The fourth beta of Opera Mini has been released.Amazingly, this is just a 90kb download thingy and brings forth desktop like capability on your handsets.

I am no big fan of Wireless Internet and have long held belief that tiny screens make no sense to “surf” because it’s as good as useless trying to focus on something through that. However, given the state of Broadband access, the wireless Internet via mobiles would definitely grow. And it makes sense for the operators to market their data plans effectively.

It is in the Indian context that likes of Opera Mini are enough to generate excitement. There are a huge number of blogs out there who have mentioned about their “wow” experience (not to be confused with Vista). A browser like Opera Mini would ease the pains of “browsing” to a considerable extent as compared to the present generation sucky “browsers”.

For the technical minded, Opera Mini works by pushing your web address to Opera’s servers and it compresses the web page to render it effectively on the mobile screens. There have been concerns about privacy; I feel that most of the accessed web pages are definitely kept as a “back up” for “data mining” or to correlate the preferences. I am not aware of their backend operations but then it’s a matter of trust. You do keep a back up of your email online. Imagine something like Hotmail! Trusting Microsoft?

Apart from the privacy concerns, Opera Mini actually allows to blog, surf, catch up with RSS feeds et al just like your desktop browser. This, in my opinion, is a great thing to happen because it literally opens up a vast range of possibilities. It would make it easier to develop applications like widgets et al and engaging content. Apple’s iPhone was crowing about the “zoom feature” of Safari on their handsets. This, I am told, came in from Opera’s version for Wii.

Internet is all pervasive and atleast in the “developed” part of the world, embedded browsers make sense to access Internet.

I got an email from the Opera team asking me to blog about this once the new version is out. They had specifically requested me to put up the banners online to promote their product. This is in a way a small contribution to the efforts being put in by many others in order to spread the word. indeed, Opera is the only closed source application on my desktop. This does go against my own professed claims of Open Source alone and nothing else. However, the open source “clone” Firefox sucks to the max and it makes no sense to invest my time and energy and to make it work by extensions.

Interestingly, there is no open source alternative to mobile browsers either, as good as Opera.

You could check out Opera Mini simulator in order to check the compatibilty for your web enabled handset. There is an explosion of interest online about this new application. Opera Watch links to various other blog sites around the world.

Further, if you like the application, please do consider spreading the word around.

Further details of the features on Opera Watch.

I must admit that I don’t have a data enabled handset; nevertheless, it might make sense buying one given the exciting application like Opera Mini.

Tags: Broadband, Broadband access, handsets, India, Internet, iPhone, Microsoft, Mobile, Mobiles, Open Source, Opera, Opera Mini, privacy, Telecommunications India, Twitter, Vista, Wireless

I would take a break from the regular broadband bashing and instead focus on the new imminent release of Ubuntu Linux, code named as Feisty Fawn. With cutting edge software, Ubuntu’s version promises to be better than ever before by incorporating huge support for Wireless networking cards, on demand installation of codecs and Windows migration tools.

For long, the manufacturers had not released their drivers and most of the wireless drivers had been “hacked” and made backward compatible to the network cards in laptops or desktops. This only translated into user frustration and hence a bad name for Linux when it was never it’s fault. Much of the reduntant hardware is now supported out of the box with Linux and much credit goes to the community who have collaborated on the development of the drivers to support it.

Why should you shift to Linux? Windows XP is being retired from early next year in order not to cannibalise the sales of Windows Vista. This means that you would have to pay the price for overpriced software and hardware in order to run the same. Windows has incorporated Digital Rights Management systems which infact cripples the music or content that you wish to play on your systems. Which is totally unfair for a simple reason. If you have paid for the content, then using it should be your prerorgative and not otherwise. Even otherwise, the end user license agreement with Microsoft means that they are the owners of the operating system that you have paid your hard earned money for. You don’t effectively own your own system!

Most of us don’t realise the potential implications of privacy concerns while dealing with an evil corporation. Microsoft has activated encrypted back channels which communicate the specifications of your computer to the Redmond. This was subject of much debate in recent times and this assertion has not been proved yet. Still, it makes no sense to shift to the so called “Aero interface” which is a rip off from Mac OS desktop. Seriously, beyond the eye candy, it is of no use to an average computer user.

Arguably, there is not much of a demand for Linux systems because people are not aware of the same. Ubuntu promises to change that. You could go on their home page and order free CD’s for yourself. You can tweak the source code in case you wish to add functionality. Installing this operating system on any standard hardware is a breeze and the whole process takes about 40 minutes flat. For any Windows user, the difference would be stark. And free of the restrictions imposed on us otherwise. You don’t unnecessary drivers for your digital cameras, your USB sticks, Printers et al. Much of the hardware is supported out of the box. Just plug and play.

Ubuntu has everything going for it. The forums have become better and if you post the query in the right place, someone would surely respond to the same. Apart from this, Ubuntu has an active India chapter with a dedicated Wiki. You could catch someone from the team online on the IRC (Join the Ubuntu support and discussion IRC channel: #ubuntu-in on irc.freenode.net) and they would go all out to answer and fix your queries if any. (Freenode’s FAQ answers your queries in case you wish to join them) Or you could join their mailing lists. Help is never away and all you need is your working Internet connection. (Here is another link from the Ubuntu India Wiki website which details as to how you could configure your Broadband in Ubuntu )

No other system provides the ease of use as Ubuntu Linux does. Arguably, Linux has it’s hitches (command line terminal may be intimidating for a newbie)- however, the best way to learn swimming is to get into water. Moreover, the graphical user interface takes care of most of the adminstrative work. You may not even ever need the command line (just like the DOS of yore but infinitely advanced and addictive!) Installing software is a matter of few clicks. You could check out excellent Ubutu Guide online which details everything step by step for a total newbie.

