I’ve been using an Android phone from the past 4 months now. I like it for the most part. My main activities mostly revolve around texting, calls, and using the Internet. The 3.6″ screen is pretty nice for surfing, BUT, it doesn’t do a good enough job of reading articles and ebooks. That’s where I feel a tablet would be handy.

Sure, you’d argue that carrying a tablet and a phone would be quite troublesome. For most people that would be true. For me, nope. Six days a week I carry my backpack with me. I have an immense need for it. Adding an additional tablet to it would just about me perfect for me. I could catch up on a book or read the news while travelling, and I travel a lot.

What made me realise that a tablet is much better than a phone at reading books and news was the iPad. Actually, the Pulse newsreader application. It’s magnificent. Having the iPad in your hand and reading the Huffington Post makes you feel like you have the hard copy of the Post in your hands, and THAT is simply orgasmic.

I’ve been driven towards an iPad, but cost is obviously one thing that isn’t going to let me have it. I’ve come to terms with that. The iPad isn’t for me. But I’m not going to give up on reading the Huffington Post on a tablet idea. After all, Android tablets are just around the corner (forget the Tab. Samsung and I have a mutual allergy to each other). The supposed Motorola tablet should be a beauty. It probably won’t be very cheap, I get that. So even though a Tablet isn’t for me now, two years down the line, my prediction is that every book and news lover will have a Tablet in his hand, and the costs shall obviously be driven down, THAT’S when a Tablet will be mine. Why settle for a closed book reader (Nook anyone?) when you can have the openness of Android on your tablet.

P.S. – This happens to be my first post from the WordPress app for Android. Mobile blogging at last.

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When I visited Chennai recently (more on that later), @the100rabh and @daaku showed me an mp3 player that they said they bought for just Rs.180! This little Chinese bastard of an iPod Shuffle and Chinese preeminence comes with a pair of earphones and a microUSB cable (for charging purposes) too. Plug in your micro memory card and you’re good to go. You can even use your own 3.5mm headphones.

The sound quality really isn’t that bad if you’re only going to listen to Hindi music, Pop and Hip-Hop genres. Just don’t expect your Metal songs to sound good because this iPod can crank up the treble to insane levels.

Available at Saravana Selvarathnam Textiles, T.Nagar, Chennai. In Red, Black, Silver, and Purple(!!) colours.

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Picture of last year's Airtel iPhone 3G registration page

At WWDC 2009, Apple announced that the new iPhone 3G[S] would be available for purchase starting June 19th. What Apple did not clearly specify was a launch date for the 3G[S] in India. However, Apple did say that the new iPhone would be launched in July in some countries, and as far away as August in other countries (like India).

Remember when the iPhone 3G was released? It was June. And later, I wrote about the iPhone 3G releasing in India in August. Airtel came out first with the iPhone in India, Vodafone later officially announced the same, and BSNL came in a distant last with an announcement in September.  So by all probability, the expected date for the new iPhone 3G[S] release in India will most probably be in August.

There weren’t any long queues, neither were a lot of iPhone pre-bookings made because of the Rs.36,000 price tag. You can be sure that this time too, for the iPhone 3G[S], the initial price will still be around the Rs.30,000+ range. As for the iPhone 3G, the expected market trend is that when something new comes out, the old must either get a price drop, or be discontinued. Most of us are expecting a price drop, to something at the range of Rs.25,000 – Rs.30,000.

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According to the Financial Express, SK Chakravarty BSNL will be launching the iPhone along with the 3G network in December. “On September 30, we will have a meeting of the circle heads where we may take a decision on making iPhones available to our consumers,” said Chakravarty.

Back in June, we all saw the Vodafone iPhone advertisement on the front page of the TOI, and Airtel announce pre-booking the very next day. The BSNL launch is something we never expected. Lets hope they can at least have the price lower than their competitors. Edit: Hope?! Why am I even bothered about buying a phone that I _know_ lacks features and will be overpriced?

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