BSNL launched 3G services in Kerala back in January. The service was first launched in Kozhikode, Kannur and Wayanad and BSNL gradually expanded services to Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam etc. The most surprising fact is that Ernakulam being the most modern city of the state still haven’t started 3G services which has been a let down for many users.
We contacted the officials of Ernakulam but they were unable to comment on when the service would start. But the good news is that Ernakulam district has got 150 spots 3G enabled. They also said that eventually all the towers will be converted from 2/2.5G to 3G.
If you are impatient like me and if you want to use the service, here is an easy way. Try to get a sim from any of the cities where 3G services have already been launched. It doesn’t matter even if its a 2G sim. You can convert it to 3G by the following steps:-
For PREPAID users:
Step 1: Send an SMS to 53733 typing M3G120
Step 2: You will receive confirmation in minutes and send a SMS to 53733 by typing M3G120y
In a few minutes you will be converted to 3G. Please note call rates and sms tariff are different in 3G, so you may wanna take a look at here. Click Here There isn’t any need for any minimum balance to do the conversion. And any balance in your phone will be available even after conversion
For POSTPAID users:
Postpaid user need to fill in an application form available online. But some officials said thats not necessary. Well, its BSNL. Anyway there is an Online Registration Form. You may fill out that. Click Here
Read the frequently asked question to clarify any further doubts. Go here and click FAQ
Once you are converted to 3G, you will require a minimum balance of Rs50 to use the internet according to customer care. But yeah, our testing found out that you can use even when your balance is below Rs50.
The following settings are to be entered to get access to internet.
Access Point: bsnlsouth.cellone.in
Username: 10 Digit Mobile Number
Password: 10 Digit Mobile Number
And here is a tip for Nokia Users, if you want to stay on 3G tower all the time preventing your phone automatically switching to 2G towers, then go to MENU>SETTINGS>CONNECTIVITY>NETWORK>NETWORK MODE and choose UMTS.
So what are you waiting for ? Go enjoy 3g service today. Or already using 3G ?? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section.
UPDATE: Download the 3G locations list here
Nokia has made several Nseries device which had really shaken the market like the N73, N70 and of course the N95. N95 has been titled as one of the best phones Nokia has ever made. And we all agree with that. It’s true that since then we havent seen such a groundbreaking device then until Nokia released the N97. One of the highly anticipated device has been in the market for a while now. The N97 has bought for the first time a touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard combo for the first time in the Nokia stream of phones.
If that’s not just enough for you, then see if a Carl Zeiss 5MP camera with 30fps video recording or a life time NAVIGATION with voice for both Walk and Drive or a massive 32GB internal storage with extra room for a 16gb micro sd card can please you. These are just the highlights. Obviously, you will also see A-GPS, WLAN, BT, 3.5″ nHD screen and 3G HSDPA connectivity. There is nothing more you can ask on this device’s hardware.
And yeah, for the software side, N97 is powered with Symbian S60V5 OS. The s60v5 version is specifically designed for touchscreen phones and yeah Symbian unlike the iPhone OS is a multitasking beast. If you have already used symbian, then you will not find much differences with this version of OS except for larger buttons and slight tweaks. But on the N97 you will see some more changes which you might not see on any other S60v5 phones like the Widget HomeScreen. N97 is capable of having widgets on the homescreen which updates itself automatically to keep you in sync with the web. Widgets include those for mail, stocks, weather, facebook, twitter and more. You can see them all at one place.
All you need is wifi or data connection and the phone does the rest. You may also notice that, apart from the internet widgets you also have access to other widgets which lets you access the clock, calendar, change profile, access four main apps via shortcuts or even your four main contacts with full conversation history. Isn’t that amazing to do all this without even having to jump on to the menu ??? And yeah, if you wanna break from all these widgets with numbers and stuff, you can easily switch to basic homescreen which just shows you clock, calendar and the lovely wallpaper you have. Check out the demo below.
From the HomeScreen, you can get on to the menu through the beautifully placed, slightly tilted silver menu button(image below). The menu icons looks the same as other s60 phones. You also have the option here to rearrange the menu icons so that you can have your frequently used apps’ icon on top which will save you some time scrolling down.
