Just Tech 2.0.

Windows Vista will be launched in 3 different versions. Home, Business and Ultimate. But before you install any of these versions, you need to have a Windows Vista Capable PC.
A Windows Vista Capable PC includes,

• A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
• 512 MB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

However, for better user experience, Microsoft recommends, the following configuration, classified as Vista Premium PC.

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)2, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

This will be the basic version that will be installed on all your PCs supplied by OEMs like HP, Dell, Gateway, etc. This is a replacement for Windows XP Home. Some of the enhanced featuers are Aeroo interface and integrated desktop search though Google is giving away its GDS for free and is far better than Microsoft's search.

It will be priced at $199 for full version and $99 for an upgrade.


The Home Premium comes with an Integrated Desktop Search, Media Center features, support for DVD burners. This will be the default installation for most mid-range PCs. ($600+) If the computer has a DVD burner, it will probably get Home Premium.

The full version of it will cost $239 and an upgrade will cost $159.



Windows Vista Business adds the Aero interface and will also support Tablet PCs. It has integrated desktop search, and other goodies. This is the equivalent of Windows XP Pro in the Vista family.
It will be interesting to see if corporates running on Windows 2000 professional opt for XP Pro or Windows Vista Business edition. Microsoft is banking on that they will opt for Vista.

It is priced at $299 for full version and $199 for an upgrade.

The Vista Ultimate - the name says it all. Super set of all the other editions. It includes all the features in the other retail versions as well as corporate features like BitLocker drive encryption. I guess it is mainly targeted for Developers.

The full version comes at $399 and an upgrade will cost you $259.

Japan's reproduction rate - the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime - fell to an all-time low of 1.25 in 2005. NTT DoCoMo is all set to enacash on this data.

NTT DoCoMo is wooing its women customers to use their phone - D702iF. This is designed for those women who are categorigzed as would-be mothers and who want to know when they reach the most fertile part of their monthly reproductive cycles.

Its an all woman phone. A woman can program the phone to alert her three days before ovulation and again on the day. The company warns that the calculations are based on average cycles. This phone also comes with a recipe database.

Via [NTT DoCoMo]

Last month we covered, all the Nokia cell phones, officially released in India which are FM radio compatible. It's time again to cover Motorola, Sony, Samsung and LG Phones that are FM compatible and are available in India.

Category - Less Than Rs5,000
Sony-Ericsson J230i Rs. 3,250
Motorola C168 Rs. 2,500
Samsung C230 Rs. 3,750
LG B2070 Rs. 3,200

Category - Between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000
Sony-Ericsson Z550i Rs. 8,100
Sony-Ericsson K608i Rs. 8,300
Sony-Ericsson W300i Rs. 9,600
Samsung SGH-X300 Rs. 5,050
Samsung SGH-X620 Rs. 5,400
Samsung SGH-X650 Rs. 6,000
Samsung SGH-X630 Rs. 7,200
Samsung SGH-X700 Rs. 9,100
LG C2500 Rs. 5400

Category - Between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000
Sony-Ericsson W700i Rs. 12,500
Samsung SGH-E730 Rs. 15,000

Category - Between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000
Samsung E730 Rs. 15,000

Once again, you can check out Nokia FM Mobile Phones in India here. Rates may vary by 2% depending on dealers and cities.

Tags: Mobile India , Nokia India, Sony India, FM India

You Telecom, formerly Iqara Broadband has launched "You Play - Games on Demand" for its broadband subscribers in association with IndiaGames. You can play unlimited games a month for just Rs199 a month. Their are currently 100 games for you to choose from.

The games include Age of Empires II, Brian Lara's Cricket, IGI-2 Covert Strike, Toca Race Driver 2, Microsoft Flight Stimulator along with a list of multiplayer games. As an introductory offer, YOU Telecom will offer a 7 day free trial for its YOU PLAY service.

For more details Check out You Play. Zapak is another gaming portal for the avid Indian gamer.

Nokia India sold close to half a million phones(400,000) on 19-OCT-2006. This is the highest number of phones to be sold by any company in the world on any given day creating a new world record. Internal release by Nokia India says,
"It is even more than what Nokia has ever sold on any Chinese new year".

