomson Corp’s bid.

This is another big news of this week, which was not expected. Though, web reports of talks between UK’s Reuters and Canadian Thomson for sometime, I personally never thought, the Reuters would be sold out to any one as I thought, the UK and in general, the freedom of unbiased opinion/views stopped from putting it for sale.

The most famous hex number : 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

2007-05-02T18:35:00.000+01:00

I am back from my off...within the last 10 days, I traveled approx. 25,000 miles.

In the history of hex code, I think this has become the most famous number: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 (09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0). Millions of blogs are quoting it and thousands are Digging it. However, the Bigger companies are suing everyone quoting this number...can a number be copy righted?

After Friday 13th

2007-04-15T19:07:00.000+01:00

Well, last week on Brainiac, I watched the presenter “scientifically” validate whether the lady luck really exists. Does a black cat crossing the road bring bad luck? The presenter made double the money at a slot machine compare to after he walked under the ladder.

Same way, does writing a blog entry on & about the Friday 13th catches attention of lady luck? May be true; my flight went smooth till reached my end destination as I luggage was misplaced by the air line. I had to wait 4 phone calls and 30hrs before they found it at another airport!
Happy to have my bag back.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia

2007-04-13T00:02:00.000+01:00

Wow, that’s a mouthful word. Today, i.e. Friday the 13th, as I was preparing for my flight, a friend of mine from Germany called me up to remind me of his one of the beliefs. Now that I am shaken with his historical facts, I started Googling. Voila, I found this mouthful word coined by Dr. Donald Dossey, who claims that 8% of American’s suffer with this phobia. To comfort of my friend, Germans are not the only ones still believing of the old superstition, Turks expunged with Number 13 from their vocabulary centuries ago. Modern day architects carefully avoided street number 13, floor 13 or flat 13 for years.
Yesterday, I had read Indian government making it compulsory for female employees to publish their menstrual cycles. Today, I found that, number 13 actually represents femininity. Further emphasizing fictional novel Da Vinci Code’s view points, founders of Christianity hated such representations, hence purposefully vilified number 13.
Do you have any friend who has 13 letters in his name? I have one…hello M.T.
(This is my 13th blog of this year, posted on Friday the 13th.)

TiSP: going with Google flow

2007-04-02T23:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, Google announced the launch of free in home ad supported internet service product TiSP. Commending his TiSP team, co-founder of Google Larry seemed to be very confident of the success of this product.

The installation is the simplest one, it comes with Google toolbar too!

As per one user because of this high speed internet connection, System Hungs are smoother now!

Check out the FAQ for more details.

यह कैसे हो सकता है?

2007-04-02T18:17:00.000+01:00

How on earth...?

Fifty percent grey

2007-04-02T01:11:00.000+01:00

50% Grey - this is an amazing video by Ruairi Robinson.

Does five years form a trend?

2007-03-30T01:03:00.000+01:00

From last five years, India's GDP has grown from 5.3% to 9.1% (with real GDP 1999-2006 6.6% per annum source: IMF World Economic Outlook). Is this sustainable?

India's revenues are mainly based on export of high skilled services unlike goods, IT services being one of the major one (5.4%) (others:agriculture 20%, industry 19.3%, services 60.7%)
However, this position is challenged by China, in-terms of its rapid growth in skilled labor availability and infrastructure. Chinese position is further strengthened by its lead in manufacturing market and continued large investments. To echo my views, all the leading IT services companies of India have reported to be opening large development centers in (Wipro, TCS)China. These companies are also compelled by acute shortage of supply of quality skills within India.

Has India lost its steam as IT powerhouse? Will its poor infrastructure sign the suicide note?
Or Will the Businesses will continue to grow within India, independently, with help of diasporas expertise and investment?

Interestingly, this morning my friend Jagu shared his insights, that in next 45 years, China and India’s GDP will be more than US and to my slight disappointment and surprise, China’s GDP will be more than US, Russia, Brazil and India together (122,271 million USD; GDP per head 74,402USD, which will be 26K less than that of US. Source: Central Intelligence Agency and Experian Business Strategies)!!! That reminds me of a comedy show I saw on YouTube.

Comments

2007-03-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

Finally, the most beloved visitors and their rare comments, thank you. At last, someone is reading my blog ;)

I would like to introduce some of the better writers I know: Nick, Timus, and Love-stop…with no intention to kick start recursive loop...Check out Timus' prediction!

