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Shifting Blog ....
2007-12-09 13:37:00
Hi Techies !! I am gradually shifting my blog to Wordpress ..you can see it here the same TECHIE COCKTAILAs always your comments are welcome...keep visiting my new blog..and enjoy the various flavors of a techie cocktail......
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Rok ur Way
2007-12-04 05:39:00
Ever since I wrote about Moto Ming , I was very impressed about its musical twin Moto Rokr E6. And my buddy HoneyKing, (he has posted photos taken from his mobile so you could check out E6 camera prowess on his blog) who was looking for a good all round phone has currently bought this phone for Rs. 11,000/- (275 $)(without the stereo headphones).First and foremost, as I said its feature set are 99% similar to Moto Ming. But some of the features which I tried and impressed me most were,It looks much sleeker and cooler than Moto MingIt has 3.5mm audio jack to plug your high quality earphonesMusic quality is very good, but the inbuilt realplayer is not upto the standards of a SE Walkman 3.0 in the latest SE walkman rangeProvided with a 1 GB micro SD card out of the box, and with a mini usb cable it shows a portable drive in your PC, so drag & drop and you are ready to go with your musicIt doesnt mean this phone is only fun and no serious stuff, it has a biz card scanner, office doc...

November - Nick Nacks....
2007-11-30 13:20:00
Here are some pics and sms to knock some fun back in to you techies ..njoy :-)What is the relationship between coffee shop & wine shop? Most of the love start at coffee shop and end at wine shop.A Little tune can make u sing,A Little hug can make u feel better,some little things can make u happy.Hope my Little "Hi" will makeU "SMILE":-)Good morning..A famous writer said"Love" is like a sweet long dream,&"Marriage" is an timing alarm clock,so have sweet dreams till your alarm wakes you up. Good Night.
More About: Nick , November

Acer 4710 - VFM Laptop
2007-11-26 06:20:00
I have been using a Acer Travel Mate 4152 for 3 years now, I have found it reliable and when I bought it was what you call Value for Money (VFM) buy, so when a friend asked me to suggest a laptop with good specs and which doesnt break his bank account I suggested Acer Aspire 4710.Now acer has revamped their design to a black exterior with rounded edges, some like it some dont, but according to me its nice and compact.Mind you there is also 4710Z with Intel Dual Core processor T2080/T2130. Here is a quick glance at this 4710 specs,Intel Core 2 Duo T5270 (another model is available with T5300),Intel 945GMchipset, 1GB DDR2 RAM,160GB HD, 14.1" WXGA TFT, Web cam, Bluetooth, 5 in 1 cardreader, USB port, Firewire portThe keypad was wellspaced out and in grey color, in my mind a pearl white interior would have made it more attractive. I found the 14" widescreen TFT to be Ok, not overly bright, the Dolby certified speakers was quite good but the volume was tad too soft. Acer provides you wit...
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Iphone in India
2007-11-19 15:25:00
Even though Iphone is not officially available in India , almost many mobile stores sell it. My friend has one and I played with it for a few minutes.Before i put forward my views, i have come across a lot of smartphones based on Symbian S60, UIQ and Windows Mobile so I am putting my views as compared to these smartphones (if you call Iphone a smartphone).Its a typical Apple product I should say, with words like cool, svelte & sexy to describe the external appearance of itThis is the first time i am seeing a mobile phone with this screen resolution so video & pictures looked stunningMusic quality was ok, couldn't test with a earphoneBrowser was very good , very near to a pc experienceCouldn't quite manage to type out a simple sms with the virtual keypadAnd most of all the UI and other operational speed was quite amazingYou might all think I am drooling over this phone, but at the end of the day its strict integration with iTunes, no mp3 ringtone support and no bluetooth fil...

Come & Join the FLOCK
2007-11-14 06:09:00
I have been a user of Mozilla Firefox for the last 3 years, found it to be very safe. Now there is a new browser in town called FLOCK (many of you might have heard about it & used it), its built on the mozilla engine with features emphasizing on Web 2.0 standards like community, sharing content etc.After downloading the 10 MB setup file, installation was straightforward and simple. After installation, it just asked whether to import IE favourites and whether it should be the default browser.The UI was neat & clean, with lots of icons indicating, favourites, media bar, people finder , bookmarks etc.It easily allowed me to setup my blogger account and flickr account. It has a blog editor, just type and add it to your blog post. It allowed me to upload images from any website or my local drive to flickr just by dragging & dropping. It also had options to configure many blog platforms, photo sharing sites, social bookmarking sites. The other cool feature i found was you can ...
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Net Clips - Interesting sites in WWW
2007-11-10 06:05:00
Hope all you Techies had a HAPPY DIWALI !!!!!These are some of the sites which has caught my eye recently,FileHippo - Excellent place to keep track on updates of latest software on the blockTechCrunch - Keeps you update on various IT technology and servicesNetVibes - A excellent tool to catch your mails, news, blog, to-do list, maps, photos, search etc all at a single placeMobilephone Blog - Just Another Mobilephone blog is the place to keep track of all the new releases, rumors on the mobilephone arenaCricMobile - To keep track of latest scores and news on cricket on your mobile
More About: Interesting , Sites , Clips , Eres