Nokia dealers attributed this to the Diwali shopping mania. Nokia India currently has 38 models available on the retail shelf, of which around 13-25 can be categorised into the low-end segment. India is also the fastest growing mobile market in the world. Also check out our Top-5 Mobile Gifts recommended for the Holiday Season.

Cricket fans, here is an exciting news. CricInfo Mobile has launched "Trivia Champ" a trivia game for the Mobile users to test their cricket knowledge. The trivia is expected to be live during all cricket series henceforth. It is available only on Airtel and Hutch. More details here.

This application is developed by Bangalore based Dhruva Interactive.

Diwali, the festival of lights is here. Gone are those days of exchanging gifts the traditional way. If you are still thinking of exchanging the Mithai Box or Gold, time for you to get some lessons from your kids. The new generation is all about Gadgets and Gizmos. Find here the top 5 laptop reviews to brighten your loved ones life this Diwali.




The Inspiron 9400 is powered by Intel core-duo processors (T2500 clocked at 2 GHz), has a huge 17-inch screen and packs in a Geforce Go 7900 GS graphics system which allows full screen 3-D gaming. Most models are Windows Vista compatible. It also comes with a huge selection of connectivity options and a 100 GB 7200 RPM drive along with 1 GB of system RAM making this a true desktop replacement. Fo more details, check out Dell India.

With Apple venturing on the Intel platform, it's MacBook has been very popular. Apple is teh coolest computer manufacturere in the world. Price/Performance and consumer satisfaction is the best with Apple products. The new Macbook Pro is powered by a 2.16 GHz Intel core duo processor along with 2 GB of 66 7 MHz DDR2 RAM and a 7200 RPM 100 GB hard drive. The screen is a large 17-inch. It packs in an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card with 256 MB of VRAM which actually allows full screen gaming in Windows. Apart from its own OS-X now allows you to run Windows on its machines through the boot-camp software. Their are cheaper variations of MacBook, check out Apple specs here.

The G4 12 in, 867 processor, 640 MB, 60 Gig hard drive with the Super Drive. Its maxed out and an awesome computer. It has Bluetooth/Airport device. This is as portable as your Nokia Communicator.

We all love Nokia and we all know it works better than the rest. However, if you are looking for an alterative phone for under Rs4,000 in India which can compete with Nokia 6030 (currently, the most popular model) then check out the cool Samsung-X160.

Nokia 6030 costs Rs. 4,000. It's sleek, good looking and light phone, that has a modest 128x128 65k color display and a decent 3mb of memory to store stuff downloaded via GPRS. There's no Bluetooth or USB, but the FM radio is one of the main reasons for the 6030 being a hit.

Samsung X160 is a flip phone alternative and costs Rs 3,750. No, this one doesn't have FM, but it has a bigger 128x160 display, a 1,000-entry phonebook, 1.2mb internal memory and Java MIDP etc. I would suggest pay an additional Rs. 750 and get the X210 which has FM.

Mumbaiites should feel lucky that they now have some platform to connect with upsacle lifestyle and leisure businesses and events. burrp! Mumbai lets you search, read and write reviews for Hotels, Discos, Shopping etc.

You are in Mumbai and looking for place to hang out over weekend. Check out burrp! Mumbai and lets say you decide to hop around Phoenix Mills. You zero on 4 places after carefully reading the reviews. You don't have to jot down their addresses; Just download the info to your mobile by means of SMS sent at no cost to you. That's not it. You may also get a Discount Code in your SMS to shop in the vicinity. Once you have had fun, you can share your reviews back on burrp! and help others like you to hang out at the same place. You can also connect for Clubs, Concerts etc. Chill out with burrp!

Google Inc has authorized the following business establishments as resellers of their adwords program. Infomedia India and NextGen Publishing

If you are a small business looking to advertise on Google AdSense program, then check out AdWords.

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group today unveiled Beta version of their gaming portal Zapak.Com. It is a full-service Gaming Entertainment Company. They are targeting both the casual and the hardcore gamer.

Zapak.com has world-class content to quirky Indian titles. Adding to the list will be some of the world's best, most wanted, and the most addictive international games. Cutting-edge gaming genres such as MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) will soon be featured as well.