India - Allout for zero

2007-03-25T16:48:00.000+01:00

Both India and Pakistan are out of the World Cup game. Indian fans are having tough time to come to terms with pathetic performance of the team. I stopped watching games in 1996, from then I am happy to have not wasted my time or emotional energy on the bunch of failures.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6490701.stm

Virgin Media vs Sky - Round One

2007-03-25T16:22:00.000+01:00

During recent spat between Virgin Media and Sky, I only read about how bad the Virgin Media services have been and angry customers leaving Virgin Media. Even though Virgin Media offered free contract terminations by end of March, it seemed many subscribers had no chance of reaching customer service representatives. Neil Berkett, COO of Virgin Media seems to be aware of the problem and seeks ‘patience and time’ from his customers. I think, it is too late for Richard. I have also seen the Sky offer of 30 GBP for switching to Sky (with additional 30 for recommender!).
The reason for this blog is to verify what the losses are for Sky - as until now it seemed Virgin Media took the majority of the hit.
Obviously, the advertisers and agencies are not happy with Sky’s strategic decision to depart from Virgin Media audience base. Sky has shared overall 12% dip in its audience and 8% dip in ad-sales (Sky One 30%, Sky News 18%, Sky Travel 30% and Sky Two 13%).
Sky is putting desperate efforts to keep in advertisers happy and asking for ‘patience and time’. Sky is hoping that the offers like the one I mentioned above plus quality football and movies on Sky One(& others) will gain the lost audience.

So where the bloody hell are you?

2007-03-25T15:42:00.000+01:00

I watched this advertisement today. Cost of this ad to Tourism Australia is reported to be AU$180 million.
Check out the full ad at http://www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com/ and don't miss the Lara Bingle. The reports suggest, because of this ad (created by UK's M&C Saatchi) the number of visits to tourism website has grown by 500%. However that hasn't been the same with number of people visiting Australia.

Indian experience

2007-03-23T07:25:00.000Z

Many analysts and journalists often report India as the IT super power of the world. There are many articles written about it (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=IT+Superpower&meta= ) or otherwise (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2005484,00.html).
Below, I would like to give two pictorial stories about how Indian private and government entities are less bothered about using IT for efficiency and customer experience. India Inc. is far behind in terms of leveraging IT and hence valuing its citizens’ time.

Air India
Air India is very (un)popular air line of the country. Majority of travelers despise traveling by Air India. I leave the arguments and counter arguments to Kaushik Basu and his readers (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6125940.stm).
I prefer to share following pictures with captions with a opinion that…”Indians deserve better”:

Try figure out the online booking!

The online booking is very painful and will never work smoothly. Some of the screen shots:

Wrong date? or no return?

While one is attempting to book the flights – if one uses back button of browser, the site requests to click “ABORT” the active “transactions” before proceeding with next search.

Voila, a free ticket!

Also, visit to Indian website of Air India and stay there!!!

Another ‘winner’ organization for today’s blog is the famous, High Commission of India in London. The below pictorial story should convey the point:

After standing for more than 2 hours in cold morning outside the embassy, I was given with a token, numbered 949. I entered the building and took a seat waiting for my token to be called. When nothing happened for next 30 minutes, and I saw the masses of people queuing in front of me, I soon realized that the token had no value but was just a ticket to enter the building.

While I was asking for my turn for next two hours, I have noticed the masses grow and the gentleman at the counter working briskly. I would like to call him as Mr. Prime Minister, as he behaved like one. On my turn the Mr. Prime Minister, asked few questions and asked for additional copies and signatures and pictures and so and so fourth. I must say, my previous experience has taught me to keep additional copy every document! He asked me to come after 5 days, after 3PM to collect my travel documents. Finally, I was happy to make my out after more than 4 hours ordeal.

I reported promptly at 3PM on designated date to collect my documents. There was a mass being conducted. The Mr. Prime Minister this time was working at a slower pace and servicing by roll-calling the names. With funny jokes for the absent ones, it was typical Indian gathering with lots of jokes flying around.

And there were some interesting incidents too: a gentleman who was seeking correction to his passport received the passport. But to his shock, now he was born in Jaipur instead of Jodpur! The Mr. Prime Minister said – “oh, koyi badi baat nahi hai. Its not a big deal..its just small error, move on”!! Then came by a lady and complained that her new born baby’s passport carries wrong birthplace. The passport read London instead of Hounslow. The Prime Minister declared that’s not an error! Unlike India, UK doesn’t have any states and for immigration purposes London or Hounslow are the very same places!! I was still waiting for my turn, in mean time, the Prime Minister took the turns between his work and personal calls.