Building a PC
2007-11-05 13:06:00
Last week, I was on the lookout to upgrade my aging CPU in my home, with a decent performing one. So here is what I finally picked up,Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0 Ghz (From what i've read across the web , Intel still outperforms a AMD Athlon X2, even though it costs a tad more)Intel Original 945 GCNL Motherboard ( Has a PCI express slot but supports only 667 / 533 Mhz DDR2 RAM)80 GB Seagate Barracuda Hard Disk 7200 RPM (I find 80 GM as ample enough space for me)1 GB DDR2 Transcend 667Mhz RAM (Single stick, Dual channel work when there are identical sticks in each slot)LG 18X DVD Writer (Prefer Lite-on writer but wasn't available)Mercury 400W ATX TowerAll this came to a grand total of Rs. 14,500/- (370$), and lets say 5500/- for a 17" CRT, 500 for a keyboard / mouse combo, 500 for stereo speakers you will end with a good Budget performer (for a total of 21000/-). For techies / dummies, computer parts prices vary a lots and for those in India check out PriceGuru & ComputerWarehous...
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J120i - A Mobile Phone ....
2007-11-01 08:29:00
My Mom recently upgraded (it cant be really a upgrade in tech terms) from a Sony Ericsson J100i to a Sony Ericsson J120i. Its a phone nothing much else , but its somewhat scores much better in terms of functionality over J100i.PROSIts much more classier in looks and feel when compared to J100iIt has a built in memory for phonebook and speed dial and handsfree speakerphoneThe ringtones were more melodious and loudIt has extra PIM features like notes, alarm, calculator etcThe screen even though its the same 96 x 65 resolution is much brighter with sharper and neater fontsAnd it has a FM Radio too for music on the move (whereas J110i has no FM & bit cheaper)CONSThe screen could have been little biggerThe choice of wallpapers were pathetic even J100i had more ( 1 black, 1 white wallpaper and 2 Hrithik Roshan pics - Brand Ambassador of SE in India-> not my mom's favourite)Worthy competitors out there in the market place are Nokia 1600, 2310, LG KG110, Samsung C170. I got it for Rs. ...
More About: Mobile , Phone , Mobile Phone

Funny Pic & SMS
2007-10-26 06:36:00
Here is what a frustrated techie might do one day ;-)And some sms's for you all to read, enjoy and forwardSpeed can be calculated by "MILES PER HOUR". and Lifetime can be calculated by "SMILES PER HOUR" Be happy! Always Keep smilingBelieve where others doubt.. Work where others refuse.. Save where others waste. stay where others quit. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!A boy goes to see a cabare dance. His mom gets angry & asks him: Did u see anything there that u were not supposed to see? Boy: Yes, I saw dad.
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Net Clips - Mobile Etiquette
2007-10-22 07:02:00
Here are some of the news, articles and sites I found interesting on the web,Mobile phone Etiquette : In this day of manic use of mobile phones, there is less awareness of mobile phone usage in public places. I tend to keep my phone in silent mode in public places like halls, meetings etc. and when need to attend my calls i excuse myself and step out of the room and talk in a much softer tone. Here is a article i came across CNet Asia giving you some more tips.Google Docs mobile : For people using google docs, it seems google is making it mobile so that you can access your docs & spreadsheets on the go in any phone. Read OnSend Free SMS : Here is a site which allows you to send sms from your PC to mobile FREE. Try and EnjoyMissed Call Info : Here is a site which allows user to find the area and operator of the mobile number you have received or missed in India.
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Plug & Surf
2007-10-17 14:58:00
My brother has recently got a Tata Indicom Plug 2 Surf device as a back-up to the existing BSNL Broadband connection. I decided to give a test ride in my Acer TravelMate laptop.First the pack contains the USB 1x CDMA modem almost similar to a "Thumb Drive" but marginally bigger, with a mini-cd, installation manual. Without reading the manual (one of the whims of a computer engineer :-) ) I plugged the device and inserted the CD but after the initial installation steps, it said the hardware was not installed properly. So then I unplugged the device, from the autoplay screen of the CD pressed Installation, which installed the tata indicom dialer and after the software installation , i plugged the USB modem it got installed automatically and the green light started blinking indicating that the modem was correctly working now.Then I started the Tata Indicom Dialer software. Its a single window with various options like "Connect", Inbox, Contacts, Settings, Sent Message. Once the device ...

