A lot has been made up for Google Chrome OS and it’s notebook. It transpires that Samsung and Acer would manufacture laptops for chrome OS.

Is cloud computing inherently better than the “offline model” we have come to rely on? If the recent Amazon outage is any indication, I would prefer not to stick with it. In the same vein, I prefer my data to stay with me.

However, there is a huge business opportunity lurking behind such an initiative. Manufacturers in India (for netbooks/laptops/tablets) are dependent on Microsoft for a tapered down version of it’s utterly useless operating system. They could have easily sponsored a home grown “Indian initiative” for Linux and installed it on a bare bones hardware with Wifi and 3G connectivity. I reckon that using ARM processors, a basic display unit with a keyboard would suffice the price limit of around $200-250. It can be done.

One doesn’t need dual cores to run the fancy software; in any case, I hardly use the computing power at my disposal. But there was no choice in the market. Antix (a derivative of SimplyMepis) or even Arch Linux are good enough alternatives (not to forget Fluxbox and XFCE or E17) as the alternative desktop platforms to power the applications.

The telecom companies could have easily subsidized the model, charging it in their monthly bills. A win win situation. An operating system free of any hassles and companies get to spread the hardware with bundled data plans. I had earlier explored the same option but I guess the fancy CEO’s (who are glorified assholes anyway), are not interested in the blurb.

So you’d find the Vodafone Zoozoo enticing people to try out 3G in a market where computing is still a luxury and smartphones market sorely limited.

Thats stupidity compounded by assholism (of the extreme); because crores are being spent on advertising to milk the few customers who venture to buy out the expensive data plans.

Blah blah blah.

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• Google announces Chromebooks: Chrome OS powered notebooks (venturebeat.com)
• Google floats monthly subscriptions to Chrome OS notebooks (go.theregister.com)
• Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15 (fakeiitian.com)
• SlashGear 101: Google Chromebook (slashgear.com)
• First Google Chrome OS Notebooks Available June 15 (mashable.com)
• Google Chrome OS “Student package” notebook for $20 tipped imminent (slashgear.com)
• Don’t Expect Google Chrome OS on Tablets Anytime Soon (mashable.com)
• Google Announces Expensive Web-Only ‘Chromebooks’ (techland.time.com)
• More Chromebooks from Google; Chrome OS, Web Store updates too (arstechnica.com)
• Samsung, Acer to Debut Chrome OS Notebooks In June (louisgray.com)

Tags: 3G, Advertising, Amazon, Arch Linux, Assholes, Broadband, Browsers, CEO, Computing, Desktop Browsers, Digital Divide, FOSS, Google, Google Chrome, India, Internet Access Devices, laptop, Linux, Microsoft, Netbooks, Open Source and Access, Opera, operating system, Proprietary Software, Smartphones, smartphones, Tablets, tag, Value Added Services (VAS), Vodafone, Vodafone, web store, Wifi

Well, it could be the big news. I have always felt about the lackadaisical coverage in the Indian media about Broadband. If a ‘media watch’ blog is right, this could well explain why media hasn’t run after the Government of the day; chasing it like a mad dog running after a car.

To quote:

Not so long ago, a much-feared Indian publisher who shall go unnamed wanted the broadband expansion in India to be slowed down because, well, it would woo readers away from his newspaper to the world wide web.

However, Times of India has a vested interest to promote Broadband now. In a blatant attempt to publicize it’s web property (a cesspool of stinking crap called as Indiatimes), it has carried a series of “news” mentioning about why “Cricket is fun online”. Of course, it’s juvenile attempt from Times but important nevertheless. Their attempts are going to face an iron wall of crap connectivity on Indian soil.

One word. Assholes.

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• Mobile Content: Where the f*** it is? (broadbandblog.in)
• 11 million broadband subscribers in India: Nov 2010 (mahesh.com)
• Rural Internet usage on rise in India, will this help language usage? (mahesh.com)
• ‘Fastest’ broadband faces test (lv.com)
• Broadband statistics in India for 2010 (mahesh.com)
• Indian Media & Entertainment Industry crosses USD 14 bn, advertising spends grow by 17%! (trak.in)
• Slow broadband problematic for business insurance holders? (premierlinedirect.co.uk)
• Surprise, Surprise! India among the top 3 in the world in broadband growth! (trak.in)

Tags: Advertising, Assholes, Broadband, Broadband, Digital Divide, DTH, India, Internet, Mainstream media, Media, Mobile, Times of India, USD, World Wide Web

Of course. First and the foremost. We lack a credible infrastructure to speak off. Telecom equipment could have sparkled a “revolution”; got the manufacturing instead of services job in the economy. Detractors to this statement would allege, for obvious reasons that jobs are nevertheless being created; but it is the manufacturing that counts for a robust economy. This has been mentioned in the previous posts so I wouldn’t comment on this issue again.

 

In the same vein, broadband has been given a complete miss. In some recent telecom conference, the same issue was raised with assholes patting themselves on their back about “mythical 100 million” users. Telecom is a very dynamic field; it is impossible to nail down the exact number of subscribers unless you have strict defined criteria for what constitutes an active connection and the user who has fallen off the grid. Nil. Nada.

 

3G has been a monumental waste of resources (indirectly your money, you assholes); for all your crowing about the “world class data services”, these companies are sticking up a sore thumb up your ass. In terms of indirect taxes, huge mark ups on the tariff plans, advertising costs and pathetic end result to consumers (who likes caps on the broadband, you sissies), consumer is the end looser.

The reason why everyone jumped on the “3G bandwagon” was because of spectral efficiencies and not otherwise. No one likes dropped calls; 3G is going to ameliorate that. This also gave the companies a reason to upgrade their ancient infrastructure and opening up the backdoors for “real time snooping”.

 

Hence, these three issues are the most “rattling issues”, in my opinion. They are unlikely to be addressed in fancy documentations, “think tanks”, myriad “research firms” and others because none of them seem to have a fundamental grasp on the issues. So for all those morons who whimper on the forums about “lack of services”, you are unlikely to see any major change coming this year either.

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• India telecom changes proposed (bbc.co.uk)
• India min says M&A norms for telcos need to be liberal (reuters.com)
• India’s former telecom minister officially charged (marketwatch.com)
• Is the telecom party in India over? (trak.in)
• ‘Raja manipulated Telecom Commission’ (hindu.com)
• Mobile Fair-India telecoms gear boom seen surviving scandal (reuters.com)

Tags: 3G, Advertising, Assholes, Broadband, data services, India, manufacturing, Mobile, real time snooping, Telecommunications India, TRAI