Thought Garage

Its Diwali now…, in fact whenever you want if you are in India. No restrictions. No need for special permissions. No proof of special occasions. Enjoy whenever you want.

Pictures taken from the first generation iPhone.

iPad is now official and awesome. And in my view, there are two categories of products that will suffer a great deal if not completely get ignored in the market: Netbooks and e-Book readers (like Kindle).  iPad will be a real break-through not because hardware (despite gigantic touch screen) or for software, but for great and intuitive user experience in consuming content. Finally, consuming content on web feels like reading a book or magazine, close to your heart. Something I always wanted. Hmm, I will be poor by at least another $500.

The fact that any of those 140K apps that run on iPhone or iPod touch run on iPad without any modification is quite irresistible. And for those who already have an iPhone or iPod touch, using iPad is just natural and hence nothing exciting. It not only looks and feels like a gigantic iPhone or iPod touch, but powered by the same software core.

Vonage started offering Unlimited Calls to India under its $24.99/m existing plan recently that include both landlines and cell phones. The 2 Months free offer is still available, if you haven’t signed up yet.

Today, Vonage released a Mobile application that can be installed on Blackberry, iPhone or iPod touch that will allow you to make international calls right from your Mobile at Vonage rates. It uses WiFi if available. Otherwise it uses your normal voice minutes on your Mobile like you are making a local call even when you are make an international calls.

Remember you will pay for Vonage International Calling Rates for each call you make, in addition to your cell phone minutes when you use cell phone network instead of WiFi.

It is bad you can not use your existing Vonage account to this mobile application. Hope Vonage will soon allow that too. You need to setup a credit or debit card and pay per use. I guess, Vonage will soon allow to connect your existing account and share that number, may be at a small fee.

iPhone is my dream smart Phone (see my original post Busting the myth of Smart phones posted on  Cellular Lifestyles in October, 2006)  Many critics of iPhone are quite reluctant to accept that iPhone has not only changed the meaning of a smart phone, but also changed the mobile user and hence the market.

My colleague, a great fan of Nokia always argue that Nokia had the best smart phone, well before iPhone ever made into the market. I don’t know much about that device he is talking about, but see what iPhone had done to the user and market.

1. More users are using email on their phones.
2. More users are now browsing web using a mobile phone.
3. More web sites and business applications created iPhone ready websites and applications. I haven’t heard of a single web app that was declared as Nokia ready.
4. Now with introduction of games through apple Appstore, I am pretty sure more people will play games on their mobile phones. 
5. In turn, carriers will see more people buying data services, a dream for a long time for every carrier word wide.

See the following news report at NY Times arguing that that even carriers are changing their game plan, thanks to iPhone, every carrier is trying to open the walled garden. Nokia was a mobile device provider for a long time. Has Nokia made a single carrier open up?

Applications spur open environment
Consumers have long been frustrated with how much control carriers — AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and the like — have exerted over what they could download to their mobile phones. But in the last nine months, carriers, software developers and cellphone makers have embraced a new attitude of openness toward consumers.

iPhone is the best gadget I have ever seen in my life and iPhone is what I have been dreaming of a smart phone all the while. The touch screen is a full surprise to me, though.

iPhone is my dream smart Phone (see my original post Busting the myth of Smart phones posted on  Cellular Lifestyles in October, 2006)  Many critics of iPhone are quite reluctant to accept that iPhone has not only changed the meaning of a smart phone, but also changed the mobile user and hence the market.

My colleague, a great fan of Nokia always argue that Nokia had the best smart phone, well before iPhone ever made into the market. I don’t know much about that device he is talking about, but see what iPhone had done to the user and market.

1. More users are using email on their phones.
2. More users are now browsing web using a mobile phone.
3. More web sites and business applications created iPhone ready websites and applications. I haven’t heard of a single web app that was declared as Nokia ready.
4. Now with introduction of games through apple Appstore, I am pretty sure more people will play games on their mobile phones. 
5. In turn, carriers will see more people buying data services, a dream for a long time for every carrier word wide.

See the following news report at NY Times arguing that that even carriers are changing their game plan, thanks to iPhone, every carrier is trying to open the walled garden. Nokia was a mobile device provider for a long time. Has Nokia made a single carrier open up?

Applications spur open environment
Consumers have long been frustrated with how much control carriers — AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and the like — have exerted over what they could download to their mobile phones. But in the last nine months, carriers, software developers and cellphone makers have embraced a new attitude of openness toward consumers.

iPhone is the best gadget I have ever seen in my life and iPhone is what I have been dreaming of a smart phone all the while. The touch screen is a full surprise to me, though.