My new Toy | Samsung Galaxy 5 i5503, Powered by Android 2.1

First things first, I have been a huge fan of Nokia mobile since I bought my first mobile in 2001. Strong build quality (definitely needed for India) clubbed with ease of use and a good service network always meant that Nokia was a good choice.

Got hold of my Samsung Galaxy 5 device last Thursday (http://in.samsungmobile.com/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-5-i5503) , 20th January 2011 and have a good chance to play around with it for the the past few days. So did this move from Nokia really pay off ( I was using the fully loaded Nokia N79 for the past 1.5 years i bought for 14k and disposed off for 4k)? Read ahead to find out more.

The Initial Feel

The phone is really compact and light (esp coming out my Nokia N79 experience), has a good 2.8 " capacitive touch screen which makes it really easy to use with your fingers (In fact the touch screen was the only differentiating factor, which made me chose this over Micromax A 60 which i was getting for around 6k. The only downside of Micromax was the resistive touch screen it was offering). The package contains of the regular pair of earphones, data cable, the handset, battery, leather pouch, 2 GB micro SD card and a travel charger along with the customary set of user manuals with a couple of s/w DVD's.

The initial experience of setting up the phone was great, as I already had my contacts synched up with Google, so it was just a matter of entering my Google credential before the phone had all my contacts, email and Picasa web pics on the phone.

The apps performed pretty well with the 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. Even after installing multiple applications never noticed any sluggish behavior with the phone.

Overall pretty impressed by the touch screen though it does not support multi touch (so lets forget the pinch to zoom feature on photos, maps etc. with which Apple has spoilt us off late).

The Good

• Shipped with Android 2.1 which offers a hosts of additional features on the prior version of Android.
• The voice quality is actually superb, much better than the Nokia handset I was using for the past 1.5 years.
• Good Network reception, GPS receiver and built in speaker (though not stereo)
• Integration with Google works like a charm.
• Lastly but not the least, Android means option of millions of apps unleashing the true potential of your phone.

The Bad

• Battery life is a big bummer (mine hasn't lasted for more than a day with high usage and and synchronization on).
• Camera is another let down (an just 2 MP, no flash and no autofocus), If you would like decent photos (other than just sharing online or regular 4X6 prints) I would recommend you look out for some other phone.
• Google still does not support Voice Navigation in India, so if you want voice Navigation you would need to shell out some extra amount (I opted for mapmyindia and it works great for me).
• Not sure about it's upgrade to Android 2.2. Though rumoour has it that it might get an upgrade in Q1 this year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_i5500 , but no official announcement from Samsung on this. Unless this happens it means you wouldn't be able to install applications on the SD card (Until you install a custom firmware, which looks possible search XDA forums) and no wifi tethering unless you root the phone (again possible, search XDA forums)

Final Words

At a price tag of around 8.8 k is a definite buy for the budget/entry level Android user. Scores over Micromax just because of capacitive touch screen and a better brand. Battery problems could be overcome by some great Android Apps (Talk about that in my next post, the Top 10 Android Apps)

Back After a Small Break

Hi All. Know I have been missing in action for almost an year now. Lot of things have been keeping me busy. Became a father in March  2009, switched to a new job next month had a couple of business travels followed by a couple of vacations.

But now I am back. So keep watching this space for more...

Check out www.mynetainfo.com if you are a true Indian

With any elections round the corner i was always under a dillema to choose the best posisble candidate for which i should vote. Well this election round, this problem seems to have been solved by a website http://www.myneta.info . This site contains the details of almost all the candidates in the upcoming lok sabha election (including age, qualification any criminal cases etc) and as per the website the source of this information are the affidavits submitted by the candidates.

So this time exercise your right and check out the site http://www.myneta.info before casting your vote. Jai Hind

My new phone - Nokia Navigator 6210 - Never get lost again

What are the top two foolish things for a person do do during these time of recession?

• Changing a job
  
• Unnecessary spending money on gadgets
  

Having done both of them the past month, lets throw some more light on my the second one(the first is going to a boring talk anyways) i.e. shelling out around 14k for a GPS enabled phone in India where roads are re routed daily, house numbers are more randomly defined than a Java random number generator :-).
Nokia Navigator 6210 is my latest phone. Being a loyal Nokia fan for almost the last ten years, my first task was cut shot when i decided to go for a GPS phone was that I would be looking out only for Nokia. Call me biased, but i personally feel Nokia platform (Symbian) has got some great support and usability of Nokia phones is definitely an USP.
Quite a few phones are now available in the Nokia stable offering GPS facilities. But the cheapest one at this time was Nokia 6210 with 6 months on Navigation license (though being a Navigator series phone an unimited Navigation license was expected).
To clear your doubts first what is Navigation and is it the same as GPS. Though Nokia's site does have a good explanation of the same, for the impatient ones Nokia Phones now come bundled with an application called Nokia Maps (2.0). GPS Feature is free for life and you don't pay anybody anything for them (except minimal data transfer charges if you use AGPS which quickens up the initial GPS process). Using GPS you can find your current location on the map which is updated as you walk or drive. This feature is free for life across all Nokia GPS phones i know of.
But navigation takes this a step further by providing various value added services like routing of directions, voice based navigation, POI (point of interests) etc. In Nokia 6210 this comes free for the first 6 months and 8 Indian cities and later on you can buy a license of your liking.
Besides the default Nokia 6210 Navigation, you can also installed third party apps like Google Maps (+ves reliable, free, -ves no voice based navigation, data transfer charges as maps are downloaded over the internet), mapmyindia.com(one time license fee) etc. Personally i am a big fan of Google Maps.

