Google Maps for Mobile : Never ever get lost again !

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Sameer

This is the story of one of the most-loved products from the Google stable. Google Maps is an application for mobile to make mobile navigation easy. So how does Google Maps work? But first, a little bit of history.

Before Google Maps came to the picture, GPS or Global Positioning System was the predominant technology for mobile navigation. GPS system consists of 32 satellites rotating around the Earth. Each transmits encoded co-ordinate information. A GPS receiver installed in mobile handset must get signal from at least 3 satellites to estimate position. But GPS receiver doesn’t come in every phone. Such phones are usually expensive. Plus you need to have no obstacles above handset to get signal. For direction and routing purpose, you must have Data connection as well. GPS receiver drains battery faster as well.

So Google came up with easy solution for everyone. Google map doesn’t need a GPS receiver in mobile phone. Rather it uses Cells for positioning your device. Cell is basically an area served by a particular base station. Google has spotted each tower into their server’s database. Application sends unique ID of tower to server over a data connection and estimates your location.

If your mobile device is equipped with GPS receiver, Google Maps can combine both technologies for positioning. With powerful search, you could find whatever you are looking for around you. Routing with Google Maps is efficient and practicable. You can add your places and routing info, being open source project.

What about charges ? Google doesn’t charge a penny for this service. You just need to pay for data. EDGE or 3G data connection is recommended for fast routing and positioning. And what about accuracy ? Although tracking with Google Maps is not  as accurate as GPS, being cell based, it’s fairly okay. It shows a circle of certain radius quoted on screen for My Location. That is the area in which you might need directions.

Planning a weekend tour ? No need of paper maps. Just install Google Maps on phone and tell it where you want to go.

Leaving home at 11th hour for a flight ? Let Google Maps route efficient and closest way to airport.

New features under Beta also include traffic updates for certain cities. It will warn you about traffic jams or heavy traffics. Lots of users, including me have found Google Maps to be finely accurate and handy. Recently when I got in Bangalore for a course, and got lost late night, Google Maps helped me to find nearest bus stop !

Google Maps is certainly the best application for mobile navigation, even for a mobile without GPS handset. Let’s never ever get lost again !

Posted in Mobile Applications, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

24×7 Changing Discount Plan by Uninor

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Sameer

Indian telecom market is complex. Lots of users expect quality service with least possible rates. Battles continue among operators to get customer base, spectrum for 3G, launch innovative services and so on. But why would a company want to start their own network when lots of networks are already available ? Well, we are the second most populated country in the World. And eventually mobile phone has became one of the basic need of an Indian. So it’s unlikely for a new network to have no customers !

Uninor is perhaps the first Indian operator which launched without big-ticket Television advertisements. In various cities and towns across the country, Uninor held Rallies at time of launch. With traditional dresses, music and promotional gifts like key chain, they tried to connect to people directly than through TV. But launch is just the beginning, why should a customer choose Uninor, while current operator for one, provides one second billing or so ? Answer : 24×7 Changing Discount Plan.

So what is this plan ? Uninor has basic call rate of 49p/min. On this rate they offer an extra discount depending on the place and time. You could see the discount you are going to avail at Cell Info display. Even when you make a call, an USSD message appears quoting discount. Discount varies from 15% to 60% at all the times and places.

Is that beneficial for user ? Of course it is ! You could see the discount you are getting, and call your old pals whenever discount is more ! Have invitation for a party at weekend ? Look for highest discount and invite your friends !

Is that beneficial for Uninor ? Well, yes. It is observed that more discount is offered during off peak hours. So they ensure that network is being used all the times, and hence earn all the time ! During peak hours, discount is usually less, or fine for a while.

Uninor really tried to come up with new ideas while entering Indian telecom market. Though it will take a little bit longer to acquire considerable customer base , 24×7 Discount plan has helped them carve out an unique position in the market.

Posted in Customer, Mobile, The Market | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Vodafone’s Rs 4 Daily Bonus Packs

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Sameer

Vodafone is well known for providing quality service with mind blowing offers. Because we care for cost of our phone bills, don’t we ? We like to talk for hours, send lots of SMS, browse internet on the move but with least possible cost.

Bonus packs aren’t a new thing. All of the operators have such offers. But those are either recurring or to be paid monthly. What if you want specific feature for a day or two ? Daily bonus card is the answer !

Vodafone’s all daily bonus packs costs just 4 Rs. And you don’t need to recharge for it, the amount is deducted from main prepaid account, isn’t that great ?

Can’t wait to get more info ? Here are those packs-

1. 10 Local & STD Minutes !

2. Vodafone to Vodafone 30p/min !

3. 100 Local/National SMS Free !

4. 40 Vodafone to Vodafone night minutes Free !

5. 30MB Free GPRS !

