Nine Days Wonder

In the end of 20th century, the one who was responsible for PC revolution in the whole world; the one one who was the driving force for the IT evolution…its the Bill Gates! Now at the age of only  52, he has retired from Microsoft, the company he co-founded with Paul Allen.

Gates has leaved Microsoft in crucial time when it is facing a stiff competition from the now software giant, Google. The competition rules for the desktop environment that Microsoft had dominated since the last few years, have changed. The situation has changed..the focus is now on Cloud computing; thanks to the easy availability of Internet on the PC as well as on mobiles. Today, a mobile is more than just a communication device.

Though Bill Gates retires, he will still be the Board Chairman and taking important company decisions. He is going off to spend more time on his philanthropy, the Bill and melinda Gates Foundation. His legacy will be remembered forever. Here is my tribute to him through this wallaper.

The first 24 hours the web browser was available the software was downloaded more than eight million times, says its creator Mozilla.

The attempt to set the download record was scheduled to begin at 1300 PST (2000 GMT) on 17 June. However, the record attempt was almost wrecked from the start as the servers handling the downloads collapsed under the weight of visitors checking to see if new version was available.

Once the servers were up and functioning normally the record attempt began.

At their busiest the servers were handling more than 9,000 downloads per minute. Within five hours the number of downloads for Version 3.0 exceeded the 1.6 million set by Firefox 2.0 in October 2006.

In total Firefox 3.0 was downloaded 8.3 million times over the 24 hour record setting period. The figure beats the five million Mozilla predicted before the day.

Read more: BBC News

After recent announcement by Apple, 3G iPhone has stirred the world again. Reactions in India were nothing different. It is said to have all the revolutionary features of the previous version plus a 3G for faster Internet, A-GPS and a software update which supports Microsoft Active Exchange and can run hundreds of 3rd party applications. It will be available on July,11 in 22 countries with a price tag of $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB one.

Apple worshippers and tech-savvies have been waiting for the arrival of this much-hyped monster. After all its an Apple product and anything that Apple makes is revolutionary. Ah..well, not completely, IMO. I agree it gives pretty good feel and has great user Interface with multitouch. Viewing videos on iPhone is a nice experience on the 480x320px screen.

The cons: no video recording, no MMS, no A2DP, no choice of carrier! I can’t understand why a revolutionary phone with such high standards doesn’t have a video recording facility by default. iPhone Video Recorder is able to do that but the quality is cheap. MMS is a question of individual as not everyone uses MMS these days, but still its not out of fashion. Bluetooth is not completely functional. No cannot transfer file on bluetooth, no synchronization and no A2DP. iPhone is limited to only specific carrier. Ofcourse, you can unlock it for other carriers too. But unlocking the 3G model is not easy atleast until now. You will have to activate it in the store itself and not online. Also whenever you have an update from Apple, they relock your iPhone.

Airtel and Vodaphone will be the official network operators for iPhone in India. They are yet to announce the launch date and pricing. Speculations about the price of iPhone in India is in full swing. According to some iPhone will cost somewhere near 9000 rupees as Steve Jobs himself said, it will cost nothing more than $199. Did you really thought iPhone has become this cheap? What aboutimport duties, customs, taxes?? .. and thats not all, you will be tied with a 1 or 2 year contract. This is called subsidization. Add to that the Internet usage charges and premium data rates. You have to also shell out some bucks for premium features And about Airtel and Vodaphone, they haven’t even rolled out 3G yet.aaand their EDGE services are still not good. $199 seems cheap, but in the long run, it will cost you a bomb.

For those going behind only the multi-touch and aesthetics, it will be a nine days wonder. So be careful before you buy iPhone.