Zapak.com will trigger this revolution by offering only the best in gaming entertainment, right here in India. Zapak.Com wishes to build the largest online gaming tribe, closer to home. Anil Ambani has readied a personal war chest of $100 Million to promote Zapak :-)

You ask and Nokia listens. Everybody wanted to BUY N70 as it's a 3G phone but it lacked the sexy appeal which N72 had in Black color. Also everybody wanted a 1GB Memory card. Nokia packed all your requests in the new NSeries Music Edition N70.

Other phones in NSeries Music edition are N73 with 3.2 MegaPixel camera and 2GB memory. And N91 Music edition comes with a whopping 8GB memory and 2 MegaPixel camera :-)

Have a Great Week Ahead!!!

MingleBox is introducing a whole new platform of infotainment for the next generation Indians. It has unveiled its Alpha site, yes its still in very early stages but does have a unique concept. Though current features overlap with Google's Orkut, it does let you blog and share photos as well. It is very soon expected to launch MingleMobile as well.

Excerpts from goBroadband,

The site is localized to suit Indian culture. You need to be a member to browse the site which they said was done keeping privacy issues in mind. MingleBox community is unique as it helped users create and exchange information on current festivals and events, for instance the Navaratri Dandia and Durga Pooja. Some Paparazzi has also uploaded the pictures of Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao wedding at Panchagani.

Other social networking sites for Indians are techTribe.com (For Geeks to Connect), Sixer.TV(For Cricket fans to connect), Meet or Delete India (From Dating to RoomMates)

Have a Happy Weekend!

The much hyped IPTV of Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited is still in Test Labs. State owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited - MTNL has launched its IPTV in Mumbai and Delhi.

Viewers will be able to watch 20 Channels which will eventually go up to 200. They can also watch Video on demand.

To get IPTV, you need a MTNL Phone, MTNL Triband Broadband and then subscribe additionally for IPTV services. Why IPTV makes no sense in India ? First it will be a costly affair because you are paying for your ridiculously low speed broadband say Rs1,500 to Rs2,500 a month and additional fees for IPTV subscriptions. You can view Dish TV at far cheaper price. I don't think IPTV can match the quality of service offered by Dish TVs in India. We will know soon :-)

eBay India, India’s leading online marketplace, has announced has announced a Bumper Diwali shopping sale for online Indians. Enjoy gifting and shopping on the biggest online Diwali sale and win assured gifts, as eBay India offers a wide range of products across categories with free shipping to brighten your Diwali! The biggest online Diwali sale offer is available on eBay India, until October 23, 2006.

Bid on the exciting One Paisa Auctions on Jewellery and besides your winning bid, you win a 10 gm silver coin. Buy- Budget Electronics priced below Rs1500 ranging from remote controlled cars to web cameras to sleek pen drives to digital cameras and win a cool eBay Coffee Mug. Buy a snazzy Cell Phone and win either a 512 USB drive or a stylish Swatch watch. Enjoy the guaranteed gifts on offer for all buyers on the showcased products on eBay India during the Diwali sale.

Shop on eBay India and get up to 25 % off on Adora and 20% on D’dmas branded jewellery and 30% on Allen Solly and Peter England shirts! And that’s not all, eBay India also offers traditional items like different types of exotic Diyas, handmade and ethnic Toran, auspicious Pooja thalis, attractive gift hampers and candles by Dimple Kapadia!

Croma - consumer electronics retail chain from the house of Tata's launched their first showroom in Juhu, Mumbai. Croma - Juhu, is the first of the 30 mega consumer electronics retail stores to be launched in India over the next 18 months. Croma will be the Best Buy of India. RelianceRetail has a complete coverage on Croma.

India's pioneers in Internet portals, Rediff.com today went public with their intention to compete in the fast growing online gaming market. Rediff will launch it's gaming portal, RediffGames.com this quarter. Rediff has been quietly building a robust gaming team at it's Mumbai office.

I also checked out RediffGames.com which is registered to Rediff.com but the site is not live for external users yet.

Earlier this week we covered about booking your weekend movie tickets for any of the PVR Multiplexes in India using Interactive Voice Response System or GPRS. Inox - Live The Movie another competing chain of Multiplexes in India has responded that they have SMS based booking facility available.