Before my turn, the embassy cleaning lady arrived promptly to tidy the place. Already getting ready for the busy next day!!!

I welcome your comments and stories

TV 2.0 Model?

2007-03-22T18:53:00.000Z

It is difficult times for entertainment industry – in getting the correct pulse read of consumer behavior. The industry is arguing about the successful business model for tomorrow digital media world. With success of iTunes, pundits predicted the cracking of the code. But working with Apple has its own set of problems for media companies. Media companies’ attempts to copy protected discs and scramble songs/videos with DRM technologies have miserably failed.

With announcement of Joost and Viacom (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6379595.stm), it seems the traditional business model has re-invented itself in the digital world. The ad-supported video is favored to succeed in the long term. In US, this model has generated 209 million GBP revenue in 2006(Adams Media Research). However, firms like Channel 4 and ITV are still pushing free VoD, hoping free video distribution’s positive influences on linear broadcasting.

My view is that internet or broadband is another channel of distribution of content with traditional business model supporting it. Consumers expected free content and more so now with prevail of free news and pod casts. With prevail of 26% adult audience listening or viewing to/at their portable devices everyday, ad-supported model will resurge. It seems there’s already some breaking news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6480949.stm

UK M&E Industry Annual Revenue and Approx IT Spend

2007-02-16T18:24:00.000Z

The UK Media and Entertainment Industry is set to grow at approximate 6% from last year figure of 74 trillion USD. The IT departments are speculating to have IT budgets around 3 billion USD.
Source: multiple media industry reports and data sheets.

Happy New Year and Happy Republic Day

2007-01-26T14:03:00.000Z

Happy New Year 2007...I had a great bash on the eve at The Leela Palace Bangalore.

Today is Indian Republic Day...celebrating the founding of independent republic in 1950. Russian president Vladimir Putin is chief guest of honour for today's celebrations in New Delhi.

Carphone Warehouse Rise & Fall

2006-10-13T18:25:00.000+01:00

On 11th Oct 2006, the news was that Carphone Warehouse (CPW) acquired of AOL UK for 370 million GBP crowning itself as 3rd largest broadband provider. This added 2 million broadband users. Analysts adjusted the forecasts (Morgan Stanley) and increased the share price ratings to 380p.

On AOL UK acquisition, Charles Dunstone, CEO of CPW: “The acquisition of AOL’s UK Internet access business is transformational for our broadband business. This deal gives us significant scale to complement the rapid organic growth of our free broadband proposition. In addition, the joint development of AOL’s already successful audience platform will bring us new advertising and content revenues in a proven and low risk manner.”

However, the business transformation for CPW came in one day! On 12th Vodafone terminated its long term (17 years old!) exclusive deal with CPW to sell mobile contracts. Then on Friday, 13th Oct, Orange increased the pressure by announcing plans to terminate its long term contracts.
For both the company, CPW has become more of a threat after clinching a deal to buy AOL UK business. CPW’s share fell by 12% and 450 million GBP has been wiped out…oops!

However, considering the far reach of CPW, is it a wise decision for Vodafone? Phone4U is popular amongst younger group, is it next the CPW? or will CPW split its operations and acquire Phone4U to further strenghten its position

Conflict "in pictures" at BBC

2006-07-24T12:05:00.000+01:00

An American woman reads a book aboard the USS Whidbey Island after it picks up evacuees in Beirut.

In the Lebanese port of Sidon, Ali Sasieddin carries the body of his daughter Lynn, killed by an Israeli missile, from a hospital morgue.

A little girl sleeps inside a bomb shelter in a village in northern Israel.

On a beach in Tel Aviv, which so far seems out of the rockets' range, people relax in the sun.

BSkyB puts pressure on BT

2006-07-20T10:49:00.000+01:00

Yesterday BSkyB's James accouned a 400Million GBP further investment into broadband business. BSkyB is wants a piece of 25Billion GBP TME's 2010 business.
CPW, Orange, and now BSkyB has offered it's segement of customers few broadband connection with free wireless routers and 'unlimited' downloads...BT hasn't come out with any other than a legal case against CPW's slogan 'free forever' !

