HTC announced the loong waited firmware update which makes all Android magic Indian bricks into an ‘open, smart, Sense UI enabled Android phone. Thats just awsum. http://www.htc.com/in/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=267&cat=2&dl_id=859 Thanks to Arun and Harsha for the update

Before I start let me share something. Just like any other open source enthusiast, I was excited when Google announced Android OS. Luck was on my side when my manager told me that there’s some interesting work that I’ve to do and its totally Android. Things are very exciting after that. I’ve been using G1 from early December 2008, and a Google Ion (HTC Magic) after the Google IO developer conference. Undoubtedly thats the best experience so far that i ever had in my life with reference to gadgets and being connected. So you have some expectations set, since you’ve used those android powered beasts for almost 7 months. Meanwhile, I bricked my G1 in the dev process and I’ve to give the back the Google IO HTC Magic to my client. Once that happened, i was like in a lost world. Life without Android just sucks.

I jumped out of joy when Airtel launched the country’s first Android powered smart phone HTC Magic. Im a proud Indian for that moment. Im a Vodafone customer, so i almost made my mind to buy an Airtel connection. But i was a little skeptical that Airtel will definitely screw up something, as I already had some bitter experiences with the Airtel Connect (Store) people when i went to enquire about iPhone. So i waited. The D day came when i saw the advt in Hindu that HTC Magic is available for anyone and there’s no operator dependencies. I called a couple of mobile outlets in Chennai to check the availability and it was available in Wavetel, Kodampak, Chennai for a little less than 26K. When i went there I was shocked to see an Airtel logo on the HTC Magic box. I double checked whether it’s operator tied. The guy said that its the same phone that HTC distributes to all dealers, and it was unlocked officially by HTC. He opened the box and showed me the IMEI number and the unlock code sticker on it. He typed in the unlock code and a confirmation message got displayed that it’s successfully unlocked. I made a call using my SIM to verify. I made the payment since its a crowded store and came back home.

I opened the box, switched it on and was surprised that it never prompted me with the Google sign in. WTFiss! Ohkay, I can install most of the stuff via Market. So where’s Android Market? Holy crap, it’s not there.

• No Android Market.
• No Gmail.
• No Google contact sync.
• No Gtalk
• No Google Voice search
• No Google Maps, yes no *maps* at all.

I google’d for relevant info and i landed here and here . I started realizing the truth. I SOS’d Karteek (we work together), and he wanted me the check the SPL via fastboot and I got to know its 1.33.0010 which is not rootable yet. So there’s no way you can customize the phone, or rather use the phone. You can read his post here.

You might wonder ‘so what’s the big deal? Guys, You have to use a completely open Google powered Android phone to feel the difference. Leaving that aside, look at this. The specs at HTC India website talks about GPS, but there’s no application in the phone which uses that. So what am I supposed to do with that GPS hardware?

I still have a huge reputation for HTC Global. I’ve been watching the company for a while and I know how serious are they about Innovation and end user satisfaction. The way they pioneered OHA, the way they supported developers by launching the first Android powered phone G1, their recent HTC Hero launch, its all just awesome. Peter Chou sounds very committed and serious. I’ve interacted with few senior HTC guys during my work at LATAM. We are supposed to burn some customised OS into HTC phones and sell it as some ‘XYZ Phones’. I got an email from the HTC User experience team stating ‘Our experts will have to validate the user experience of your application before it goes inside any HTC device. Its a HTC brand image related thingy’. So i know how serious are they when it comes to end user experience. But then, I seriously wonder how can they sell dummy Android bricks in India. Are’nt we potential endusers who deserve the same Android experience that the rest of the world enjoys. I’m sure there’s a gap in the way I understand HTC’s global strategy and the way in which HTC India operates. You guys simply cant do this to us.