Talking about scrolling, the N97 comes with fully integrated Kinetic Scrolling(FW v2.0 or higher). If this word is new to you, then you might wanna check out the video below. Some call this flick scrolling while some call it iPhone like scrolling. What makes this scrolling special is that it helps you to scroll up and down with just the flick of a finger for which earlier you had to drag the tiny slider on the right side of the menu. Iam sure it was a nightmare for those with fat fingers.
Calling and texting are simple as anything. Just tap on the dialer button on the homescreen, enter your number and Whoa ! Alternatively, you can choose a contact from contacts menu on the homescreen. However, one drawback we’ve seen is that the dialer pad does not have alphabets on it which can be little trouble if you wanna dial say 1800-400-SACHU
As mentioned earlier, since symbian OS can multitask, you can access other apps on your phone while in a call. You can send sms, email, read tweets or continue browsing mymobilescoop.com/ In addition, you can conference call, hold or mute which are pretty much the basic stuffs.
Texting and MMS are also just as easy. You just have to enter the messaging menu and tap on write message. If you are a power texter, you can have homescreen shortcut which on tapping opens you the write message page directly. This is very handy when you are extremely busy.
This is the first menu that welcomes you when you tap on the messaging app. The first option is to write a message in text format. The writing page also contains the option to add media contents which when added converts the message to a multimedia text message. Inbox being the second in row has all your incoming messages. The messaging app has an email client built in. But we are not going to use it as it doesn’t support HTML. After all why should we use it when we have the popular Nokia Messaging app which we shall cover later. You can also view your sent messages and also you can keep track of messages you have sent if you are in a strict messaging plan. One great is that the ability to receive delivery reports. For Nokia users, its not great thing. But do you know iPhone doesn’t support it yet officially. The QWERTY keyboard can keep up with your typing speeds and is very easy to type. It’s very handy as typing on the touchscreen wont work all the time in all situations. So if you are one of those who sends large emails and texts this is the right device for you.
Tired of reading ?? Take a break and enjoy the video below:
Nseries device are famous for their multimedia capabilities and N97 is no exception. N97 performs way higher than user expectations. The gorgeous nHD 3.5″ display, the 32GB onboard memory, 5MP Camera, powerful speakers all add to the experience. Its almost a computer and you never have to delete any item. If you still find that space isn’t enough for you, don’t forget the additional 16GB card support which will bring up the total storage on the device upto a whopping 48GB.
Flipping through photos, music and videos are just a breeze. Almost all types of audio and images are supported on the device. You can also watch unlimited youtube videos through the dedicated client(Requires data connection). But we didn’t like about the gallery is browsing through them. Kinetic scrolling does help navigate easily, but the photos and videos are all mixed up. Though you have an option to sort it out, we would like the menu for it on the main page of gallery directly rather than going to options everytime. However you will notice some wisely placed touch buttons for sending, editing or even trashing.
Music player is really awesome. It really makes use of the 3.5″ display. All your songs just look as sweet as they sound with that gorgeous album art. And yeah, you can manually set it too which means it could be your picture under Britney’s song
The UI is normal s60 looking but redesigned for touch access. You can also have a small music widget on Home Screen so that you can see which track is being played and a tap on it will take you to the Music Player.
Camera is another stunning feature of the N97. And yeah, its one of the 5mp camera phones I have tested. Videos also look great. But both fails to deliver high quality images or videos in low light. Thanks to the LED flash in the phone:-P There are a variety of option the camera gives you before you can start snapping/recording.
Web Browsing is a great experience on the N97. The big screen does really add to the browsing experience. One great feature of the browser is that it auto hides the address bar, navigation and the status bar when a page completes loading so that u can simply start panning or zooming around the page. The browser also supports flash unlike many other great browsers out there. You can have personalized bookmarks, username/password storage etc are all out of the box. Pages loaded faster and looked stunning. The always accessible Zoom button is a blessing. But sometimes zooming with it is too difficult.
is another awesome feature. Again the big 3.5″ display makes it a great device for navigation. So you can easily mount them in your car easily and you can intermittently look at the phone screen and road while driving. As mentioned, since its a big screen you dont have to strain yourself on to the screen while driving to know where you are which might cause some accidents. Recently, Ovi announced free Voice guided Navigation to make navigation easier and fun. The following services are provided by Ovi.