After going through Ad in newspaper, first thing I did was to call BT and ask how can I cancel my broadband option! Few more months to go then I would not be paying a single penny against hefty monthly fee for a limited download

Blogs banned by India

2006-07-19T21:09:00.000+01:00

India joined the likes of China, Pakistan and similar countries where freedom of expression is openly banned or rudely suppressed. Indian government has passed the rule to ban internet websites as and when government wishes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5194172.stm reports that bloggers are its first victim and many blogspot blogs have been banned by 150+ ISP as per government notice.

Previously Indian government tried to control other mass communication mediums like TV and print...it seems like Indian government really hates the idea where information is accessible to mass easily.

PS: Technically, no ISP Or government can stop a curious technical savvy reader from accessing any website in the world he/she wishes from any country…unless the country in question decides to shuts down its entire internet infrastructure

How many religions one would try?

2006-01-30T09:28:00.000Z

I have lost the count, may be this is Britney's fourth attempt...

Arun Sarin – Tough days?

2006-01-27T11:21:00.000Z

How long Arun can keep arguing against its shareholders (read Standard Life Investments). For any CEO whose company is plunging by 14% in a market where industry is up by 15%, these nights are full of dreadful dreams. Investments in Verizon is at the center of heated discussion and it’s my personal opinion that Vodafone has to reduce the costs of running different platforms & networks. Time to sell off Vodafone’s stake in Verizon?

And it seems no body is asking him the question about investment in 3G and UMTS. Why Vodafone is still continueing spending in France and Germany on these platforms, where its eveident that in Europe customers prefer DAB & DVB.

Merry X-Mass and Happy New Year 2006

2005-12-26T18:32:00.000Z

Oh, 2005 was year of full changes, challenges, work and growth. Now that is passed by, looking forward to 2006. So much to look forward and so much still left to conquer.

MSN Desktop vs. Google Desktop

2005-09-26T13:42:00.000+01:00

I have been using Google and MSN Desktop, my view points...

Similarities
1) Search results

Differences
1) MSN Desktop user interface is easy to use and intuitive
2) MSN Desktop allows filtering of results in multiple way
3) MSN Desktop indexing downgrades computer performance
4) MSN Desktop searching takes relatively more time
5) MSN Desktop integrated with every application on Windows
6) MSN Desktop’s intelligent feature of not indexing cache is good for some and ‘most important missing feature’ for others
7) MSN Desktop indexes the attachments of emails
8) Google Desktop recognized email thread and shows only one email as result instead of every email!
9) Google is better off in searching
10) MSN Desktop is better off in presenting

Worst under ground transportation system

2005-09-26T13:00:00.000+01:00

Worst under ground transportation system

With every passing day in London, my suspicion is set become verdict. I vote London Tube as the worst underground transportation system in the world. Delays, cancellations and diversions are the characteristics of tube. On the scale of 1 to 10, I would rate tube as below…

London Tube : 4.5
Hong Kong Metro : 10
Mumbai Local : 9.5 (Lost a half point ‘cause of comfort of travel!!)
German U-Bhan : 10

M&E Series#1

2005-09-13T20:06:00.000+01:00

Creative, glamorous and lucrative Media and Entertainment industry is undergoing a revolutionary change fuelled by new ways of doing business, be it in Film, TV, Publishing, Music or Mobile entertainment. With blurring gap between Telcos, Retails, Internet and Entertainment, industry is struggling to find the right solutions to make most of their content.

Consumers want the content anywhere, anytime and on any device. They want freedom on how they store, share and consume the digital media.

In this series on M&E, I will blog how industry is adopting digitization across its value chain and what technological innovations are fuelling the solutions and problems for it!

All the views and "spelllings" expressed on this site are my personal views. Has nothing to do with my company, my profession, my friends, my neighbours, my dog and my grand mom!

US Image after hurricane visit

2005-09-04T22:09:00.000+01:00

I am sure many are surprised like me. US, the US!, reacted so badly to the aftermath. Superdome which was meant to save the lives became site of free killings and gang rapes. People failed to help each other.
Other thing to that was highlighted was the economic separation. Press all over the world published pictures of sufferings which were mainly dominated by African-Americans. Why, is the question I think few would dare to ask and definitely administration isn't willing to address. Here is the White House boss consoling the hurt…

Nothing Indian about it!

2005-07-18T16:55:00.000+01:00

Cows on the railway tracks; nothing Indian about it!

Sellers’ World

2005-07-12T17:15:00.000+01:00

And there’s another breed of companies who are taking its customers ‘for ride’ while government is busy putting its acts right. The rapid growth of disposable income of people is creating business entities which are growing in terms of carelessness for its consumer and less regards for the consumer rights. Welcome to the world where consumer is not a King.

