3G(3^rd Generation) is going to be the next revolution in the communication arena in India. So it’s important that non techie mobile users in India must understand the advantages and features of 3G.

This article is written in the simplest way possible to educate the common man  about 3G . If you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to send me an email.

What is 3G in simple words?

3G is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications which includes Services like wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates up to 14.0 Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s on the uplink (These speeds are not standard and may vary depending on the providers). This means you can watch TV , talk to your buddies via Skype, watch streaming high quality videos, attend a video conference on your mobile phone without experiencing time delay even while you are travelling!

3G Video Conferencing

Is 3G something New?

Not at all! The first commercial release of 3G was by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in October 2001. This technology is very common in developed countries like America, Australia, UK and other European Countries.

3G service was first provided in India by MTNL(Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) in 2008 and BSL started providing 3G in Feb 2010.India is far behind in the 3G race as the 3G spectrum auction is going to be conducted for private players on April 9^th 2010 by Govt. Of India. So by end of 2010 3G is going to be very common in India.

As of today there are 500million+ 3G users worldwide.

To use 3G services, do I need to buy a new phone?

Yes, if your current phone is not 3G compatible. These are some of the phones which are 3G compatible and now available in India:

Nokia N95,Nokia N96 ,Nokia N82 , E71, E72
If you are looking for cheaper Nokia handsets which can give provide you a 3G experience, then you can have a look at the following handsets:
Nokia N73 ,Nokia 3120 Classic ,Samsung SGH J800 ,Samsung TouchWiz ,Samsung Innov8
Sony Ericsson Xperia ,Sony Ericsson

Other 3G compatible Sony Ericsson handsets are Sony Ericsson G700, G900, K530i, K610i, K660i, M600i and P990i.

Almost all HTC phones support 3G.

To see a complete list of 3G phones available in India, click this link.

How do I know whether my current phone is 3G compatible or not?

Turn on your phone and look at the top when you have service, it should say either: E or 3G. If you cant find these, go to www.Ebay.Inand search for your phone model and check the features list.

I am not a hifi mobile user. Do I need to go for a 3G compatible phone when I change my phone next time ?

I would say yes. The possibilities of 3G is infinite! Wont you use 3G if you can make free/cheap international calls via skype using your mobile phone ? The answer is yes and that could be the best reason for you to go for a 3G phone. Now a days 3G phones are quite cheap too.. Today, you can buy a 3G for as low as 4700Rs! We need to wait and watch if the govt. will allow 2 way VOIP over 3G which might make thousands of BSNL employees jobless!

I want to try 3G Now. Does BSNL provides 3G?

Yes , BSNL started offering 3G from Feb 2010 in selected cities. You can find the Tariff details here: http://www.bsnl.co.in/service/3G/3G_files/3g.htm. The upload rate of BSNL is kept very low to make 2 way Voice telephony not feasible.

Video

One of my friends recently asked me this question. "I have a bunch of digital photos with
me. I need to create multiple albums and show the pictures as slideshows in my website. How
can I do this?". My immediate answer was "use picasa"!

He required the steps to do it so I decided to write it down with some screenshots to help a first time user.

Here are the steps to add images to picasa and show it was slide show in yourwebsite. You
dont have to be a techie to do this. A person who can send emails,can use "MS Word" and a
little knowledge in HTML can easily do this.

Step1: Navigate to http://Photos.Google.com and login using your google id. If you dont have
a google account, you can create one here:

Step2: After logging in to Picasa, Click on the Upload Button on top.There is an option to create new Album. Click on the link.

Step3: Give a title to your album and select a date on which the pics are taken. You can give a description to the details of the images inside and even show the place where the photos were taken in google maps.

Step4: Now you can decide whether this album is a public album or a private one.
Public albums can be seen by anyone on the internet and private albums can be seen only by persons you choose to share it. You can even give the option of "SignIn required to View" so that only registered picasa customers can view the album.

Step5: Now you can individually upload pics to the album one by one or install "Picasa desktop client"(Download link circled in red ) on your system and upload all the images at one shot to the album.

Step6:
Now click on  "Link to this album" as circled in the image below.
This will open up a hidden panel which shows multiple options to share your picasa album.

Step7: if you just want to send the link via email or IM, use the link below "Paste link in email or IM". For slideshow, click on the "Embed Slideshow" link. This will open up a popup window.

Step8: Now you can select the image size for your slideshow(circled in blue). There are multiple options 144px, 288px, 400px, 600px and 800px.  Select the appropriate size and then copy the HTML code to embed in the site(circled in red). You need to add the code between the <body> </body> tags of your html page.

Yes, your slide show is now ready !! Google has made it simple, did'nt they?

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This Webcast Series will show how Windows 7, Exchange Server 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 deliver on the key capabilities IT Professionals have asked for. Also, the webcasts will cover the Virtualization aspects of these new generation technologies.

22-Jul-09 4:00-5:30pm Windows 7 Meet Windows 7! Ranjana Jain   29-Jul-09 4:00-5:30pm Exchange Server 2010 Technical Overview Ravi Sankar   05-Aug-09 4:00-5:30pm Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Overview of changes in Windows Server 2008 R2 (Part 1 of 2) Ranjana Jain   12-Aug-09 4:00-5:30pm SQL Server 2008 Upgrading from SQL Server 2000/2005 to SQL Server 2008 Vinod Kumar   26-Aug-09 4:00-5:30pm Windows 7 Windows 7 Performance Enhancements Ranjana Jain   02-Sep-09 4:00-5:30pm Exchange Server 2010 Anywhere Access and End user Experience Ravi Sankar   09-Sep-09 4:00-5:30pm Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Oerview of changes in Windows Server 2008 R2 (Part 2 of 2) Ranjana Jain   16-Sep-09 4:00-5:30pm Virtualization Solving Application Compatibility Using Virtualization Technologies Ravi Sankar   23-Sep-09 4:00-5:30pm Windows 7 Managing Windows 7 using Windows Powershell 2.0 Ranjana Jain   30-Sep-09 4:00-5:30pm Exchange Server 2010 Compliance, Archiving and Retention Ravi Sankar

 To attend these LIVE Webcast Sessions you can also visit : www.microsoft.com/India/webcasts

  Note: This is an online event and you are not required to pay any fee to attend it.

You have a blog and on one fine day a comment appears on one of your posts with most number of comments. it says:

"Hello, i read your blog on occasion and i have a similar web log and i was just wondering if you receive a ton of junk comments? If you do how do you control it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it's driving me mad so any help is very much appreciated."

If you think that this is a genuine call for help, you are mistaken, its a new way found by spammers to spread their links on the internet!! 

If this text comes to you, just delete it... GoodBye spammers... 

Here is a screenshot of this type of comment in my blog on which I did a Search(in google) and Destroy(Delete button)!!!

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