My question is, why not the CXO’s at Airtel and HTC India put themselves in users shoe before they strategize something like this. Why do you take Indian customers for granted? In a country like India, with 320+ million mobile users, ruled by Nokias and Sony Ericssons… Is this the strategy for HTC to penetrate? What are you guys upto? The smart phone market is mostly driven by word of mouth. We are the early adopters. Unless you do justice to us, its tough to survive. Im sure, if its not a crippled phone here, i would have influenced more than 10 of my friends to buy a HTC Magic by now. I cannot expect Airtel to do something on this, as I bought this phone totally driven by the fact its a HTC phone in an open outlet. Its pure trust on HTC. Comeon HTC. Its better to be late than never. Get us the actual Android experience.

Update: Aug 14

I got a surprise call from HTC India’s customer care and was told that ‘a firmware update is on the making, and will be available to all HTC Magic customers by September which takes away all the Google account restrictions’. That’s very nice to hear. Lets wait and see how fast they do it.

Update: Aug 28

After reaching out to many, HTC replaced my old brick with a real smart HTC Magic imported from Singapore. http://twitpic.com/fk8rt . But, honestly i want the firmware update to be released asap so that every magic buyer will be happy about it

Update: Jan31, 2010

HTC announced the loong waited firmware update which makes all Android magic Indian bricks into an ‘open, smart, Sense UI enabled Android phone. Thats just awsum. http://www.htc.com/in/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=267&cat=2&dl_id=859 Thanks to Arun and Harsha for the update

My previous post was about using RTM calendar service with twitter. Most of my readers from India wanted to use twitter via sms, but failed. Some mailed me asking about why they cant successfully register with the 6 digit SMS number that twitter provides. It neither works for me. I use to get “This information is not available at the moment.Please try after some time” as the error message. So this post is for those frustrated users who wanted to use twitter via sms.

When you complete registering with twitter, go to settings>devices tab and add your mobile number. You’ll be asked to send a confirmation code (like mtjmnd )to the number 55 66 511. Try that, if that does’nt works try sending the same confirmation message to the Twitter’s international number +44 762 4801 423. You’ll get back a confirmation sms in seconds, and from there on you’ll start receiving your twitter updates from 5566511. So make sure you add both the numbers in your phone addressbook. Already registered & mobile configured twitter users who don’t receive sms updates anymore, can ‘delete and startover’ and repeat the above said stuff. This works fine as far as you’re only interested in receiving tweets as SMS.

Now, i cant send an international SMS everytime to tweet from my mobile. It costs me 3 bucks minimum and sometimes its 5. Its defntly not a good deal. And FYI, even if sending an SMS to 5566511 works, it will also cost you 3Rs as its a premium number. So what now? The best deal in my experience is to enable GPRS with your service provider and download some Java MIDP client that your mobile supports. Twitter wiki has a huge list of apps. Even try the simplified twitter’s mobile page m.twitter.com from your mobile browser and start sending tweets from mobile. But still sending tweets via sms is a dream.

Wait. There’s one saviour. That’s Vakow. You can successfully send tweets from your mobile to Vakow‘s standard Indian mobile number 99015 54321. Only thing you got to make sure is your message format. Say suppose you want to tweet a message like ‘watching euro2008′, and if you’re planning to use vakow’s number, then add the word twit before your message. So you’ve to send an sms like ‘twit watching euro2008′. Vokow is basically a free sms forwarding service, so to diff a twitter message, they ask you to add twit before the messages and it works like a plum. Go register with Vakow, add your twitter account in Vakow’s settings page and start sending tweets via SMS. I still recommend using the web based interface or desktop apps to start if you’re new to twitter. Once you get comfortable with twitter and message formats, then move on to sending tweets via sms. Happy tweeting!

» people who use a diary and a scribble tasks
» people who use sticky notes
» people who use outlook calendar/ lotus notes calendar
» people who use Google calendar/online to-do list managers

and finally there’s this group of people who use “Twitter + Remember the milk + imified” to make their life simple and better. Well, there’s 100’s of services in the second world of web. What’s so special about this?