Anything from above list, just for 4Rs. per day !

These packs are certainly a great opportunity to avail certain service for short duration. Moving out of town for a day or two ? You can get 30 MB GPRS Pack !

Need to invite friends and family for party tonight ? Just get SMS Pack !

Planning to chat with someone special tonight ? Night minutes are for you !

So go ahead and get benefit of these packs.

Mobikwik is there for you 24×7 to put balance in your prepaid account !

Remember, to avail any of these packs, you don’t need to recharge with Rs.4, just call 121.

The cost will be debited form your prepaid account.

Posted in Customer, Mobile, The Market | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

MNP In India

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Sameer

Are you sick of your operator?  Does your operator have poor coverage? Frequent call drops? Helpless customer care? That’s so embarrassing, right? You may want to switch the network for a while, but you can’t do it. Reason is you can’t afford to change your mobile number.

College students try to get cheapest rates and they don’t mind changing their number frequently. But for a professional, it’s a big pain to convey new number to everyone and update it. Plus no one can guarantee whether new network will satisfy your needs.

MNP is the solution. MNP stands for Mobile Number Portability. With this feature, one could switch the operator, without change of mobile number. Great, isn’t it?

Well well, unfortunately, we’re not that lucky yet. MNP is not active in India till date. Announced in June 2008, arrival of MNP is st ill awaited. It has been two years and TRAI is still postponing the launch of MNP.

Why is MNP important in Indian scenario? As of now, more than 15 GSM operators and 4 CDMA operators are live. Not all have good service in all places. Someone may find particular network problematic in a particular area. Consumers especially care about pricing of plans and talktime, call drops and quality of customer service. MNP will alert all operators to keep up with quality at the best possible price. Otherwise networks giving poor service will lose customers!

So, we agree that MNP is a pro-consumer move. But then, why is it still not here? No one has a proper answer. In a recent press release, TRAI ( India’s regulatory authority) said that BSNL Mobile and Uninor are not ready for it. It is required for a cellular company to perform some tests and evaluations for MNP service. And not just once, MNP launch has been postponed for 4 or more times. What can be the reason? Most likely, the leading operators (Airtel/Vodafone/BSNL/Tata/Idea) are afraid of losing their customers? This is exactly the reason why MNP should be launched as soon as possible. Because we , the consumers, pay to the operator, and it must stand up to our expectations.

Everyone is is expecting launch of MNP in 2010. So keep your fingers crossed! Soon you would be able to switch between operators, with the same number!

Posted in Customer, Mobile, News, The Market | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy Hours@MobiKwik, A phenomenal success !!!

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Nikhil

Phew ! Gosh ! Sigh ! Sigh ! sigh….. And it Ended !!!

No ! Definitely not ! This is not a man panting because he ran 10 kilometers in a day, this is the Support Team@MobiKwik because they never realized that Happy Hours @MobiKwik would become an instant hit.

Unlike our any other promotional campaign so far, the Happy Hours was launched on a small scale for a 3 day (29th-31st July) period. Quite frankly, none of us at MobiKwik was expecting a blizzard of consumers between 6 pm and 7 pm for these three days.

The Figures….

858 Consumers raced for every Minute..

225 Consumers did repeat Participations..

126 Consumers thought the competition existed even on 1st August…

178 Consumers got rewarded…

Some of them were contacttomukesh@gmail.com,harmil007@gmail.com,mukesh.patil2000@gmail.com,

omkar_dhadge@yahoo.com,himangshu_m@live.in,nirudeep@gmail.com,

dinesh14069@yahoo.com,ram1ramji@gmail.com,sg_san@sify.com.

On Popular-Cum-Crazy Demand, the Happy Hours will be back..

Watch Out for this space !!!!

Posted in About MobiKwik, Contests, Customer, MobiKwik.com, New Features, The Market | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mobikwik Happy Hours – 25% CashBack on Any Mobile Recharge!

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Bipin

Keeping up its promise of innovation, Mobikwik has unveiled a new concept of Happy Hours for Mobile Prepaid Users. Until now, you heard about Happy Hours only in restaurants and bars. Mobikwik has extended the idea to Mobile Recharge.

So, what are Mobikwik Happy Hours? Well, the idea is very simple.

Recharge your favorite mobile from mobikwik with Rs 100 between 6-7 pm and get 25% CashBack.

To start with, Happy Hours will be applicable from July 29 to July 31, both days included.

Terms:

*One winner will be picked for every minute between 6-7pm. This means that there can be maximum of 60 winners every day.

*In case of multiple recharges in  single minute, lucky draw will be used to decide the winner.

* For any dispute/complaint/suggestion, feel free to email us at support@mobikwik.com

* Rs 25 will be credited within 24 hours to your mobikwik balance.