Smart Phone - N73
2007-10-11 15:45:00
Continuing with the Nokia flavor this month, this month I had chances to play around with a Nokia N73 music edition phone (with BOSE headphones). N73 comes in two flavors basically a ordinary version retailing for 14,500 Rs in a plain jane silver color and a music edition in black color. But this is a special music edition phone with Bose headphone retailing for 17,500 Rs (450 $).A normal sized smartphone with good finish was one of the things impressed me about this phone.Multimedia wise its loaded for a Series 60 symbian phone with 3.2 MPx camera and a Real Multimedia player preloaded with the phone.As I said with the N80 sound is very loud (ludicrous i would say), but hearing with the Bose headphones is a pleasure.Smart phone wise it has already a document viewer, a excellent web browser, e-mail client and there are heaps of softwares in the net for you to enhance your phone. try hereAs I said in N80, the image gallery, media player and inbox are still slow to open when its loaded...
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N80 - Hefty Slider
2007-10-06 09:11:00
My friend has recently got a great deal on a Nokia N80 - Black for 5,000/- Rs ( 145 $). I was quite skeptical of this phone , not that its features are bad (to say its specs are outstanding even for todays standards) but the practicality of the phone is a doubt (like battery life & stability of the phone).If I remember it right, N80 was one of the first N-Series phone to have a 3.2 MP camera, 3G / Wi-Fi and a high resolution screen. Here are some of my pointers on this phone. Even though this phone was released at a hefty price tag of Rs. 30000/- you can now find at some retail stores for 12,000/- rs.Its quite a "soap bar", weighing a 135g with lots of plastic to shed if it wants to match Moto RIZR.Even though the screen size doesn't look as big as a N95,it is quite fine at a whopping resolution of 352 x 416 pixels making the display a definite plusNowadays I have found every Nokia to be a big speaker when it comes to music reproduction able to blast music with its incredibly l...
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A phone - Light on ur POCKET & WALLET
2007-10-02 15:31:00
Howdy Techies !!! I think this month's CockTail flavor is going to be Nokia. I have come across 2-3 Nokia phones for which i would like to post my thoughts. As usual I would like your comments / feedbacks to keep this CockTail flowing .....My uncle has recently got a Nokia 2630. Even a year back a 100$ phone would have been a phone with a old faded color screen with nothing else to report but nowadays you can expect more from a 100$ phone, so here are my views on this phone,A decent sized 65K TFT color screen with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels.Nokia has also entered the 'slim' bandwagon after Motorola's success, even though this phone is not as svelte as a RAZR its quite thin at 9.9 mm and light in your pocket at 83 gramsOne of Nokia's strength reception & call quality is excellent in this phone too. A decent phonebook with multiple no's is also available at your disposal.Multimedia wise there is 11 MB memory to keep your pictures captured from the VGA camera, MP3 tunes...
More About: Phone , Light , Pocket , Wallet

Funny SMS & Pic
2007-09-26 14:04:00
Here is this month dose of sms's, enjoy :-)A motorist hit a sparrow.He tuk d unconscious bird and put it in a cage with bread & water..D sparow woke up next morning, luked around and screamed..."Bars,bread & water...I'm in jail!..Oh MY GOD I've killed d motorist!.."Telling a lie is a fault for a little boy, an art for a lover, an accomplishment for a bachelor and a Matter of Survival for a married man.Tip to reduce alcohol consumption: Before marriage drink only on the days when u r sad, after marriage drink only on days when u r Happy!Experience makes 1 modified.Training makes one qualified.But,Involvment alone makes every1 Satisfied!So do allwork with Involvment.Good morning.
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Net Clips - K550 Modding
2007-09-22 06:42:00
After my article on K550i Firmware update, I got some queries on modding & flashing your phone. As I said in my earlier post firmware updation should be done with caution. And Modding & Flashing is even a bigger risk.So as my Sony Ericsson K550i cybershot has its counterpart in Sony Ericsson W610i walkman, a K550i can be modded / flashed to W610i. Whereby you will get Flash Lite enabled themes, WalkMan 2.0 media player (better music management) and MegaBass. Here is a youtube video of a K550i modded to a Cybershot Walkan.Here are two methods by which you can convert K550i to W610i,Flash Tools : Here is a great thread on how you can use flashing software and downloaded W610 FS to mod your K550i. Or for other SE phones visit SE-NSE forums for great tips & tricks on modding & flashing.WoTan Server : Here is a service similar to Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS) which can do things like flashing , modding etc but at a price
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Pic - O - FUN
2007-09-19 06:49:00
Here are some funny pics I received via e-mail this month from my friends. Hopefully you Techies will enjoy as much as I did :-)