Applications are another blessing to this phone. To improve your touchscreen experience, developers have created plenty of fun, entertainment, utility apps etc. Not to mention Gravity for twitter, Nimbuzz etc are one of the best available. Sounds new? Don’t worry we have reviews coming up on them. Ovi store has almost all kinds of apps. So you will never walk out of the store without a new app in phone. Downloading apps are just as easy as tapping download button. The store client will do the rest. It will automatically download and install it to the phone. At the same time you can go about browsing another apps.
The only one question that arise in your mind would be, despite all these features, does the phone stay up all day long without requiring you to search for a charging outlet ?? Well, the answer is yes. There are many phones out there with plenty of features. But none of them has a battery that can keep up with all those features which is a great let down. Nokia has wisely placed a good battery to cater all your needs. So you can freely tweet, browse, listen to music or navigate without too much worry on the battery. Thanks Nokia ! Thumbs up for that because my battery life is very questionable on my iPhone 3GS .
Nokia phones are a worthy investment these days. Great free services from Ovi for navigation, sharing, other softwares specifically designed by Nokia like Nokia Messaging, Point and Find, and many others makes it worth every penny. After all I’ve got to agree with the call quality on Nokia phones. Many companies have lost their focus these days. The primary use of a phone is to make calls and most phones today have call quality issues(dropped calls) even though they have many other features. But what good is a phone if it can’t make a proper call ??
The Bottom Line: N97 is a great multimedia/multitasking device. If you are one of those who like to stay connected 24/7 and share everything online then N97 has been designed just for you. This may not be the perfect device for the tech geeks as the phone is slightly slow when running large amount of apps. But this won’t be a problem to normal users as they may not have so many apps running at once.
The phone is really solid and feels great in your hands. And the sexy form factor will get all eyes on you(ok on your phone !) wherever you go
Please let us know your opinions by commenting below.
Nokia has made several Nseries device which had really shaken the market like the N73, N70 and of course the N95. N95 has been titled as one of the best phones Nokia has ever made. And we all agree with that. It’s true that since then we havent seen such a groundbreaking device then until Nokia released the N97. One of the highly anticipated device has been in the market for a while now. The N97 has bought for the first time a touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard combo for the first time in the Nokia stream of phones.
If that’s not just enough for you, then see if a Carl Zeiss 5MP camera with 30fps video recording or a life time NAVIGATION with voice for both Walk and Drive or a massive 32GB internal storage with extra room for a 16gb micro sd card can please you. These are just the highlights. Obviously, you will also see A-GPS, WLAN, BT, 3.5″ nHD screen and 3G HSDPA connectivity. There is nothing more you can ask on this device’s hardware.
And yeah, for the software side, N97 is powered with Symbian S60V5 OS. The s60v5 version is specifically designed for touchscreen phones and yeah Symbian unlike the iPhone OS is a multitasking beast. If you have already used symbian, then you will not find much differences with this version of OS except for larger buttons and slight tweaks. But on the N97 you will see some more changes which you might not see on any other S60v5 phones like the Widget HomeScreen. N97 is capable of having widgets on the homescreen which updates itself automatically to keep you in sync with the web. Widgets include those for mail, stocks, weather, facebook, twitter and more. You can see them all at one place.
All you need is wifi or data connection and the phone does the rest. You may also notice that, apart from the internet widgets you also have access to other widgets which lets you access the clock, calendar, change profile, access four main apps via shortcuts or even your four main contacts with full conversation history. Isn’t that amazing to do all this without even having to jump on to the menu ??? And yeah, if you wanna break from all these widgets with numbers and stuff, you can easily switch to basic homescreen which just shows you clock, calendar and the lovely wallpaper you have. Check out the demo below.