Posted in About MobiKwik, Contests, Customer, MobiKwik.com, New Features, News, The Market | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Use PayPal to recharge your prepaid Indian mobile

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Bipin

A lot of mobikwik users have requested for PayPal to be provided as a payment option at www.mobikwik.com. Continuing its focus on consumer happiness, mobikwik now allows its users to pay using their verified PayPal account. Payments are in USD ( US Dollars). If you wish to pay using a foreign currency , PayPal will automatically convert your currency and present the equivalent amount in USD.

We are also revamping our payment interface so you will see a much neater interface soon. Till then, please try out our PayPal option and let us know what pleases you and what does not. As always, we are all ears!

Posted in About MobiKwik, Customer, Internet, Mobile, New Features, News, Startup, The Market | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Warning : Beware of free recharge codes on orkut!

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Bipin

We have come across some users complaining that they did not get free recharge from codes which were pasted on their orkut profiles. It seems someone has been pasting free mobile recharge codes ( for mobikwik) to profiles of unsuspecting orkut users. The only problem is these codes do not actually work.

The reason these codes don’t work is because these are not valid and not sponsored by us. A malicious spammer is taking advantage of mobikwik brand name to get orkut users to click on these links.

Please note that Mobikwik does not spam orkut users with free recharge codes. The Mobikwik Discount Coupons as they are formally known, are available *exclusively* through our partners like Adomado.

We are conducting investigation to find out who is doing this. Any tips, please email us at support@mobikwik.com.

A sincere request to all orkut users not to fall into this trap. Nothing in this world comes for free!

Posted in About MobiKwik, Bugs & Fixes, Contests, MobiKwik.com, News, Startup | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Value Added Services: the world in your hands

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Sameer

A mobile phone has became an essential personal device for every Indian. One can see a mobile phone in the hands of a vegetable vendor, a businessman, a grandma and a school going kid. Today, more than 15 mobile networks connect people throughout India. Voice and text are two important services provided to mobile users. But is that all a device in your hands can provide? Absolutely not, Yeh Dil Mange More! What’s more? Value Added Services.

So what is a Value Added Service, abbreviated as VAS ? You may feel that you are well connected to the World with voice and text. Perhaps you are wrong. Value Added Services (VAS) provide you possibilities to get connected in a more interactive and rich manner. Simplest example of VAS is the Caller Tune. You have a feature to let your callers listen to a nice song when they call you – days of boring tring tring are over!

Voice Mail is another powerful VAS. Unfortunately, very few people use it. Perhaps most Indians are free to take calls all the time! If you are a pretty busy person, and you dont want people to have to call your number 5 times to reach you, you could divert calls to your voice mail box. It will record messages from your callers for you, which you can listen later when you are free.

Missed Call Alerts (MCA) has became  popular. If you get out of coverage or switch off the phone, you don’t get any idea about callers. With MCA, you get SMS from caller’s number during that times. If you don’t want to miss any call, MCA is the must have VAS for you.

Carriers like Vodafone offer some unique features like Call Filter. You can block specific number from calling you. Personalized Messages is another good feature where, you can set a message defining your current status, that a caller will listen to when he or she calls you.

GPRS enabled internet on the move. EDGE, the next version of GPRS improves mobile internet speeds.  All mobile enthusiasts are now waiting for 3G, indicating 3rd Generation. 3G is the fine combination of GSM and CDMA allowing voice/text with high speed internet. Rated speed for today’s 3G is 3.1MBPS ! You could check emails, browse thousands of sites, watch videos on the move.

That’s not all, the need for speed continues to exist. Next high speed version, 4G is already being tested. Technology is one step ahead of our demands from our mobile, so there is no need to worry!

Posted in Customer, Internet, Mobile, The Market | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Paul Octopus-The Magical Application

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Opinder

Psychic Paul The Octopus or as we say The Father of all Pandits is now available to i-Phone, i-Pad, i-Pod Touch users in the form of an iOS app that makes predictions about anything you want it to, not just football. This German octopus Amazingly or surprisingly ‘predicted’ correct the outcome for each and every match for FIFA 2010!. Quite a Pandit !!!

Brazilian i-Phone application developer “uTouchLabs”-developed this application called “Ask The Octopus”.

It’s pretty basic. When you start this application, you see an animated octopus, and you’re asked to enter in two things to compare-Choosing your girlfriend (or boyfriend)?? Cinema or theatre?? Pizza or sushi?? i-Phone or Blackberry (You can think of better things to compare). After this octopus drifts to the sea floor and selects a box just like PAUL. Its random of course-but its pretty interesting application to play.

Who might want to use this app? The Indian leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav or L.K Advani or Cricketers like Yuvraj Singh….the list is endless. What’s your opinion??


Posted in Games, Mobile Applications, Sports | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment