Karthik R

Yeah right - it is hard enough to remember to back up your desktop, your laptop, your smartphone, and your tablet and now we want you to think about backing up your cloud-based e-mail account, too This may seem like a drag, but we are not being paranoid. Recently, 150,000 Gmail users were left in the dark when a glitch in Google's system deleted all of their e-mail messages and disabled their Gmail accounts. Sure, only 0.02 percent of Gmail's user base was affected, but that 0.02 percent was pretty ticked off, to say the least. Luckily, Google not only keeps multiple copies of user data in multiple data centers but it also keeps tape backups, and thus was able to restore the deleted e-mail within a week. The recent Gmail outage may have ended happily, but it still should be a wake-up call for anyone who relies too heavily on the cloud. The time to back up your Web-based e-mail is now. Gmail Google's Gmail gives you plenty of space - over 7.5GB of space - to store thousands of e-mail messages, but that doesn't mean you should put all of your e-mail eggs in one basket. Fortunately, you have a simple, free way to back up your Gmail account in one fell swoop: Gmail Backup. Gmail Backup works with both Windows and Linux. Here is how to back up your Gmail in just a few minutes: Download and install Gmail Backup The install is quick and painless, and leaves you with a Start menu shortcut and a desktop icon. Open Gmail Backup. Enter your full Gmail address and password and choose the backup folder to which you will save your messages. You can either use Gmail Backup's default folder or find/create your own folder by clicking Directory. Choose which messages to back up. You can back up only the newest e-mail messages, or you can back up all of your e-mail from a specific date range. If you want to back up all of the e-mail in your account, just select a 'Since date' from before you opened the account. Start the backup process by clicking the Backup button. The process can take a long time if you have a lot of messages, so you can run it in the background. If you are interested in watching the progress, though, Gmail Backup will keep a running log of the e-mail that it has backed up. You can also back up your account incrementally; in this procedure, Gmail Backup skips over messages that have already been downloaded into a particular folder. If something should happen to your Gmail account later on, you can restore your messages from the Gmail Backup utility. To do so, enter the address and password of the Gmail account you did like to restore the messages to and then choose the backup folder that houses the messages from the account you'd like to restore from. These dont have to be the same account. Gmail Backup backs up files in .EML format, which any desktop e-mail client can open. The only drawback of Gmail Backup is that it doesnt back up chat logs--Gmail treats chat logs as a different animal, and doesnt put them in the 'All Mail' folder, which is the folder that Gmail Backup scours. Hotmail Unfortunately, no "Hotmail Backup" exists for non-Gmail users. However, you can use a free application that's pretty easy to set up: MailStore Home. A Windows-only backup utility, MailStore Home lets you back up and restore both Web-based and desktop-based e-mail. Download and install MailStore Home. Open MailStore Home and click Archive e-mail. Choose POP3 Mailbox, and enter your e-mail address, the 'Host' (pop3.live.com), and your password. Set the 'Access via' drop-down menu to POP 3-SSL, and click Next. On the next screen, you can choose how to archive - namely, whether to delete your messages from the host server once the program has downloaded them. The default setting is that messages are never deleted, and you should leave it that way (after all, you're backing up your mail, not moving it). You dont need to change anything here, so click through and start backing your mailbox up. Sure, MailStore Home requires a little more setup than Gmail Backup's "enter your password and go" approach (you have to set up a POP3 account), but its a smooth and easy tool to use. Not only can you see your messages in the MailStore Home desktop client, but you can also back up your files to a CD, DVD, or USB drive. MailStore Home keeps your folders and labels intact, and can also run in increments (it skips over messages that it has already archived). Yahoo Mail Yahoo doesnt want you to back up your mail. How do I know this? Yahoo disables POP3 access to its free users-in order to use the POP3 feature, you must be a Yahoo Mail Plus member, which costs $20 a year. Unless you are a Yahoo Mail Plus member, utilities such as MailStore Home wont work. If you want it cheap, here is how to back up your Yahoo Mail without dropping that $20. Download and install Zimbra Desktop, which is a free desktop mail client that works with Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail. Open Zimbra Desktop and click Add New Account. Select Yahoo from the drop-down menu and fill in the form (e-mail address, password, and so on). You can also choose to synchronize calendars, contacts and groups. Click Validate and Save and wait for Zimbra to synchronize - this may take a long time, and you wont have access to your account while Zimbra is synchronizing. Once Zimbra is synced up with your Yahoo Mail, click Launch Desktop and go to the Preferences tab. In the left menu, underneath your Yahoo account, click Import/Export. Under 'Export', make sure Account is checked, and then check the Advanced Settings box. If you dont want to sync everything, uncheck all of the boxes except for Mail and then click Export. You will get a zipped file (.TGZ), which you can open with WinRAR. All of your messages save in .EML files, which you can open with a desktop e-mail program (such as Outlook or Thunderbird). You can also import this zipped file into Zimbra Desktop, and your messages will be recovered; once your messages are restored to Zimbra Desktop, the utility will sync with the server, and your Yahoo Mail account will be back on its feet. Zimbra isnt as easy to use as Gmail Backup or MailStore Home are, but it is an effective way to back up your Yahoo Mail-for free. Zimbra Desktop retains folders and attachments, and can even "back up" your contacts and calendar. Courtesy : Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld

