Big TV DTH has started its operations since Aug 19th for the public. It will be competing with already well established players in the market like Dish TV, Tata Sky and Sun Direct. Similar to Sun Direct, Big TV DTH will be using the (MPEG-4) technology. This is advantageous in many ways. Compressed data files transmitted through satellite using MPEG-4 technology will result in a high definition platform, which in turn will have better quality. However, the price of the set-top boxes will be higher for the customers.
Though Big TV has announced that it is offering close to 200 channels including 11 radio channels and 32 cinema channels. Apart from this, customer has an option to opt for a subscription based Video on Demand service. one of the feature that caught my attention on Big TV advertisement include Picture-in-Picture (PIP) that would enable viewers to watch twelve TV channels at the same time on any TV set in the country! Another advantage with Big TV seem to be the availability of all sports channels. This is not the case with Sun direct or few other operatiors.
To pull more information about this Big TV, i tried accessing their site. The site is down most of the times. May be due to heavy traffic, however site up is a big challenge for any business and they should have prepared better for it. Though I was able to access the site, it is not in a good shape to view on any browser except Internet Explorer. Site design is pathetic and I can see a lot of usability issues. Certainly the site is not as user friendly as other DTH players sites. If Big TV needs to compete with the rest, they certainly need to revamp their site first!
For more information, it is better to approach their sound distribution network. There are 1 lakh retail outlets including over 240 Reliance World and 2000 Reliance Mobile Stores. What ever the case is, BIG TV DTH seem to be committed towards delivering the cheapest DTH services in India. I have no doubt that they will bring in a DTH revolution like they proved themselves in mobile service market. Good days ahead for those people who are still on conventional cable networks and planning to switch over to DTH :)
Yesterday Yahoo! announced the launch of new product “Y! Buzz” being open to everyone. I got the mail early this morning (IST) today and I have put this Buzz button on my blog… see below. If you are interested in getting a million traffic a day or more, you should consider adding Buzz buttons to your blog or submit your articles to buzz to get them buzzed up!
This is what Yahoo! says about BUZZ on its corporate blog:
Anything you find on the Web is now buzzable. Any of the Web’s best current event stories, gossip, photos, videos and more can be submitted and shared on Yahoo! Buzz. You’ve already seen the “Buzz Up” buttons on many of your favorite sites, including New York Times, Us Weekly and BoingBoing. Now, as any site is able to add our button, you’ll have even more places to buzz to your heart’s content.
Feel free to add Yahoo! Buzz buttons on your blog/site and get more traffic to your site. Adding buzz buttons is very simple and shortly, I will write a Wordpress plugin to add Buzz buttons for all posts on your WordPress blog.. Watch out this space for more!
Nokia released its new model N96 in India yesterday with high media coverage. There has been a big time comparison of Nokia N96 Vs iPhone 3G. The journalists call the N96 the “iPhone killer”. To figure out more information, I did a bit of search on net and this is what I found.
|
|
Apple iPhone 3G |
Nokia N96 |
|
Max data speed |
1.8mbps on HSDPA |
3.6mbps on HSDPA |
|
User Interface |
Multitouch UI |
S60 v3 FP2 |
|
Thickness |
12.3mm |
20mm |
|
Weight |
133g |
125g |
|
Display |
3.5” multitouchscreen |
2.8” |
|
Screen resolution |
480×320 |
240×320 |
|
Camera |
2 megapixel |
5 megapixel with Dual LED flash |
|
Battery life |
10 hours on GSM |
3.67 hours on GSM |
|
Web browser |
Safari |
S60 browser |
|
GPS |
Yes, A-GPS |
Yes, A-GPS, Maps application |
|
Bluetooth |
Limited to handsfree device |
Full fledged connectivity |
|
Replaceable Battery |
No, ship back to apple store |
Yes |
|
Entertainment |
No Video capture, No FM, Supports SMS, MMS, E-mail, Instant Messaging, Push e-mail, IM |
Supports Video Capture, SMS, MMS, E-mail and FM Radio |
|
Price (in India) |
~INR 31,000 (8GB) |
~INR 35,000 |
As you know, N96 is the first ever mobile device to offer a memory size of 16GB expandable to 32 GB through an external micro SD card (Hot Swap Supported!). You could store more than 60 hours of videos and movies with high quality.
You may be amazed at iPhone’s trendy looks and features. But think if you really need to go for one as it doesn’t support Bluetooth(see above). Out of the box you can only use Bluetooth to connect to a hands-free headset, so no A2DP stereo Bluetooth, file transfers or internet sharing. Pictures you take can be emailed to friends, but not sent directly to another mobile device. Similarly, there is no video capture and FM radio. Coming to price, both are priced crazy! On top of this, there will be data subscription charges from the telecom service providers.. Do you really need one of these?