Look at my concerns now

» Will I be able to add a task without a computer?
» Well, I’m in a pc. But I’m jus chatting. Something came into my mind all of a sudden. How easy is it for me to add this task to my to-do list manager?
» I want to assign this task to my bro or to my team. How can I do that?
» Well, I have added everything. But what next? Will my to-do list manager alert me back in any other form other than an email?

Twitter + RTM does everything that I mentioned above and a dozen more. The complex thing about creating a to-do list is in analyzing how easy it is for me to create a task. I should be able to do that from my loo, from my gym or from anywhere. Even if I’m in front of the computer I don’t want to open my lotus notes>calendar>new task>fill in details.. nope. That’s really tough. With Twitter and RTM combination, I can create tasks from my mobile with an SMS (no need of GPRS), or from my chat client (gtalk, msn), or from desktop widgets and gadgets (twitterfic, twitterlicious), or directly from the website itself. The list of twitter tools is huge. Explore it yourself.

I can assign a task to my colleague and track it. I get periodic customized alerts and reminders in SMS, Chat Messages and emails. Content Contribution and consumption is much easier. To start with, you need to

1. Register with Twitter
2. Enable your mobile alerts in twitter account notification settings (If you face any problems here, this post might help)
3. Register with Remember the milk (RTM).
4. Add RTM’s twitter buddy to your Twitter Friends list
5. Add twitter@twitter.com or imified@imified.com to your chat client (gtalk)

That’s it. Now life is easier. The following illustration should help. Lets see how easy is it to create a task. The right side green container is a list of tools from which you can tweet. These tools can be in a webpage, a desktop widget, a mobile application or simply a SMS.

Creating a Task for your buddy is the same as above, but some changes in the message that you tweet. You have to address to whom you’re assigning the task to.

Now Reminders. You choose what you want. SMS, Chat messenger or email? I prefer all and it works.

» FlickR serve 12,000 photos a second at peak times — that’s 2,654,208,000 bits each and every second
» FlickR set an all-time upload record on May 29, 2007: 2,070,075 photos in 24 hours
» The Flickrverse has over 8.5 million registered members
» Over 10 million unique tags have been added to photos on Flickr

Hundreds of add-ons are there in the cyberspace which adds more spice to FlickR. Recently I tried Better FlickR Firefox extension, my 2 cents – it’s worth it for frequent flickR’ers. A lot of productivity tweaks in almost all UI elements. Though it will just take a few hours for the FlickR team to update these things in their native website, but the credit for ideating it first goes the Better FlickR team. There’s a Lifehacker post about the same with a couple of screenshots. FlickR is a time eater. Even though I contribute a lil, I consume a lot in FlickR. Just explore and pass time unconsciously. Hope I will use my FlickR account much better once I receive my DSLR. Danny, come soon!

Image credits : Poolie / FlickR

This has been a big issue from the day i picked my Sony Ericsson M600i. What’s a Smartphone if you don’t have a successfully configured push mail? The default settings in the Sony Ericsson site list OTA configuration for all unknown emails, but no support for Gmail. And there are no good detailed tutorials about the same in the SE developer forum too. One exception is Niklas blog. His entry on ‘How to connect your Sony Ericsson M600i with your Gmail account (POP)’ helped me to sort out the minor issues in configuring the phone. But i just felt a screen capture of the settings might help things better.

These settings must be common for other UIQ 3.0 models from SE like P990i and W950i. Im not sure though. Anyways, for M600i – go to Messaging. Click: More > Settings > Email Accounts > More New Account

Now look for More > Advanced

Schedule your download timings at your convenience and there you go.