Future Group eyes Rs 18k cr rev from mobile telephony in 3 years MUMBAI: Retail to financial services to telecom conglomerate the Future Group said it is eyeing Rs 18,000 crore revenue from its mobile telephony service T24, launched last year along with Tata group company, Tata Teleservices over the next three years. "We expect to add around Rs 18000 crore to our (Future Group) total revenue from this service alone in the next three-years. This will come from the 10-million new customers we will have by then through this venture," Future Group Founder and CEO Kishore Biyani told reporters here. - Economic Times

Update : Their gprs connection have deteriorated over the past four days. The data connection gets snapped between 7 pm and 5 am and one is left in the dark. Speed still steady at 15kBps.

Pre-booking is open for Rs.3000.

With the introduction of the CDMA iPhone 4, industry observers had expected China Telecom to become China's second telecom company to carry the Apple smartphone, but no official launch plans have been announced thus far. Vincent Chih, CEO of Taiwan's only CDMA 2000 3G mobile carrier Asia Pacific Telecom (APT), indicated that the main reason is that Apple's current CDMA iPhone 4 does not support SIM card slot, while China Telecom prefers one that does. Order volume must be substantial in order to convince Apple to develop a SIM card iPhone 4, said Chih. - Digitimes May be it is a rumour going around but it will be awesome if it support RUIM card or possibly OMH one.

Excellent article. Was looking forward to reading one of these overview Typo : 2100 Mhz BSNL unlimited 3G plans were discontinued last month and now comes with data cap.

Watching bbc now, they are showing an aerial footage of an ominous 13-foot muddy wave washing across land along the northeastern coast.

The online speed test results are not accurate. Check out what they pronounced about my EDGE speed ^ Theoretically and practically not possible right ^ It is just a matter of downloading a test data file, timing it and calculate the resulting bandwidth.

Again this X1-00 lacks the basic bluetooth. How do nokia expect music lovers to share tracks?

Mobile service subscribers can classified into four categories : 1. Poor illitrate Indian who doesnt realise that he have been cheated of his account balance. And are at the mercy of devious retailers and operators. These represents the vast majority of the 800 million subscriber base. 2. People who call CC at 121 or 198 and complain. Again only a part of them raise the issue to the nodal authorities if the redressal provided is not satisfactory. 3. Customers who mail the operator or raise issue in online forums to elicit a faster response. 4. And the enlightened miniscule minority who realise that TRAI actually stands for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and take the effort to write to them. The figures released by the Govt. which itself run into 1000s represents the fourth category of users. Hence the actual magnitude of this issue is incomprehensible and the figures will definitely be in millions.