All you need to do is send a SMS such as INOX NPNT COLD 08 15:00 02 to 3636, and you are all set to watch the COLD Mountain movie with your boy/gal friend at Inox Nariman Point :-) The only drawback about booking by this system is, you need to collect your tickets 1 Hour in advance by producing the confirmation SMS sent by Inox else your booking will be cancelled. Inox has a complete booking guide for beginners as well as advanced users on their website.

Inox Multiplex India , Mobile India , Mobile Movie Tickets , Multiplex India

Samsung Mobile, today launched its credit card sized GSM phone, SGH-P310 in India.

The estimated retail cost of the phone is expected to be around Rs21,000 and should be available within the next 2 weeks in all major cities across India.

Just like how India bypassed the ugly computing paradigm of Mainframes, they are all set to bypass the Internet and hop on to the Mobile boom for entertainment to m-commerce.

PVR Limited, the largest Multiplex owner in India, has enabled mobile booking of tickets for all it's multiplexes spanning from Mumbai to Bangalore to NCR(Delhi, Noida, Faridabad) so that you can watch the sizzling Mallika in Pyar Ke Side Effects this weekend :-)

Mobile booking can be done in two ways. Using IVR - Interactive Voice Response system or using your GPRS and Java enabled handset. Pre-requisite, a credit card(Visa or Mastercard). To book your tickets using IVR, just dial 787 (Delhi & NCR customers only) or 505787 (Rest of India) from your Mobile and be assured the user friendly system will guide you through the booking process. These calls will pinch your pocket at Rs 6.0/Minute :-)

Oho! Maybe I should just use my GPRS phone then. Yes, you should! Here is a complete setup and booking guide for first time users. The cool thing about this feature is, sitting in Bangalore you can book tickets for you and your Mumbai girl friend for a weekend in PVR - Juhu Mumbai and also you can book your Bangalore-Mumbai tickets on RedBus.In a cool portal to book Bus tickets.

Thanks to TagIt which has developed this cinema booking application for PVR Limited.

Mobile India , Mobile Movie Tickets , Multiplex India ,

As per the latest statistics released by TRAI[PDF], their are mere 1.5 Million broadband subscribers in India. Two third of the broadband subscribers(1 Million) are with state owned BSNL & MTNL. AirtelBroadband is the most aggressively expanding private player with 250,000 broadband subscribers.

You can find reviews and tariffs of various Broadband Service Providers for home users.

Airtel Broadband Plans for Home Users

Iqara Broadband - You Telecom

Reliance Broadband Plans for Home Users

BSNL Data One Review and Tariff

If you are an online music or video buff, I am sure you face the same frustration as I do - severe crunch in bandwidth availability. How to download these songs / videos to your local hard drive.

Say you are listening to Rang De Basanti on Music India Online. I am assuming you have chosen Windows Media Player to listen to the song.

How to save Windows Media(.WMA) file using Internet Explorer Browser?
Step-1. Click Tools - Select Internet Options.
Step-2. Look for the General Tab, click on the Settings button available in the Temporary Internet Files group.
Step-3. Click View Files to open your Temporary Internet Files folder. This folder might contain several thousand files.
Step-4. Click View Details. Now click View - Arrange Icons By - Type.
Step-5. You should be able to see "Windows Media Audio File". I am seeing 02-Rang.wma
Step-6. Right click on this file and choose Copy. Then Paste the file in any other directory. Be sure to keep the page and IE window open while doing so or the temporary files may get deleted sometimes.

How to save flash files / presentation using Internet Explorer ?
To save a flash file or presentation, follow Steps-1 to Step-4 as detailed above.
Step-5.You should be able to see "Shock Wave File Object" with *.swf or *.flv extension. Make sure it's the same object you want it by cross checking with the "Internet Address"
Step-6. Right click on this file and choose Copy. Then Paste the file in any other directory.

If this is too much, then just use "Flashget" and it will download the file for you.

How to save content from YouTube ?
Just cut and paste the link from your browser address bar into YouTubia.com
Save the file as *.FLV. You can play this in VLC Player.

Let me know your experience.