Coming back to the phone, below i briefly mention some of the pros/cons of the handset and my recommendation about the same. You can get a details of the phone features and specifications from its official website http://www.nokia.co.in/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_934156

Pros

1. Good navigation features (AGPS, 6 months free navigation)
2. Digital compass for pedestrian navigation
3. Great screen size and display
4. Battery life is good
5. A true smart phone with lot of support for third part apps (like voip, messengers etc.)
6. Firmware is pretty stable and hasn't crashed on me after 3 weeks of continous use.
7. Works as a pretty good music phone too.
   

Cons

1. Build quality is a real bummer has a plasticy feel written all over on it, and is very much susceptible to dust.
2. The top three keys below the sliders are not very easy to operate. So this phone is a strictly no no if you are an avid texter
3. Being a Navigation phone a lifetime navigation license was expected. But it comes bundled only with a 6 months navigation license.
4. Images taken from the camera could have been better. The LED flash sucks
   

Recommendation

Go for it if you are looking for a great GPS smartphone. If you are loooking for good build quality or a music phone there are definitely better options out there.

Rating 7/10

Internet Problems (Edge) on Nokia Navigator 6210 with Airtel Mobile Office in Delhi, India

I have a Nokia 6210 phone bought from an authorized Nokia Care Center in Delhi two weeks ago.  The software version on the phone is 3.08 dated 11-June 2008. It also mentions custom version as 03.08.c00.01

I am an Airtel Prepaid customer in New Delhi, India and had been using Mobile Office service on my prepaid number for some time. It worked perfectly fine for my Nokia 6233. On my current Nokia 6210 the Internet connection works fine for the first time through the built in browser or though any other application (like Google Maps, Gmail etc) which required internet and displays the sign  signifying that the edge connection is active.

 

The problem is that once I close the application the standby sign for Edge network is displayed as follows and no matter what I am unable to use the internet connection on the phone until I do the following

1. Restart the phone (which definitely isn’t a good option)
2. Wait for around 8-10 minutes after which the Edge on hold sign disappears and is replaced by  which means that the edge is available
3. I found this out accidentally, but if I press the keys *123# which I typically use for enquiring balance, the on hold sign goes away and is replaced by the Edge available sign.

 Not sure where the problem is. I really doubt it’s got to do something with Airtel as the same number worked perfectly fine with my previous Nokia phone in the same area. In addition my wife’s phone (again an Airtel prepaid number) is working great in the same area. So either this has got to do something with the handset or the compatibility of the handset with the Airtel, New Delhi.

 

I have tried various sets of setting from the following sources

1. The wizard in built in the handset
2. Getting the settings from the Nokia site
3. Getttng the settings from Airtel Customer Care

 

But with all of them I am facing the same set of problems.

 Anybody out there facing similar problems or have any suggestions for the same?

Update 22nd April 2009

This most likely looks like a problem with Airtel or compatibility issue between Airtel and this handset. The reason i say so is that recently Airtel has also launched daily plan for mobile office with the following tarrfis. You can view this menu by keying in the following *567# and pressing the dial button and choosing to activate internet (if you get an message that mobile office is already activated, deactivate it once and then activate it again)

1. Rs 10 per day for 3 MB
   
2. Rs 20 per day for 8 MB
   
3. Additional data for the above to be charged at 20 paise for 50 kb.
   

Already existing plan 30 paisa for 50 kb

Once I migrated to plan 1 or 2 above the problem ceased to exist. So this means once the internet connection is stopped and i get an update form Airtel regarding the balance in my prepaid account, that seems to be the root cause of this issue. As this thing does not occur with Plan 1 and Plan 2, the problems do not exist there. 

Any ideas anyone?

Airtel Drops a Bombshell in the form of "Airtel' Fair Usage Policy"

Comcast did it, so did AT&T in the US along with numerous other ISP's. It's the turn of Airtel to follow suit. As per the notice put up by Airtel they would be implementing an "Airtel' Fair Usage Policy" which gives them the power to cut down your bandwidth speed to half (at the same charges) after you cross a specified data transfer limit in your unlimited(They should now remove this word, isn't it?) data broadband limit.

The details of this awesome :-) plan are available here 

http://www.airtel.in/applications/xm/Fair_Usage_Policy.pdf

The rest of the details are pretty sketchy here, not to mention since when this has been implemented, where we may check our usage, whats our usage etc. etc.

Strange that we do get automated calls and all kind of advertisement with our Airtel Bill, but Airtel found it quite unnecessary to inform us about this update from their end which would be hitting us directly. I found an online petition against this move from Airtel which can be accessible here  http://afup.broadbandforum.in/

If you feel this issue is important to you, use the power of Social Media (twit, blog, social networking sites etc.) to spread the word around and make people aware of it, as looks like Airtel is not gonna do that for sure.

Delhi 6 Music Review

Movie - Delhi 6

Music Director - A.R. Rahman

Director - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Lyrics - Prasson Joshi

After creating magic with Rang De Basanti in 2006, the trio combination of A.R. Rahman, Prasoon Joshi and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra are back with Delhi 6. So do they manage to carry on their RDB phenomena forward? You bet they do...

Rating 9/10