It's All About Updates

CNN today announced the availability of the international version of the CNN App on the App Store. Earlier the App was only available in United States.

The CNN App features push notification; regionalisation and personalisation tools; and more. The CNN app showcases global news through text, video and photos, and also includes user-generated content capture and upload functionality through iReport, CNN’s user-generated news community.


CNN App Features include: “My CNN” Personalisation

* Ability to “follow” a story or topic: As CNN publishes new stories and developments related to topics designated by the user, the app will automatically alert the user by pushing a notification to the device.
* “Saved” content functionality gives users access to text stories that interest them anytime, anywhere – even when they’re offline.
* Regionally-targeted news based on the user’s selection of content from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East.


iReport:

* Provides a direct gateway to CNN’s user-generated news community, iReport.
* Lets users browse user-generated content; register, sign-in to their account or sign on as a guest to capture and instantly upload user-generated photos and videos (with the iPhone 3GS and above).
* Users can also browse iReport’s latest “assignments,” asking the community to weigh in on various news stories.


Latest Headlines:

* Users can flick through news stories across categories including Top Stories, U.S., Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Business, Sport, Entertainment, Tech and Travel.
* Each story features bulleted highlights above the full article, designed to satisfy mobile “snackers,” allowing them to easily scan through the latest stories.
* Users can share stories via email, Twitter and Facebook directly from the CNN App.


Video on-demand

* The App provides access to an extensive selection of on-demand video clips across many categories, including World, Most Popular, Sport, Business, U.S., Entertainment, Tech and CNN en Español.

It is available for free download from App Store.

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Micromax will soon expand its portfolio of Mobile handsets with the launch of 3 new handsets - Micromax Q6, Micromax GC400 and Micromax X600.

Micromax Q6 is a Dual SIM slider handset. It features QWERTY Keypad, 6cm display, 2MP Camera and 3.5mm Audio Jack. It comes with 950mAh battery which provides talk time of upto 7 hours and standby time of upto 9 days.
Micromax GC400 is a Dual SIM (CDMA + GSM) handset. It features 5.6cm display and 3MP Camera. It comes with 1000mAh battery which provides talk time of upto 6 hours (GSM), 5.3 hours (CDMA) and standby time of upto 180 hours (GSM) and 140 hours (CDMA).

micromax-gc400-pre

We do not have any details about Micromax X600 as of now.

All these 3 phones are expected to be launched within next 20 days. Price of Q6 will be around Rs. 5000 and price details of GC400 and X600 are not yet available.

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Fly Mobile today announced the launch DS160 dual-SIM model in India.Fly DS160 users can talk non-stop for as long as 16 hours and even the standby time is an impressive 30 hours.

Priced at Rs 3299 only, Fly DS160 is primarily targeted at college and office going youth between 18 to 35 years of age. What’s more, it has a double LED torch that’s bright and utilitarian enough.

Fly DS160 sports a VGA camera which offers different effects and white balance settings. It also has a video player (3GP / AVI format) and a video recorder (AVI format).

For music aficionados, it has a music player that plays MP3 format, 3.5 mm universal audio jack, and a 20mm speaker for considerably loud sound.This phone also come with 20 channel FM radio, FM recording and FM alarm. The Bluetooth capability allows sharing of photos, music etc. It has an expandable memory up to 8 GB for users to be able to store songs, videos and even take a phonebook backup. The phonebook can take up to 1000 entries with photo call ID.

Other features that make this phone an excellent buy include mobile tracker, privacy protection, GPRS, MMS, Indian calendar, call reject SMS, call background sound, call blacklisting, call recording, sound recording, SMS hiding, 1.8” QQVGA TFT screen with 65K color display etc.

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Network and spectrum are pretty expensive things. Huge costs go in deploying networks. An operator who is ready to incur costs expects good return on investment.

But the costs are so huge that it takes years for an operator to look at profits. Also they cannot charge heavily for service because they have incurred huge costs. So there is a trade off between what we expect and what we get.