A major mobile operator in India keeps sending approximate 5 to 6 SMS per day, advertising some of its own and others’ offerings (like ring tones, hello tones, movie ads or TV ads). Now, if you are marketing agency, you could imagine value of these advertisements. Subscriber has not chosen to be a target and I am definitely sure it is wrong of service provider to keep sending ads without substantiating with other value additions. When I contacted “Customer Service” and requested them to stop sending these annoying SMSs; they informed me that they will not be able to stop all SMS!! What the hell…that’s bloody arrogance for being a major service provider and taking its customers for a ride.

Another one is mushrooming credit cards issuers in India. In US/Europe, you could terminate your credit card by simply sending a diagonally-cut-credit-card to your bank’s branch office. Try it in India. Bank won’t get back to you on that and on their records that credit card continues to be under use, thus charging you with annual fees and interests! An effort to sort these things will teach you a lesson that government bureaucracy has found new body.

On similar lines but worth a full entry is ‘Employee working conditions under new IT/BPO boom’, on that sometime later…

Deteriorating under own weight

2005-07-12T17:10:00.000+01:00

Indian government is failing catch up with growing economy, hence failing to meet people’s demand for better life, better standards, better system and better governance.

Infrastructure in metros has crumbled to a state where private companies are offering to build roads, airports and public toilets!

It takes hours to travel 2 to 3km by Taxi. There are no traffic rules to abide! Taxi drivers demand money as per their wish, there’s no metering system in almost every metro. If you take a cab from airport then you have pay few hundred extra for no reasons. Local authorities have no intention of putting metering system in place and brining in some standard of service.

Traveling in local trains (many cities have no local trains) is an experience rivaling that of hell. There’s not even a single international airport in India which is connected to city center by local train. Consider an example of a tourist staying at Churchgate and he has to take an international flight at evening 6. Then he has to start at least around 12. A waste of a valuable half day for nothing but to travel a distance of approx 25km and check-in. So, if you are flying domestic, then flight duration will be far less than that of your taxi ride!

Recently there was one page article in Mumbai local news paper where people worried that a new shopping mall cum movie multiplex is coming up in their area. There concern is traffic volume that this new mall will attract from all over the city and their argument is that such an increase in volume will cripple their daily life. Now, that’s a strange complaint. The underline is Mumbai (any other city) is not well prepared to support today’s life style of people. This would only reduce the number of malls, people spending, people driving, visiting places, flying places and the cycle will reach riksha wala and then dobhi wala and then pan wala and then ….everyone. India Jago, don’t be a bottleneck of your own economic growth.

Air Monsoon

2005-07-05T10:48:00.000+01:00

You might not wish to plan a Mumbai holiday during Monsoons, but if it is inevitable that you need to, then don’t fly small aircrafts like ATRs, A320s or similar; otherwise get ready to experience a free fall of few feet or journey through turbulent weather which leaves you with moments of being closer to heaven (exceptions: you might love it if you are free fall freak!)

Training their muscles

2005-06-29T07:29:00.000+01:00

One more example for Indian companies becoming truly global. Videocon, Indian consumer electronics manufacturer has acquired Thomson’s color picture tube plants in France. This effectively replaces Thomson’s CPT global operations. Videocon is buying this by allowing Thomson group to have $240m worth of stake.

Indian giants have been shaping up global industry by worldwide M&A initiatives. Amongst notable players are Tata group, Reliance group, VSNL, Infosys, Wipro, BioCon, ONGC and many more.

Worst Blog

2005-06-29T07:26:00.000+01:00

Even though it’s Sanjeev Honakhande's fault that he writes less and whatsoever he writes has less to comment about; but still Sanjeev wishes to have some feedbacks.
Seems like, in his desperate attempts to attract attention Sanjeev is thinking of writing on controversial subjects (only?).

Kung Fu Hustle

2005-06-03T13:45:00.000+01:00

An Indian wondering what his/her US/European colleagues thinks after watching 'Sometime Happy Sometime Sad' or 'Main Hoo Na' should see 'Kung Fu Hustle'

Maharastra / Mumbai Best Bus

2005-05-26T06:51:00.000+01:00

The ugliest looks and worst design to make sure of an unpleasant journey for its passengers.
.
But it has strongest body frame!
.

