raccoon

Rajan, v useful info there! Got to check a working O1 today. The looks are just about as plane jane as can be. The Motorola Quench Xt3 looks better. Even the Samsung galaxy 3 looks better from the front at least, IM0. LG has not paid any attention to the looks dept. at all. Touch screen of the O1 is a bit less sensitive, as is reported in reviews, but I found that the sensitivity while typing an SMS to be higher! Seems like they have varied the sensitivity depending on whats being used. At least that was my initial impression in the 5 mins that I handled it.

Anybody here from Poona or elsewhere who is facing total network outage on their Docomo? The network has been totally down here since about 2 - 3 hours at least (not sure exactly). I'm talking about the Kothrud area. Not sure about other areas. This is really pathetic! Needed to make couple of urgent calls, and I'm stuck with a dead network!! CC on chat isn't even aware of the problem... asked me to try Manual network setting. Didn't work of course. They just took a complaint.

Is anybody from Pune experiencing issues with Docomo since the last few weeks? Approximately since the launch of their 3G service, I am experiencing the following problems: Horrible voice clarity. Now they are competing with RGSM on this parameter. Frequent call drops. Previously call drops were quite infrequent (at least as long as there were no gaps in coverage), even when travelling in car. Signal seems to be fluctuating more indoors. Every single caller is complaining about voice clarity now. Just like when I was on RGSM It seems they have botched up something during the 3G activation and there loads of interference on their frequencies... After complaining to CC, they just closed my complaint without any explanation. After complaining to Appellate Officer, I got a call saying it will take 2 - 3 months to fix. Its not possible to live with these issues even for a day. If anybody is facing problems, please consider complaining directly to Appellate Officer at appellate.rom@tatadoco mo.com

It still has the same crappy resolution as that on the Galaxy 3. The Optimus one still wins on this parameter at least. O1 also has a bigger battery.

Letsbuy.com is offering all its wares (mobiles, home appliances, laptops, etc) at 15% discount to RCom post-paid customers and 10% off for ICICI Bank customers. Sounds really tempting! However, I did some research - reviews of the site on the net are not good. For eg. just check on Mouthshut. Anybody knows how good or bad the site is? 15% off is really tempting when you are buying stuff in this range.

More of Tata's true colours coming out in the open? More depressing and disgusting stuff: Source

You forgot the Samsung Galaxy 5? The worst amongst the biggies, in this respect too, is Nokia. They are doggedly sticking to resistive screens. Only now they have come out with their 1st capacitive screen... and that too only for the premium slot. In fact some new models yet to hit the market still have resistive screens! Seems everything moves slowest with Nokia... No doubt that capacitive screens rule over resistive, when you want to operate using fingers. However, reports say resistive screens have longer life and are more durable (though more scratch prone). Have read reports that the life of a capacitive screen is only 2 years! If true, this is just way too less, esp. considering the prices of upper end Android phones. Since touch screen phones (esp. capacitive) have recently started proliferating the market, I know its bit too early to comment on their life. But do any really early users comment on how long their touch screens have lasted?

Finally, the seller sent replacement thru DTDC and this time it reached me intact and quickly. So much hassle and loss from both sides due to @#$%&! Trackon Couriers! Recently bought a mouse from Futurebazaar.com. The flimsy carton was only wrapped in plastic bubble wrap, but was still delivered undamaged. However, on the tracking page they did put up "Consignee address Incorrect hence unable to deliver". Which was false as address was of course correct! I promptly complained to both and it still got delivered in about 5 days (they specify 7 days as shipping time). Even Flipkart uses BD and delivery has been quite fast. I got quite a shock recently when I asked a DTDC agent/franchise about sending a mobile. They say they won't accept. Also that if I try to send it by declaring it as something else, it is scanned by the company and they will return it and postage charges will be wasted. If it is some other electronic part, I will have to give written declaration and then the parcel has to be wrapped in cloth and stitched. And to top it all, they said it would cost about Rs. 250+ for some 500 gm parcel! I won't be doing that for nuts... Does anybody know which couriers in Pune accept mobiles without a huge fuss? And it gotta be cheap.

But has this been officially released in India?? Rs. 9.5 is way tooooo high for this device. How is the camera btw?

Thanks for clarifying. As for Uninor's discounts, it *seems* they are giving better discounts on the 50p local plan. Discount does go upto 60%, sometimes. But personally, I'd find checking discounts every time before calling quite irritating. Voice clarity however is superb, and you may want to consider it just for that. This is true in Poona and adjoining areas.

:previous:Not sure if its valid for AP circle, but I guess its valid pan India (please verify) - Virgin was/is giving 40p/min tariff without any special vouchers. Even cheaper option, if the numbers you are calling are on landlines, you could use BSNL landline. It would cost you Rs. 0.90 - 1.2 per 3 min.