Typically, voice networks are pretty much controlled. Each voice call is given a radio channel and if all the channels in a certain area are occupied user starts feeling the congestion. This was one of the challenges with the voice network that service providers used to face or still facing. Now with data coming in, that challenges have increased many folds.

Data is a best effort service. That is at a given point of time, a user doing data from his mobile may consume more than one channel. Since spectrum is limited, networks easily get choked up. Thanks to 3G, since voice calls are on one radio technology and data on other, at least my voice calls are safe. Why are unlimited plans a distant dream? Its simple economics! More you give, more they ask. It has been result of many research’s that 5-10% of subscribers that use unlimited plans consume 70-80% of network bandwidth. This certainly is not fair. Assume that in a give region there is geek sitting and consuming all the bandwidth, doesn’t our insanity levels go high? AT&T had burnt its hands with unlimited plans. First the networks are congested, next subscribers are not happy and the result no unlimited plans. Even if the plans are advertised “unlimited”, they are not “truly” unlimited.

The wide variety of mobiles that are available in the market is also adds up to the network congestion. The mobiles should be carefully designed not to burden the network with signaling. With so many applications running on mobile devices the connections are always up and resources are continuously consumed. This is for the exact reason why IPhone developers where give crash course by AT&T.

It’s nobody’s business to tell subscriber how to use what is given to him. But its time users get smart and start utilizing the resources efficiently. Instead of burning the networks with downloading movies on mobile phone why not switch over to wifi? Just a thought!

More to follow! Stay tuned.

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India’s National Telecom backbone Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today announced the pan-India Launch BSNL Postpaid bill payment and GSM Mobile top-up and easy recharge services through mobile banking and ATMs of Union Bank of India (UBI).

The new services enabled BSNL subscribers to pay BSNL bills or top-up their mobile phones. With this initiative BSNL customers who has an banking account with Union Bank of India can makes payment of BSNL bill or Top-Up their prepaid accounts using the BSNL mobile phone via Mobile Banking or approx 2400 UBI ATMs any time, anywhere in India.

Speaking on the launch of new services, Mr. Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL said that the service is the latest convenience offering for the common customers of UBI & BSNL, using the ubiquitous cell phone & ATMs.

How to Use the services-: * BSNL Postpaid Bill payment through Mobile Phone -: UBI account holders, after one time registration of BSNL mobile number through mobile, makes payment of BSNL bill using the mobile phone any time, anywhere.
* BSNL Bill Payment at UBI ATMs-:No pre-registration required; customer uses his UBI Debit card & makes payment of BSNL bill, any time, anywhere through UBI ATM and gets a receipt.
* BSNL Prepaid Mobile Top-up through ATM-: Without any pre-registration, customer uses his UBI Debit card to top-up BSNL Pre-paid Card, any time, anywhere through UBI ATM and gets a receipt.
* BSNL Prepaid Mobile Top-up through Mobile phone-:Common customers of BSNL and UBI top-up their mobile through the registered mobile any time, anywhere.

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After launching On-net pack and 2 STD Packs, it’s now time to enjoy the benefits of Rs.197.

Yes it’s true, now uninor customers across Kolkata and Rest of Bengal can enjoy 2000 free minutes between uninor to uninor in local across Kolkata & RoB plus 700 FREE minutes for other network calls in local which means a whopping 2700 minutes in all.

This pack is priced at Rs.197 which comes with no talk time and with 30 days of tariff validity. All STD calls in this pack are charged at 49p/minute and all sms will be charged at 49p/sms

Post 30 days enjoying this tariff, customers will be able to enjoy the base tariff of 24×7 badalta discount. This offer can only be availed through Mobile Top-Up of Rs.197. This pack can be clubbed with 24×7 badalta discount and any sms pack.

The tariff details are tabulated below:

Particulars	STV 197
MRP (Rs.)	197
Talk Time (Rs.)	0
Benefits	Local calls between Uninor to Uninor unlimited, Local calls between Uninor to others unlimited
Fine Print	Fair usage limit up to a maximum 2000 mins. Of local Uninor to Uninor calls per month and Maximum 700 mins. of local calls to other networks per month
Tariff Validity	30 days

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