Opera has announced that it has now opened its very own Opera Mobile Store – offering both free and paid-for apps. The store will offer apps for phones with Java, as well as handset with Symbian, BlackBerry and Android OS. The store has been set up in partnership with Appia, and the storefront is apparently tailored around your phone's operating system, local language and currency. This web app store is open for access on all browsers however Opera browsers will include a featured link for the application store, making it easily accessible to all Opera Mini and Mobile users. The number of apps available will vary according to the end device with the store only presenting apps that work on that phone. Users will get a tailored store experience that includes local language and currency support too. By leveraging Appia, Opera will have the ability to offer some 140,000 Appia apps on various platforms and will be able to boast its own store with minimal effort. Opera Mobile Store was operating in stealth mode during February. It managed to attract over 15 million users from 200 countries and achieved more than 700,000 downloads per day! These figures have helped to establish the Opera Mobile Store as one of the Top Ten mobile apps store worldwide. Oh, and if you’re a developer you should visit the Opera Publisher Portal here which provides developers with an easy way to get their apps onto the Opera Mobile Store Via : Techradar, gigaom The store is now open and available at http://mobilestore.opera.com/ Opera is clearly angling to get a piece of the pie by extending beyond just providing a mobile browser to being a purveyor of content

Airtel gets maximum customer complaints : TRAI Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is on top when it comes to receiving customer complaints regarding billing and service related issues with 3,571 complaints filed in the last three years, the Lok Sabha was informed. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, minister for communications and information technology Sachin Pilot said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) was receiving complaints against mobile operators on issues related to service, billing, metering, tariff and activation of chargeable value added services without explicit consent of the customer. Trai received more than 3,570 complaints from Airtel subscribers, more than 1,890 from Vodafone Essar customers and more than 2,100 from Reliance Communications' customers since 2008-09. Tata Docomo and Idea Cellular customers lodged 1,239 and 925 complaints, respectively, with Trai, the regulator added. - ET

Loop Telecom offers to auction its 2G spectrum Courtesy : Economic Times

L1 data plan is discontinued by RCOM. Follow this thread.

Reliance Communications (RCOM) signed final documentation with China Development Bank (CDB) for a Rs 6,000 crore (USD 1.33 billion) loan facility. The loan facility is fully underwritten by CDB, and will be funded by a syndicate of Chinese Banks/Financial Institutions including CDB. This represents the first and largest ever Syndicated Loan for refinancing Spectrum Fees. RCOM has also signed an additional Agreement for Rs 2700 crore (USD 600 million) with CDB, for financing imports/domestic expenditure of telecom equipment from Chinese vendors (namely, Huawei and ZTE). RCOM has already received RBI Approval for the facilities, and draw down is expected to commence shortly. The aggregate financing of Rs. 8700 crore (USD 1.93 billion) has a maturity period of 10 years, contributing to significant extension of RCOMs debt maturity profile, apart from substantial savings in interest costs. Courtesy - Moneycontrol

Native mobile app store GetJar today removed Opera Mini from its shelf. It had been one of the most popular application downloaded from GetJar. GetJar responded to a tweet asking why: “[Opera] placed an app store in their browser. One thing we can’t do is promote competing app stores.”

There is also a postpaid plan going by the name Call India 149. With a monthly rental of Rs.149 this plan offers benefits of local calls @ 30p/min, STD @ 50p/min, all roaming calls @ 50p/min and SMS @ 50p. There are no free talktime included but you will get 149 SMSs.

This phone runs on symbian 30 series mobile operating system .

