Living the digital lifestyle

Review: Reliance Net Connect USB modem

Ranjit — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:18:00 +0000

I had recently taken an Reliance USB data modem as a secondary connection to connect to the net wirelessly when I am traveling and below are my views regarding the same.

I had purchase the Huawei EC325 USB data modem model for Rs 2,850 they have an current offer in which the first 2 months of usage is free and the dealer said that form the third month the billing will start with a default plan on Rs 650/month for I GB of data, and I could choose any other data plan that I wish, the reason I choose the USB modem model over the PC PCMCIA is that I can connect this USB modem even to my standard desktop if needed.
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Microsoft releases Vista SP1 to Public

Ranjit — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:02:31 +0000

Microsoft had released the much waited Service Pack for Vista SP1 after months of waiting and interim release candidate for public download, you can also expect retail copies of vista with SP1 in stores in a couple of weeks.

As for the SP1 the updates should be visible via Windows Update (for most of you) but if your machine has some problematic drivers that Microsoft has identified the SP1 update wont be there for you until newer drivers get released, You can also download the full SP1 from the links given below.

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Video: Is this the future of Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)

Ranjit — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:34:33 +0000

A video by Intel on the possible future on how we will interact with the help of UMPC and other gadgets in the future and how it would seamlessly integrate with other devices to make our lives easier.

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Airtel 1 MBPS Unlimited Plan for Home users

Ranjit — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:20:49 +0000

Airtel broadband has started 1 Mbps unlimited data transfer plans for Rs 2222 / month + tax, which is quite good for users who download a lot of content and don’t want to be worried about how much bandwidth they have consumed, the nearest similar plan that is offered by TATA broadband is 1 Mbps unlimited for Rs 3600 / month.

This new plan have been introduced for Delhi and Kolkata and I am sure that this service would be announced shortly for other areas as well, I hope this would also result in a healthy competition with other ISP’s also offering similar options. (more…)

Cheap tactics by Private Telecom Operators

Ranjit — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:39:01 +0000

I have a Airtel land line phone connection and a broadband connection on the same, I am very happy with their broadband and telephony services that I have recommend quite a few people regarding the same and generally there support is good and top notch. In this month telephone bill I noticed that I was billed for Hello tunes though I have never ever subscribed or opted for this service, I thought that it was a small mistake on their part and I paid the entire bill amount for the month.

Today I called up there customer support so as to remove this service from my account so that I should not be billed for the same next month, after going through a myriad of options via there IVS system I was finally able to reach a customer support representative. (more…)

Review of HCL Mileap V India’s low cost tablet UMPC

Ranjit — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:14:34 +0000

I purchased my HCL Mileap V UMPC / tablet laptop for Rs 35,350 which is inclusive of 4% VAT (its retail price is Rs 33,990 exclusive of tax which is approx US $850 this version comes with Windows Vista Home Premium preloaded, the same hardware but with Linux as the operating system is a bit cheaper at Rs 29,990 about US $750 without tax it is known as the Mileap Y Leaptop and it is one of the cheapest tablet UMPC in India, other comparable products similar to the performance of Mileap V cost almost one and a half times.

The laptop was preloaded with Vista Home Premium the first time you run the laptop it would complete the installation of Vista and you can assign a user name and password, the laptop was also preloaded with Microsoft Works and Kasperksy Anti-Virus, it detected my Wifi network protected via WPA and I was connected to the same after entering my password in a snap, the Wifi reception of this UMPC is pretty good.

Before we move ahead with the review I wanted to list the hardware specs for the HCL Mileap Y / V UMPC (more…)

Hands On HCL Mileap Y Series tablet UMPC

Ranjit — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:15:34 +0000

After repeated delays I finally got my Mileap V tablet UMPC in my hand after a long wait, the HCL guys weren’t just not ready to give it as they just had one piece with them, according to them I am the first retail customer in the city to lay hands on the Mileap V series, I took the Version loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium version Called the Mileap V the version loaded with Linux is technically known as Mileap Y.

My first impressions its surprisingly small and looks beautiful, the build quality that I was a bit worried about is great, my wife after seeing it for the first time was a bit pessimistic and said can you even work on this its so small, Surprisingly it runs Vista pretty comfortably but don’t expect it to fly or play games on the same, the boot times are a bit long upto a minute and a half but after that you can run applications simultaneously and it work pretty well for the size, it connected to my WiFi router without any issues.

Lets start with the Unboxing of the HCL Mileap Laptop! (more…)

Is 2008 the year of affordable UMPC?

Ranjit — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:28:06 +0000

I always wanted to buy a Ultra Mobile PC but just couldn’t not justify the pricing, I have good news for computer geeks and gadget freaks, this year is finally going to be the year of affordable UMPC in India, to start for HCL surprised me with the launch of Mileap X for Rs 14,000 and Y series a tablet editon of UMPC starting at Rs 29,990 and ASUS was not far off by launching there Asus Eee PC for 18,000 in India.

The thing to note is that HCL Mileap X (Rs 13,990) and ASUS Eee PC (Rs 18,000) run on Linux but the HCL Mileap Y which is also bundled with Linux costs Rs 29,900 but windows is also supported and if you want it with Vista Home Premium it would cost 33,990. All the three UMPC have a screen size of 7 inch but the Mileap Y supports a decent resolution of 1024*600 with touch screen functionality, on the other hand the Eee and the Mileap X support 880*480 resolution (which according to me is a bit on the low side) all of the above have built in support for Wifi. (more…)

Video: RSS in plain english

Ranjit — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:18:49 +0000

You might have seen RSS feeds on every site, but do you know what it means and how to use the same, check out this video to understand about RSS and how you can use the same.

Convert any file into another format online!

Ranjit — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:37:30 +0000

Everyone needs a good file converter, for example if you got that file via email in a .gz format and you thought why don’t they send it in a zip format, or that important document that was sent in PDF format and you wanted it to be in a doc format in short it good to have a file converter.

I have just got the perfect web-app for you it can convert almost any given file format to another, Best of all its FREE to use and you don’t need to install anything on your computer to use it!
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