Iphone 3G makes its Indian Debut

Its been quite a while since many here have been waiting for the official launch of the iPhone. After over an year, the iPhone made its way to the Indian market on the 22th of August. There was quite a fuss even before its pricing was announced due to Apple's strategy to tie-up with Vodafone and Airtel, whether they were actually trying to come up with a similar plan as with AT&T, would it be subsidised?, its operator specific carrier lock and many more doubts prevailed.

Finally when the price was announced just a couple of days before the launch, many people who were serious of buying the iPhone were terribly disappointed to say the least. Mainly, because Apple had famously launched the 3G version with advertisements saying 'Half the price, double the speed'. Iphone which was considered to be expensive for $199 itself, for the fact that AT&T's plan for many was a rip off. People here had no idea about how plans work there were expecting a similar pricing for the Indian market as well, but it came as a shock that it was almost 3 times the price they claimed the 3G to be.

There were people even trying to justify the price . One article I read, Iphoneindiablog.com has come up with a detailed explanation as to why its better to buy the iPhone in India. Even if it makes sense that after a couple of years we might eventually end up paying the same price, we are quite acquainted paying monthly rentals rather than paying it all in one go. I am not sure if Apple's got any intentions of reducing the price, but for sure once the initial excitement is gone, the iPhone would definitely not become as popular as the iPod. With several competitors pushing their R&D's hard to compete with the iPhone, its going to be tough atleast here in India when people look for phones with maximum utilities.

Atleast for me who was waiting so long for the iPhone, am in two minds just because of the price, not about affordability, but just hoping Apple to change the way the go about things. The entire concept of iTunes, Appstore et all will take time to get used to, to make full use of the features the phone has to offer, no point having a pen when there's nothing to write on....

Google's new Browser -- Finally !!

Google have finally launched their Web browser called 'Chrome', there have been rumours for a long time now about Google's browser, their OS and a so called Google Phone. Not sure, how true the other two are but am sure that Google are coming up in a huge way particularly targeting the likes of Microsoft.

For people who use a lot of internet, the browser is so important. You look for simple things in a browser which can help you in your browsing experience, I am sure a lot of people switched to firefox for its ease and for the Add-ons available for almost anything to do with a browser. Google has certainly lived up to its hype in creating a browser.

The Chrome has a lots of simple yet powerful features.

First of all its open source and it has a embedded JVM.

Other notable features are its entire new look tabs, a feel of a bigger page (no menu bar), theres something what Google calls the Omnibox, which is an Address bar, but does much more than what a FireFox or an IE address bar does, it is like the 'Auto-suggest' feature in Google search, it will literally suggest you a large quantity of things, making your browsing experience even better. As a matter of fact it will suggest you: sites you have not visited yet, sites you have already visited, popular website and more. It also lets you type keywords which will be associated to specific websites speaking about the topic you wish to read.

The Home Page of the Chrome is something which is very useful, well thought of feature, it lists your most frequently visited pages as a 9 screenshot thumbnail, more likely than not you might click one of them, and the best part is all your bookmarks are also part if the home screen, your bookmarks are displayed as a list in the right of the page.

Theres something called the 'Incognito' mode in the Chrome, meaning ultra safe browsing, you no longer have to worry about any cookies, harmful websites, etc. Your computer will be left untouched in this mode.

Also the browser speed seems to be faster than Firefox, downloading is integrated within the browser, which makes browsing really simple.

People used to Google will love the browser for its ease of use, some exciting features and of course the Google factor. In days to come I am sure the Chrome will provide stiff competition to Firefox and IE. I somehow like the Safari as well, but it took sometime to get used to the browser as there are some basic differences which makes you uncomfortable for a while, but I should say Chrome is something anyone can figure out the first time they use it.

People running on windows, do give it a try...Mac users got to wait for some more time

Download Chrome here