Hot Mumbai

2005-05-16T16:42:00.000+01:00

With temperature hovering around 30+ in morning 8AM, Mumbai is the worst place to be in Summer. During office hours it takes more than 1 hour to travel 10KM distance, imagine that under hot sun and dust n exhaust smoke all around you....phew, somehow everyone is surviving;

In my view, even in 20 years Mumbai can't be International financial hub like that of HongKong or NewYork. But hope is what keeps this city ticking...

Back to India

2005-01-17T09:58:00.000Z

After staying for pretty long time and doing gr8 work with the client, its time to go back to India. Looking forward for new challenges...

Trivial

2005-01-14T14:15:00.000Z

Internet is full of trivia "Did you know...".

»OK is the most common word used across the globe. The second word is Coca Cola
»Bible is the most published book across the globe. The second book is IKEA Catalog

Read about Space Shuttle and Horse's rear! Funny isn't it?

Good bye 2004. Welcome 2005.

2005-01-03T11:51:00.000Z

Year 2004 has left its mark so profound on the history of mankind, it will take few centuries before one forgets the suffering of mankind on this scale. A tsunami which stuck to the East Asia’s costal-line killed more than 150,000 people and affected more than 2 million people. . And still thousands more are missing.
The affected included all nationalities. More than 40% of dead includes children, probably they weren’t fast enough to run away from surging wave of killer tsunami. The pictures and videos on TV and other media have left me crying few a times. The global media’s extensive coverage of this catastrophe has brought unprecedented help action from public and governments. This also might be the first incident where public contributions outstripped the governments’, a total of $2 billion. There is a growing fear of water spread diseases.
East Asia countries are coming together and helping each others. I am not surprised India’s decision to deny outside help, since I also agree its self sufficient to handle this crisis. India has taken immediate actions of sending help to other badly hurt countries.
Since coming from India, I know the reality of ‘spending the public money’. Politicians and other power keepers usually eat up the most of the public money, throwing peanuts to people. I hope the international communities and NGOs will ask for accountability from these countries.
I pray in God to sooth the hurt souls and assure the help reaches the needed ones in time. And wish the New Year will be a pleasant one for every country, every race and every religion.

Wish you a Happy New Year 2005

B for Bush and ...

2004-11-09T16:10:00.000Z

I find it funny after all that halla gulla in the World Media and to millions' disappointment, Bush has kept his seat (as we say in India). In my opinion his victory was influenced mainly by the religion. How different it is from Saudi or Iraqi leaders’ being "elected". It is sad for THE US, whose citizens are (supposed to be ) well informed and educated. To make a mistake like third grade illiterates, I only forsee the downgrade of democracy and freedom in US. I wish they wake up before something more dangerous happens, something more dangerous than 911, the loss of basic things like freedom of speech, human rights and equality. Only Americans have the right to decide on their future and they should not shy away from that responsibility.

Congratulations Bush, the most powerful man in the World. And really wish "God Bless America".

Brand new shiny day.

2004-08-18T12:01:00.000+01:00

Yo!

Indian medal tally

2004-08-17T20:02:00.001+01:00

If India Wins a medal at Olympics then its an internaltional news Good or Bad?

The only Indian athletes ever to win individual medals at the Olympics are...
Khashba Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Games(bronze),
Leander Paes at Atlanta in 1996(bronze),
Karnam Malleshwari in Sydney 2000(bronze) and
Major Rajyavardhan Rathore in Athens 2004(silver)

I see bats everywhere

2004-08-17T19:50:00.000+01:00

Since months I am so lost in the work, don’t even have time to clean my ***. Every day GetUp-Office-Work-Work-Work-Home-Eat-Sleep-GetUp-Office-… a non-stop cycle. I even forgot the password to this blog!! It is so hard to remember these online passwords, particularly when my main memory is only 64KB. Does someone know how to upgrade! Since I leave office so late, I have missed so many “nice things” on the streets of Cöln and winter is creeping in. Daily on my way back home on my new shiny bike, I see bats! Wait, where are the bats? There aren’t any scary old tree or caves, it is just concrete forest; still I see bats, bats everywhere.

C with sharper teeth

2004-08-06T17:21:00.000+01:00

Do you agree C# killed C++?

Dawn of this blog

2004-08-06T16:45:00.000+01:00

Hi,
At last I have given up the fight again "blog" system. I never wanted to have one, but nothing wrong in giving a try. May be, I don't know I might become "famous"..ha ha ha.