iPad 2 now available in India, starts at 29,500 Rs for Wifi version and 36,900 for 3g version

ScreenHunter 02 Apr

 

Apple finally has launched its iPad 2 in India, at reasonable prices of 29,500 for the Wifi version and 36,900 for the 3g version which is quite competitive to Samsung’s tablet prices and also to Apple’s USA pricing.

In the USA the same version is available at 499$ and with about 8-10% tax that works out to ~ 525$ which in Indian money roughly translates to 24,675 bucks assuming a dollar is 47 bucks. This does not include shipping costs and is applicable only for USA store pickups and Apple online purchases.

ScreenHunter 01 Apr

 

Still the Indian version has roughly about 20% more cost making it viable to purchase one from USA directly if you know someone there. But if you need warranty for a year, immediate pickup and instantaneous nirvana, head to a Croma, or eZone or Staples store or very much to the Apple authorized iMAGINE stores and pick up the iPad right here!

With a super fast dual core A5 processor, roughly about 512MB RAM and FaceTime HD, 10 hours battery that would probably last much longer if you switch off that Wifi, and iPad Smart cover at an extra 2000 bucks, the tablet war really starts to heat up for Samsung, Acer, Asus, Motorola (if they really care about India anymore).

ScreenHunter 03 Apr

 

Apple’s main competitor remains Samsung though they collaborate within for supplies of memory chips and at lawsuit trials elsewhere! It is to be seen how Samsung prices its 10.1″ Android Honeycomb tablet in comparison to this latest salvo from Apple.

Also heating up the atmosphere would be the impending iMAC refresh with thunderbolt port, and Sandy bridge Intel core i5 processor line which will retain Apple’s products as the most powerful and easy to use for some time to come. The cost is always a question, but then to own something beautiful, one should not be too iffy about cost factor isn’t it ?

Note that its only a matter of time before HDFC, ICICI, Barclays, SBI and Citibank jump into the experience to offer the iPad 2 on EMI schemes which makes it all the more easier to own one!

(all images courtesy apple website)

 

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The phenomenon – part two

I noticed this article from the times of india, which captured the essence of Koramangala through the mind of Balbir Singh, the owner of Koramangala.com.

Around 17 years ago, Koramangala was nothing short of a pocket of villages. For every small purchase, we had to drive down to Brigade Road. Instances where a Koramangalite would go outdoors after 7 pm were sparse. It was unsafe and autorickshaw drivers always refused to come to Koramangala. This place was dead," says Balbir Singh, who quit his job in the printing & packaging industry to launch the portal koramangala.com along with his wife Amrit Sethi.

Way back in 1984, if someone went out after 7pm, there was no guarantee of him returning home be it a kid or an adult. The biggest set of marshy land regions included what is now the National Games Village, and ST Bed (behind the Maharaja hotel).  Everything beyond that were just groves and groves of cocount trees which could trap an unassuming individual if he trespassed into an unending maze of no-return. From our home, we could see the Mantons crane factory (today otherwise called Raheja Arcade), and St.John’s hospital. While the first five years of my stay did not see anyone owning a television set in Koramangala, after that stage the first few black and white sets started arriving on the scene. Chitrahaar, Chitramanjari, Vartegalu, Blockbuster movies, and the famous moon mission by Rakesh Sharma – were some of the things that raked in crowds. Hordes of children descended on the only house(s) that had TVs and settled down like we were one family, with one goal – watch TV.

Open spaces, tall grasses, St John’s Hospital, service roads and, yes, cows. Nobody thought this quiet suburb would be transformed so much. It was more like a brick & mortar village with the typical ration shops around it," recollects Santhosh Kumar, an HR professional, who has been residing in Koramangala since 1984

The Koramangala club membership was a near miss for my father. To keep up the socializing habit, the membership was offered at a mere 500 bucks which those days amounted to a monthly salary of people living there. The founder members had to pitch in about 2000 bucks each with which they would build what is otherwise today called the Koramangala Club with a mind boggling membership amount running into lakhs of rupees.

The entire set of people living in Koramangala 6th Block used to play badminton, shuttle, ring, kho-kho and what not and this included all the adults in each family. Boy, it was such a pleasure to be living here. After my dad, I was the next undisputed badminton champ out here. The next ten years was sheer bliss upto 1995. The locality slowly gained ground in terms of development, and infrastructure to support the growing population was slowly being put in place. Post offices, schools, bus stops, banks, water tanks, electricity board offices, small shops to meet the grocery needs.

Some of the famous names to do business with were Krishna medicals, Vaishnavi stores for stationery (and those new famous pens and pencils), fashion center (for your clothing needs), modern stores and balaji stores (for groceries). The only good hotels years down the line were Sukh sagar, and Utsav Veg. Bethany and Neena schools were the only schools that have withstood the test of time for over 25 years now. So much so was the nostalgia that I can say I could reach my school as the crow flies (diagonally) from my home.

1995 was ushering in the software era, into india, into bangalore, into koramangala in full swing. This was the turning point for the poshness of the locality to start exposing itself. In full glory. for the next ten years. Few of the earliest names to move into Koramangala were Wipro and Infosys.

The phenomenon was now being created.

the Recommendation disease on linkedin

 

Most of you who use linked in would have definitely come across the raging recommendation disease. Note what I said just now. The issue is not with recommendation, but its actually with cross recommendation or the I-recommend-you-and-you-recommend-me-back syndrome. Here is an example from one of the people I have worked with which I did not expect.

linkedin

Well, I think personally linkedin must ban this kind of cross recommendation even if it is genuine. This dilutes the very notion of a recommendation. I just dont understand what people think when they resort to this technique. Do they think every such cross recommendation would mean getting a job easily? In fact contrary to that notion these kind of cross recommendations actually dilute the perception about the two parties involved in such recommendations.

Any recommendation must be at actuals typically either from a leader, about the people who he worked with, or a genuine recommendation that an individual wants to provide about a person who according to him has leadership qualities that are beyond par for that role.

However this increasing trend of the recommendation disease is beginning to cast a doubt over the quality of linkedin and subsequently the people who are using it as well. With linkedin also tying up with twitter and perhaps facebook in someway, a real dilution of a professional network is only days away.

One can already notice the effects when linked in updates say things like – “… is reading a book on how to conquer the world”, “….is wondering about the next biggest technology and how it impacts his life” and so on.

Its about time linkedin also introduces an at actual feedback system where one can talk about what are the improvement areas that a person being recommended can concentrate upon. Since this would be chronological, people reading this can always judge how many years have elapsed since such a recommendation and whether the recommended person would have had a scope to effect such an actual improvement in his daily routines.