Phishing Alert
2007-09-14 14:09:00
I have been a member of paypal (online payment processing site) for a year now. Yesterday I received a mail stating that I need to change my address. I blindly clicked on the link and entered my name and password but stopped short of any card details. The same day I came across a TV program which depicted how phishing and other types of online fraud are robbing people of their money.So on second thought I saw the mail again and found out that I have been a victim of "phishing attack". So Techies / Dummies alike kindly check whether you are going to the correct website. Paypal, in their site have listed out a series of hints to find whether its a fradulent mail or not. Read it here>> . I think these two steps will keep you safe,Paypal, sends email to their users with their first name & last name. For example, Dear John Marks whereas the fradulent mail will have Dear paypal user or something similar to thatBetter don't click the link on the mail , go to the corresponding site and the...
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Gear up for Play
2007-09-11 13:54:00
Today my cousin came with a Philips Go Gear 2GB MP3 player (SA2325), which he had got as a present. So here are some of my thoughts on it,Its almost like a thumb drive with a USB port protected by the Cap on the top. Finished in a black glossy coating looks nice, but after a few minutes of playing with it my finger smudges were all over the player. Size wise its quite ok.Switching it on i was greeted with a monochrome (black & white) screen with bright green backlight and the text and icons were clearly visible. Song info was displayed in the 2nd line whereas 1st line had battery status indicators and other indicators.Transferring the songs (supports mp3, wma) was just plug & play using the USB (USB 2.0)adapter cable.Folder navigation was possible (no ID3 tagging) so putting albums in different folders will make navigation easier.Transferring 306 MB of songs took me 3:25 secondsThen I tried playing the songs using the given earphones, sound quality was quite good and there were ...
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NOKLA - A hands on report
2007-09-07 06:45:00
A lot of you might have heard or seen chinese made mobile phone clones. Personally, I have seen lots of them on the Net but this week I came across a phone very much similar to the much coveted Nokia N95. This phone however is called as NOKLA 95(model no. i am not so sure about). From a distance it resembles very closely to its much touted counterpart. Here are some of my observations on it,Build quality is OK to put it mildly. It doesnt feel solid like its counterpart.Screen quality is good. But I wasnt able to find the actual resolution of the screen. It should atleast be 240 x 320 pixels.It has two SIM card slots. I was not able to test whether it can use 2 active sims at the same time, but still a cool feature if you ask me.The audio was blaring out through the 4 speakers ( yes you heard me right, this gizmo has 4 speakers). But when I reduced the volume it was good.I could test the video playback capabilities as the phone had no memory card (it has a slot for T-Flash memory car...
More About: Report , Hands , Hands On

FREE WAREZ
2007-09-03 07:57:00
Hello Techies......If you have read my previous posts on Open Source softwares and free softwares, here is a update on that topic. I would strongly recommend these utilities for your PC , CCleaner : On my "Spring Clean ur PC" , I've mentioned as a excellent software to clean out the junk left by your various softwares in your PC. Their latest version 2.0 has been completely revamped with further enhancements to their excellent feature set. Free Download Manager : A very good download manager with now support for BitTorrent, embedded video download from sites like youtube, metacafe etc. JZip : Based on the 7-Zip open source platform this compression utility can handle zip, rar, ace, iso files.Note: All trademarks and logo are properties of the corresponding companies.
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Making a CellPhone smarter ......
2007-08-27 07:22:00
I have been a lifelong user of what's now called just plain simple CellPhone, I have never been a fan of so called smartphones ,but now times have changed smartphones are more compact (one of my biggest gripes is their size) and faster than ever before. But still I dont have the need for a smartphone running around with e-mails zipping into my box for every minute.Anyway I always thought it would be cool to have a ordinary phone (Java based like my SE K550i) to have the capability to read files like pdf, doc, worksheets. I know Samsung phones have a Java based Picsel viewer software to do this, so after a long time I was pleased to find out there is a software called MobilePDF, MobileDOC, MobileZIP (compression utility) for Java based phones.So I downloaded trial version of MobilePDF and used it. First and foremost it worked. But opening and scrolling through the pages of a pdf were slow. If anyone interested in making your Cellphone smarter here is the siteFor more info visit : ...