From the HomeScreen, you can get on to the menu through the beautifully placed, slightly tilted silver menu button(image below). The menu icons looks the same as other s60 phones. You also have the option here to rearrange the menu icons so that you can have your frequently used apps’ icon on top which will save you some time scrolling down.
Talking about scrolling, the N97 comes with fully integrated Kinetic Scrolling(FW v2.0 or higher). If this word is new to you, then you might wanna check out the video below. Some call this flick scrolling while some call it iPhone like scrolling. What makes this scrolling special is that it helps you to scroll up and down with just the flick of a finger for which earlier you had to drag the tiny slider on the right side of the menu. Iam sure it was a nightmare for those with fat fingers.
Calling and texting are simple as anything. Just tap on the dialer button on the homescreen, enter your number and Whoa ! Alternatively, you can choose a contact from contacts menu on the homescreen. However, one drawback we’ve seen is that the dialer pad does not have alphabets on it which can be little trouble if you wanna dial say 1800-400-SACHU 😉
As mentioned earlier, since symbian OS can multitask, you can access other apps on your phone while in a call. You can send sms, email, read tweets or continue browsing uaescoop.com 😉 In addition, you can conference call, hold or mute which are pretty much the basic stuffs.
Texting and MMS are also just as easy. You just have to enter the messaging menu and tap on write message. If you are a power texter, you can have homescreen shortcut which on tapping opens you the write message page directly. This is very handy when you are extremely busy.
This is the first menu that welcomes you when you tap on the messaging app. The first option is to write a message in text format. The writing page also contains the option to add media contents which when added converts the message to a multimedia text message. Inbox being the second in row has all your incoming messages. The messaging app has an email client built in. But we are not going to use it as it doesn’t support HTML. After all why should we use it when we have the popular Nokia Messaging app which we shall cover later. You can also view your sent messages and also you can keep track of messages you have sent if you are in a strict messaging plan. One great is that the ability to receive delivery reports. For Nokia users, its not great thing. But do you know iPhone doesn’t support it yet officially. The QWERTY keyboard can keep up with your typing speeds and is very easy to type. It’s very handy as typing on the touchscreen wont work all the time in all situations. So if you are one of those who sends large emails and texts this is the right device for you.
Tired of reading ?? Take a break and enjoy the video below:
Nseries device are famous for their multimedia capabilities and N97 is no exception. N97 performs way higher than user expectations. The gorgeous nHD 3.5″ display, the 32GB onboard memory, 5MP Camera, powerful speakers all add to the experience. Its almost a computer and you never have to delete any item. If you still find that space isn’t enough for you, don’t forget the additional 16GB card support which will bring up the total storage on the device upto a whopping 48GB.
Flipping through photos, music and videos are just a breeze. Almost all types of audio and images are supported on the device. You can also watch unlimited youtube videos through the dedicated client(Requires data connection). But we didn’t like about the gallery is browsing through them. Kinetic scrolling does help navigate easily, but the photos and videos are all mixed up. Though you have an option to sort it out, we would like the menu for it on the main page of gallery directly rather than going to options everytime. However you will notice some wisely placed touch buttons for sending, editing or even trashing.
Music player is really awesome. It really makes use of the 3.5″ display. All your songs just look as sweet as they sound with that gorgeous album art. And yeah, you can manually set it too which means it could be your picture under Britney’s song 😉
The UI is normal s60 looking but redesigned for touch access. You can also have a small music widget on Home Screen so that you can see which track is being played and a tap on it will take you to the Music Player.
Camera is another stunning feature of the N97. And yeah, its one of the 5mp camera phones I have tested. Videos also look great. But both fails to deliver high quality images or videos in low light. Thanks to the LED flash in the phone:-P There are a variety of option the camera gives you before you can start snapping/recording.
Web Browsing is a great experience on the N97. The big screen does really add to the browsing experience. One great feature of the browser is that it auto hides the address bar, navigation and the status bar when a page completes loading so that u can simply start panning or zooming around the page. The browser also supports flash unlike many other great browsers out there. You can have personalized bookmarks, username/password storage etc are all out of the box. Pages loaded faster and looked stunning. The always accessible Zoom button is a blessing. But sometimes zooming with it is too difficult.
is another awesome feature. Again the big 3.5″ display makes it a great device for navigation. So you can easily mount them in your car easily and you can intermittently look at the phone screen and road while driving. As mentioned, since its a big screen you dont have to strain yourself on to the screen while driving to know where you are which might cause some accidents. Recently, Ovi announced free Voice guided Navigation to make navigation easier and fun. The following services are provided by Ovi.