GSM operators to surrender excess spectrum during renewal in 2014 New Delhi : All leading GSM operators will have to give up 'excess' airwaves they have when their mobile permits come up for renewal beginning 2014. This implies companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, among others, which currently have up to 10 MHz or units of 2G airwaves in many regions, will be given only 6.2 units of radio frequencies when they renew their permits, according to a telecom department internal note reviewed by ET. Besides, telecom companies will also have to pay market rates for this 6.2 MHz of airwaves in every region when they renew their licences. This has already been communicated to all mobile phone companies. "On renewal, spectrum is to be assigned maximum up to the prescribed limit. Value of spectrum to be paid separately," said a telecom department's letter that was sent to all service providers last week. Communications minister Kapil Sibal would be engaging the industry in a full-fledged discussion beginning this week. At present, telcos hold separate permits for each of the 22 circles in the country and these are valid for a period of 20 years. The government gave away mobile permits from mid-90s. About 11 mobile phone companies will have to renew their permits between 2014 and 2021. These developments come even as GSM operators maintain they don't hold any 'excess' airwaves. India's telecom sector has been mired in a controversy regarding the pricing of 'excess' second generation spectrum, used for basic mobile services since 2008. These companies - notably Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular and BSNL - claim that mobile permits entitle them to 15 units of 2G airwaves in every region, and add that there is no capping of airwaves at the 6.2 MHz limit. The government is yet to decide on methodology to calculate the market value of spectrum when mobile permits are to be renewed. But, sector regulator Trai had recently prescribed that every MHz of 2G airwaves up to 6.2 MHz limit be priced at 1,769.75 crore. If the government accepts Trai's proposal, then a company such as Bharti Airtel will have to shell out a total of 10,972.45 crore for renewing its mobile permits from 2014-15 onwards. A top executive with a GSM operator said that department's methodology and payment structure for licence renewal were only at the discussion stage, while adding that the proposal sent to service providers was nowhere close to being the final policy. Source : Economic Times

With cricket World Cup fever in full force, LG has launched its limited edition Optimus One P500 phone to mark the event of the ICC World Cup 2011. This collector s item stylish phone is different from the normal edition phone it sports a shiny gold World Cup logo etched on it back. The Optimux One smartphone comes with Google s Android OS v2.2 Froyo and is therefore tightly integrated with Google. You only need to log in once into your Google account to automatically synchronize your mails and other settings and start using Gmail, Gtalk, YouTube, Google Maps, etc. That being said, the multimedia part has also been paid attention to. Powered by a 600MHz processor, the phone comes with a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 320x480 resolution, 3.15 MP camera, 2 GB memory card, 3G, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.1, A-GPS and many more special features. The Android OS can be upgraded to v2.3 Gingerbread. Being a limited edition phone, only 1,000 units of this phone will be made. This phone is priced a little higher at Rs. 12,990/- and will be available at all leading stores in eight cities across India. - Techtree

I can see through that. But there is no way I am going to subscribe to 3G services with the present exorbitant charges.

Not expecting any but did Tata Indicom provide any port-in benefits?

Try to avoid/minimise using your phone if the signal strength is too low. Also you should be using a earphone (or a less onerous bluetooth handsfree) with moderate volume if you are talking over for a long time. As for the phone, check out Samsung mpower muzik 219, it got solid battery life with good signal reception. Additionally it offers bluetooth, expandable memory and a vga cam. It will set you back by less than 3000 Rs.

''Now enjoy 3G high speed on your existing gprs pack. On expiry of pack validity charges of 10p/10Kb will apply. For 3G speeds, restart your 3G handset.'' Earlier in the day TD had send this SMS. After restarting the phone, the Network mode in the setting have been automatically configured and changed and I am being provided with 3G service at no extra cost. More than 4000 Mb is standing to the credit of my gprs account. I am being spoilt

From the begining CDMA in India was touted as a poor man's technology. The onus was on making available cheap handsets with even mean call charges, they turned a cold shoulder and shrugged off to market the advanced data poweress. In my opinion, they went wrong there.