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn makes it’s debut on April 19th when it would be released to the public via it’s servers. You could directly download or use torrents. For those who donot have a stable Internet connection, you could order the CD’s to be shipped from it’s home page. FREE.

I have finally made the switch to Gnome; I am waiting for the KDE 4 release. KDE 4 promises to revolutionise the desktop experience; but till then I wanted something different and fresh from the old and trusty desktop that I have been using for the past three years. Arguably, Gnome has become better from it’s previous avatars but it still suffers from unintuitive interface;it’s a matter of getting used to it. It is lighter on system resources as compared to KDE but that is not the sole argument in it’s favour. I still use KDE’s applications like Amarok (cannot be a better music player than this) and KTorrent for my torrent needs. Gnome still has to come up with something better than them. Using Gnome or KDE desktops is a personal preference and you can use both depending on your mood or preference.

Here’s hoping that more users would want to know about Ubuntu and Linux in general. You could head over to the IRC channels or the Ubuntu Forums; there are thousands others like you who have discovered the joys of using free and open source software.

(There are many other distros; however, my current favourite is Ubuntu Linux. It is free; they send over the CD’s free to your place; installing programmes is a snap; it is based on Debian which is the most stable version of Linux and it has an excellent support forum. Further, it has a predictable 6 monthly release with commitment to support your installed version for atleast 3 years (long term release) and 5 years for the server installs before you need upgrading to the newer versions. And it promises to remain free for ever).

Update: Surprise surprise. I just cross posted this on Desicritics. I never expected that this article would make it to digg! And at the last count, I got 198 diggs! That’s cool. Thanks one and all! In case you could help, please do consider posting it across. I have sent across the article to Ubuntu to be included in their monthly magazine. Let’s hope that they would consider it for the next months release. I shall keep you posted about it!

If only I could get the same exposure for highlighting the Broadband mess!

Tags: Broadband, EDGE, GUI, India, Internet, laptop, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Opera, operating system, privacy, Telecommunications India, Torrents, Vista, Windows, Wireless

One of the most promising applications of broadband is convergence. Basically it’s the voice and data in one pipe. There have been many promises made so far about the “potential”; however, there has been no clear cut direction from TRAI. Witness the unholy mess in DTH sector (which could bring about convergence in real terms by upgrading the bandwidth alloted to it), we are absolutely rudderless.

Broadband could be the potential trojan but only if and when the telecom companies scale up. The biggest stumbling block isn’t the content in my opinion, it is the hardware to play the goodies. In order to capture the market, I am sure the Indians are going to rely on cheap Chinese imports giving no REAL choice the consumer. Take it or fucking leave it. Witness what BSNL has been shoving down our throats. In similar vein, the DTH operators are giving their ‘co-branded’ crap hardware which neither excites nor exude any confidence for it’s utility.

Reliance is planning to tie up with Microsoft (or perhaps it has- the exact details elude me) for the content delivery via it’s Entertainment players. Microsoft is “evil” and I am sure Reliance would be shooting itself behind it’s puckered hole (often associated with an ass) for handling consumer complaints. It would enable them to set up centralised servers to stream content via telephone wires ( I can’t think of any other way) to the televisions. Computers are a significant minorty and are still aspirational symbols for majority of Indians.

In part, this post was “motivated” by Robert Cringley’s write up on Apple’s strategy to dominate the entertainment market in the near future and absence of any equivalent response from Microsoft. The winds of change and content delivery via iTunes store format still has to make it’s debut in India. Majority of the venture capital funded start ups have failed to make any significant dent.

Content would basically mean “bollywood” crap being dished out or the inane Star Plus serials. Hence it all depends on the marketing and strategising content delivery platforms.

In the increasingly ‘me-too’ market, the competitors would have to ensure something “different”. I would part on Robert Cringley’s write up on Apple’s strategy via iTunes, VoIP (and teleconferencing) and Microsoft’s failure to capitalise on convergence. This has a relevance to India too; any one would want to “socialise”.

….Now what about that USB port on the back of each iTV box? Giving his tour of the gizmo last week, Jobs rushed right past the USB port. What could that port be for? It’s not for a USB hard drive, that’s for sure, because the key brain in this system is back in your Mac or PC and its very large hard drive. Nor will Apple (immediately) enable the iTV to act as a digital video recorder, because that might step on TV network toes before Apple is ready to do so. The USB port is clearly intended for an Apple iSight camera, a webcam to go with your HDTV. It’s iChat for Grandma.

This is the heart of Apple’s emerging communication strategy. I was tempted to write “voice-over-IP strategy,” except that wouldn’t have been correct. For Jobs, this particular road less traveled is about video conferencing, not voice. VoIP is replacing a $20 phone with a $1,000 computer. What Apple has in mind is creating an entirely new form of computing experience, but this time — because it will take place mainly on a TV and not on a computer — many users may not think of it as a computing experience at all.

What has to be especially satisfying about this plan for Apple is that there is literally no response even possible from its greatest competitor — Microsoft. The level of technical sophistication and application integration required to make this work is beyond Microsoft within the next year or five years from now. So where Windows Vista will bring a variety of older Apple OS features to the PC desktop, Apple’s Leopard will go far past the desktop metaphor altogether and introduce friggin’ TELEPORTATION.

Tags: API, Broadband, BSNL, Chinese, Computing, DTH, India, Indians, Media, Microsoft, Opera, Reliance, Telecommunications India, TRAI, venture capital, video conferencing, Vista, Windows