Applications are another blessing to this phone. To improve your touchscreen experience, developers have created plenty of fun, entertainment, utility apps etc. Not to mention Gravity for twitter, Nimbuzz etc are one of the best available. Sounds new? Don’t worry we have reviews coming up on them. Ovi store has almost all kinds of apps. So you will never walk out of the store without a new app in phone. Downloading apps are just as easy as tapping download button. The store client will do the rest. It will automatically download and install it to the phone. At the same time you can go about browsing another apps.
The only one question that arise in your mind would be, despite all these features, does the phone stay up all day long without requiring you to search for a charging outlet ?? Well, the answer is yes. There are many phones out there with plenty of features. But none of them has a battery that can keep up with all those features which is a great let down. Nokia has wisely placed a good battery to cater all your needs. So you can freely tweet, browse, listen to music or navigate without too much worry on the battery. Thanks Nokia ! Thumbs up for that because my battery life is very questionable on my iPhone 3GS :-(.
Nokia phones are a worthy investment these days. Great free services from Ovi for navigation, sharing, other softwares specifically designed by Nokia like Nokia Messaging, Point and Find, and many others makes it worth every penny. After all I’ve got to agree with the call quality on Nokia phones. Many companies have lost their focus these days. The primary use of a phone is to make calls and most phones today have call quality issues(dropped calls) even though they have many other features. But what good is a phone if it can’t make a proper call ??
The Bottom Line: N97 is a great multimedia/multitasking device. If you are one of those who like to stay connected 24/7 and share everything online then N97 has been designed just for you. This may not be the perfect device for the tech geeks as the phone is slightly slow when running large amount of apps. But this won’t be a problem to normal users as they may not have so many apps running at once.
The phone is really solid and feels great in your hands. And the sexy form factor will get all eyes on you(ok on your phone !) wherever you go 😉
Please let us know your opinions by commenting below.
It’s one of the most awaited features on your iPhone. Instead of your phone checking for email periodically which consumes a lot of data and battery, now you can have emails, contacts and calendar pushed on to your iPhone as and when they arrive. Here is our step by step guide.
1. Be sure to have the latest version of iPhone software. (Atleast version 3.0)
2. If already Gmail is configured, you may remove that.
3. Go to settings from Home Screen and choose Mail, Contacts and Calendar.
4. Now choose Add Account.
5. Choose Microsoft Exchange instead of Gmail. (Don’t worry, thats how it works !)
6. Now Enter your full Email address, Leave Domain BLANK. Enter your full Email address for username and Enter password.
7. Wait for a couple of seconds/minutes until your account is verified. A pop up will be displayed about certificate. Just accept it.
8. Now the server name will be asked. Be sure to enter “m.google.com” without double quotes and leave the Domain BLANK as before.
9. Yay. You are good to go. Just choose if you want your Contacts and Calendar to be synced. You will be asked if you want to keep your old contacts and Calendar entries. Just make your preference and enjoy Push services on your iPhone.
So if you are a Google Services User then you don’t anymore have to connect your iPhone on to your computer for syncing Contacts and Calendar.
Liked the post ?? Please rate, comment and share 😉
Mac geeks from 9to5 mac has found out some interesting news from the iPhone OS SDK 3.2 . Inside the telephone icons they have found two png files which is believed to be the video call icon for accepting and hanging video calls. So the next gen iphone will come with a front facing camera. Or this could be the support for ichat in current iPhones/iPad.
Microsoft has been making some poor softwares for a while now. Windows Vista, Internet Explorer and yeah the windows mobile OS etc were all a big failure for the fact that they were either slow, unappealing etc. And finally with Windows 7, Microsoft got back on track and sold millions of copies.