Cool SMS & Fun Pic
2007-08-22 06:56:00
Here are this month dose of sms and a funny pic just for you Techies :-)Unlike others,ur brain is a masterpiece.it has 2 halvesthe left & the rightThe left has nothing right in it &d right has nothing left in it..Popular golden words :-"If you want to be great,You must walk with great people".Seriously, I have no objection,you can walk with me."Good Relation doesn't need any promises, any terms or conditions. It just needs two wonderful people. One cool like me & one sweet like you"We're Great FriendTrue Friends stand by u in ur bad times..!Do u want proof?Check ur marriage album,u'll see all true friends surrounding u..
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Net Clips - DVD Quality
2007-08-18 07:25:00
Recently I came across a article in Chip-India magazine,how to get most out of Nero Burning software. There I read how Nero could be used to check out the quality of blank DVD media. In this age, when a blank DVD and CD media are available at almost the same rates I think this page here with all the classes of DVD media and how to check them is a valuable informational tool.Especially who want to back-up their media for a long time in a safe manner should be able to cough up some extra dough so that they don't end up in a situation where their precious DVD full of precious photos does not play properly after 6 months !!!!!
More About: Clips , Quality , Ality

G & G News - Linux in ur Thumb
2007-08-15 08:11:00
In this month Gadget & Gizmo news, here is a new flavor of Linux called "Damn Small Linux" which can run from even a thumb drive because of its small size (to be exact 50 MB). It has basic applications like Browser, E-Mail Client, Multimedia player, PDF viewer,IM, Spreadsheet etc ....hopefully it will be a eyeopener to people who havent experienced linux before .....And for people who have heard about Nokia replacing their faulty batteries, you can check you whether you need a replacement by following the link here.
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Dual Avatar
2007-08-10 14:16:00
Watching NDTV's Gadget Guru program in TV, I came across a CoolPad 288 mobilephone which is supposed to work with a GSM & CDMA connection at the same time . I have been a lifelong user of GSM phones, but people who are interested in switching but considering keeping the old connection too can try this phone. Not only does the phone supports two connections at the same time but it has a plethora of features and it is supposed to be available in India.In India, AirTel, Hutch, BSNL, Idea are the main GSM Players whereas Reliance Mobile, Tata Indicom are CDMA providers. That program was almost two weeks ago, now recently Tata Indicom has launched a Samsung DUO which is supposed to do the same. And Spice Mobile (Indian Mobile company) has come out with CDMA + GSM & GSM + GSM phone.So Techies who have more than one SIM card can have a Single Phone to Talk & Connect. And anybody who has used this phone and care to write a review please post a comment here I will be glad to put up you...
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My K550i & PAN
2007-08-06 06:32:00
One of my favourite feature on my mobile is Bluetooth , an excellent piece of technology which rids us of from the ever growing tangle of wires. In a mobilephone bluetooth is used for various purposes such as sync, remote control, file sharing etc ...and Personal Area Networking (PAN) is one of the profiles supported by my SE K550i. Check your phone manual , spec sheet to clarify whether your phone supports this or not.Actually I was inspired by this thread @ Esato whereby you can access your PC's broadband internet connection to browse in your mobile / smart phone. First you need to check whether your bluetooth drive is properly installed or not. Default windows bluetooth driver in a windows XP machine wont work, you need to install the driver which came with your bluetooth device.First I paired my K550i with my Acer TravelMateThen using the bluetooth wizard I selected network access as a service I wanted to use my laptop and phone for.Then in the network connections window, I ena...

My K550i & SEUS
2007-08-03 06:33:00
Before I tell my first little experience with my K550i, I would like to tell in this world of Gadgets & Gizmos a term called "FIRMWARE" plays a very important part. Without these firmwares all you have is a paperweight instead of your mobilephone , mp3 player etc .....Lets say these are the brains of our gizmos....Many of you might have come across glitches in your gadgets, so companies nowadays releases new firmwares to rectify those 'bugs' and improve your hardware's performance.I have tried updating my Creative ZEN V Plus without a hitch, a small downloadable file. Just plug in your player run the update file viola !!! in 2 minutes you are done. As far as I know in the mobile phone arena Sony Ericsson and Nokia are the ones who give control to the users to update the firmware for their phones. Sony Ericsson gives you two options ,SEUS - Sony Ericsson Update Service -> You will need a PC /Laptop with broaband connectionFOTA - Firmware Over The Air -> You can update the phone's...

Me & My K550i
2007-08-01 07:22:00
Hi Techies, This month I am going to jot down some interesting things I did with my Sony Ericsson K550i. Meanwhile Sony Ericsson has started a campaign called " Capturing it Live"...check it out here.And here is the K550i ad which you might have seen in TV courtesy of YouTube,