A recent survey in Sony Ericsson site asked me the statement that best describes my relation to mobile phones, i said ‘I think that a mobile phone is more a functional tool than an inspiring product and I therefore want to have a mobile phone with useful functions that can help me to improve my everyday life’. I strongly say that a mobile has to be more usable and functional rather than being a status or a style element. I currently use a Sony Ericsson M600i smart phone. It’s smart and it’s sexy too cos I own a crystal white colored one. It’s a 3G phone having a UIQ3 interface running on a Symbian v9.0 OS. Smart features include a QWERTY keyboard, Push email, A2DP stereo audio, MP4 player, RSS Reader, Opera Browser, customizable UI and ease of use. Since all the basic features come in default, I don’t need to crack a Smart Movie or a PowerMP3 player or a Profimail Reader. But still a few free applications for smart phones in the internet makes your life easy and more productive.

ZYB Sync. An easy way to backup your mobile’s Contacts and Calendar while allowing you to share and manage the same online. No wires, No software’s, no hassles. Just a GPRS or a WAP or a EDGE enables wireless synchronization of the data. So once in a week I sync my phone’s data with ZYB servers and I can sync it back to any other phone anytime, or just look for a contact detail in my Phonebook from anywhere even if I lost my mobile. We still have these services available in many other ways like service providers (HUTCH) allowing us to backup the same, or the basic Backup service that come with the mobile suite. But nothing is truly accessible over internet.

Widsets. Its Widgets for handsets, named as ‘Widsets’. It’s a Java MIDP2.0 application for Smartphone. It’s a platform with which you and I can create Widsets using RSS feeds of our own choice. If you don’t have the patience to design your Widsets, just pick the popular ones from the library and keep it going. The killer thing here is its slick UI and I’m highly impressed with that. It’s very light and uses a panning navigation to accommodate any number of widsets within the available real estate. It has audio alerts for new entries, supports sharing and lots more. Since RSS is my world for technical updates and surfing, I glued to this in my loo, in the lift, in the Cab… almost everywhere.

Though there are lots of commercial apps available for smart phones, the above said free ones are must haves. I haven’t tried Yahoo! Go yet as my mobile as of now is not supported by Yahoo! Go. M600i users might find this useful post by Niklas on configuring Gmail account in M600i. This is the most usable phone that I’ve ever used till date. UIQ3.0 is great. But I miss the camera in this phone. I’m waiting for the Indian release of the next upgraded model of M600i, the Sony Ericsson P1i.

One fine day morning we spent some 2 hours in finding a proper location for the shoot. We finalized it near the Rajaji Bhavan building in Bezant Nagar. Another weekend we spent some 4 hours for the shooting with the kid. Her name is Poornima. She’s totally resistive in obeying the camera for the first 30 mins. Once we found the secret of kid’s language, it’s a cakewalk thereafter. She’s very expressive. After the shoot, we spent some 5 hrs for the basic edit, another 8 hrs for the sound, titling and text effects. It’s a good learning. We did lot of mistakes, but still managed with what we had in stock. Fawaz is much more interested in these things rather than programming. Looking forward to work more of these kinda stuff with him in future. My thanks to Jaisy for the support, Ranjani for helping us with the kid, Dinesh for the help with the text.

[youtube _fHGPnQ8jvs]

Update: We just got to know from the Jury that this video is one among the prize winning videos. So we are getting a 30GB Video ipod soon.

‘Design Rip’ has been the talk of the web design industry every now and then, and these days its some big companies like AOL and Google falling prey to the Design Theft. 

Recently AOL announced its newly designed aol.com portal homepage, the news is the design and layout resembles 80% of yahoo’s home page design. Critics came in from all corners of the industry (like Techcrunch) and AOL replaces the design overnight. 

Even at times, an internet innovation guru like Google itself does this goof up and changes the design ASAP after the page goes live. The IE7+ Google Toolbar promo page that Google did was under big comments as its similar to Yahoo IE7 promo page and the Google screenshot even had Yahoo! Toolbar image in it. That’s really sick. Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny posted it first and here’s the post.

Think these examples are bad for the design community as rippers will start referring these companies while ripping and will try to justify things. I read some good post sometime back in Digital-web which clearly defined Inspiration Vs Rip. Here’s the link. http://www.digital-web.com/articles/inspiration_vs_theft/

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