And now with Windows Phone 7, they are rocking the OS platform again. Even Steve Balmer during his keynote did say that 7 is a lucky number for Microsoft. The new version Windows Phone comes with a new UI which is completely different from it’s predecessors. If you are a Zune user, you might be little familiar with this UI. The phone also has xbox live integration which means gaming is also seriously considered(finally). But they did not announce anything about Navigation which was heavily rumored to debut with the OS. The same Zune software that will be used to connect phone to your desktop system. The question is what software will be used on MAC ??
Microsoft has not released a Zune Software for mac yet.
The video below shows the new UI. And yeah, the phone in the video may be the Zune Phone everybody is talking about 😉 (Keeping fingers crossed)
Enjoy the video and tell us if you like the new UI. New phones with Windows Phone 7 OS will be out only in late 2010 according to our sources.
HTC has again surprised us with some already leaked devices yet revealing some great features. The three new phones announced today were the legendary HTC Legend, HTC Desire and HTC HD mini which is a scaled down version of the HTC HD2. HTC LEGEND HTC DESIRE HTC HD2 MINI And for your convenience we […]
Excerpt only. No capture of this post’s full text survives in the Internet Archive; what appears above is the teaser its index page carried. Check every archived capture of this URL.
So the fight between mobile phone manufactures have geared up very well now. Current scenario not only demands a great hardware from manufacturers but also a powerful software with a lot of integrated services. If you are thinking about HTML email support or a powerful web browser, then you are wrong. These have become a must have in mobile phones and are not specially demanded as they are expected to be available right out of the box.
What is rocking the market now is NAVIGATION. Not just navigation, but navigation with voice and turn by turn directions. Navigation of this sort was previously a premium service but now its coming built in or available as software update for most devices from almost all the manufacturers.
To start with, let’s go with Android who was the first to bring Navigation with voice and turn by turn directions in to the Motorola Droid through their firmware 2.1 update. Currently, Google’s Nexus One comes with this service pre-installed. Other Android powered device like HTC Hero is also expected to get this feature soon.
We all know how cool is Google Maps. The detailed view, street view, satellite view are all awesome and navigation is very smooth as well. Those who do not own an Android phone still can enjoy all the features except voice guided navigation and turn by turn directions through Google maps for Nokia phones which can be downloaded from google.com/maps through your phone’s web browser.
But why Navigate without voice and turn by turn directions when Nokia already provides a solution for it. And that too forever ! Nokia recently announced their Navigation Service as free for ever through “The Big Ovi Announcement Online Event”. Ovi maps provide you the following services.
You can also choose from different languages for voice which is very helpful. The following devices are currently supported. Nokia X6 32GB, Nokia X6 16GB, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97, E72, E55, E52, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia 5230. More devices are being added.
Now the main players who are deprived of these services are Apple fan boys and the Windows Mobile Users.
Recent reports suggest that Windows Mobile 7 will come with free Navigation services but there are no strong evidences which indicates it. Google officials did say that they will release the same navigation app for iphone soon with all the services which Droid has. But no word has been heard on that after the release of Nexus One.
However, we have seen in November 09 a job listing from Apple calling iphone software engineers to develop a new map application. Apple said that they want to take maps to next level and asked to rethink how people used maps and found things. Apple also acquired the maps company Placebase which is a clear indication that there is maps app at work. But we are not sure when it will be available. Will it be introduced along with iPhone 4G or through the next software update ?
The Big Question is, which phone would you buy if Navigation is one of the primary feature you use. Comment below citing your reasons.
Its a video from telefonino.net It’s in Italian. So if you’re like me who cant follow the Italian, mute the video and play a rock music and enjoy the comparison.
Excerpt only. No capture of this post’s full text survives in the Internet Archive; what appears above is the teaser its index page carried. Check every archived capture of this URL.
Here is a video from Cnet. It’s the comparison between Google Nexus One Vs the Apple iPhone 3GS. Enjoy the video and tell us, which of these is your hero ??
Excerpt only. No capture of this post’s full text survives in the Internet Archive; what appears above is the teaser its index page carried. Check every archived capture of this URL.