Just got this SMS from Docomo - Tata Docomo laya hai 75000 ALL Local seconds free (1250 minutes) sirf 299 rupaiye ke special recharge par.Pack Vaidyta 30 Din.Jald recharge karein! This works out to 23 paise per min! And that without any expense towards an STV. This must be the cheapest ever tariff for local calls. Not useful for me though as my calling is very variable and the 30 day validity won't do.

Rather than me saying anything more, Rajan's link to the very disturbing article in Outlook is all that is needed to jolt all those who are blindly supporting govt's acts of playing big brother. If this does not jolt them, I don't think anything will, and further arguments on my part are utterly pointless.

I expect Huawei to be better than other Chinese stuff. But besides being Chinense, the specs too are quite low. With those kind of specs, it still needs to be priced lower than SG 5.

Regarding your 2 points above : 1) Is this kind of generic recording actually done in India? As in are all voice calls of all subscribers recorded for x hours/days? 2) I am not necessary against the kind of recording done against Mrs. Radia. That being, that for a particular suspicious subscriber, specific legal permission is sought for phone tapping. But what the govt. wants with RIM is real time access to any/all random subscribers without any permission from a court, etc. This should be absolutely unacceptable to any and every citizen who has a semblance of intelligence to even imagine the ramifications. I mean what next? How about CCTVs inside our houses? I'm sure there will be people who will argue that this for national security, and will help make India safer, blah, blah... sigh! I am sure the Govt. will be more than willing to put all of us under surveillance... and Huxley's Brave New World may well come to pass very soon. As far as I understand and remember, RIM has always been willing to share records of a specific subscriber with Indian Intelligence Agencies.... only not in real time. Assuming that RIM can actually do this (I won't be surprised if they can) ie. crack their own encryption, it would still just be one variable and probability for a leak will be much, much lower. If intelligence agencies are allowed to snoop on each and every subscriber at whim, the possibility of leak grows manifold as the variables have increased! What is more, the "value" of the leaked data will be far greater in local hands, than a Canadian company, much of whose business depends on its reputation for keeping subscriber data confidential.

Obviously because the cost is factored by the fact that you have to use that talktime much faster! I'd guess that is how they will calculate the effect on their ARPU! So its not really absurd... but it does make subscriber's life a bit more complicated by having to check/remember multiple validities.

Earlier, they had stated that the price would be around 5.5 k! IMO, it needs to be priced appreciably lower than Samsung Galaxy 5 (currently around Rs. 8.5 k), to look attractive. Otherwise, why would one want to choose this over Galaxy 5?

One more reason to dump Nokia and use BB. That is, assuming that their services are not barred or they eventually give in.

Maharashtra & Goa circle. My location is mentioned below my nick. Ah yes, I forgot MTS. They had similar/lower tariff when I last checked. Also, I had noted that they had extra (hyper) talk time offer, so net call charge was perhaps the lowest I'v seen.

^^^As it says "all local seconds" its pretty clear that you can use it for off-net calls also.

The news report is from Helsinki! I don't think it is that relevant in the Indian context. How many people use Android or even data on their mobiles here?? A lot of people I know don't even know what is Android. That said, when I was facing failed connects with my Docomo, their tech. dept. told me it is because of congestion in their data network, and will be rectified soon. But then that may be because the relatively few people who use data might have latched onto Docomo as they seem to have the most attractive data plans.

+100 to that. But we "deeply patriotic" Indians are simple minded folks and quickly swallow such good humor. How do you define "lawful" interception? What they want is full real time 24/7 snooping of private communication. IIRC, Blackberry has been willing to supply communication between specific suspect communication, but not in real time. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. And let us remember, that all such intercepted communication can be leaked out, the way the Tata/Radia/Burkha tapes have.

I beg to differ on some points, and am speaking from experience - Have experienced echoes with CDMA many times. Happens even with both parties are on CDMA! Voice distortion can also happen. Technically, voice clarity drops with increasing load in the cell. In Pune, voice clarity on Uninor, Idea and Docomo (with good phones!) are comparable to better than RCDMA at least (no experience with other CDMA networks). This depends on frequency. Here, I have found that Idea (900 Mhz) in-building penetration is generally quite comparable to RCDMA. Others operating on the 1800 Mhz band will obviously not be comparable. Can't argue with this. But GSM is also evolving...

Which ones don't? Just couple of days ago, I plugged in a USB drive which I had used on a friend's comp, and NOD32 flagged the autorun.inf as infected along with couple other viruses, right away.

Yes, I know. But it will be a shame if they have to shut down as they seem to have done a really great job in such a short while, when it comes to the network. I don't think that will happen though...