SAGARAGAS

When A Leader Brand Becomes A Challenger Brand – Tata Sky

2011-08-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

In the world of marketing, there are two types of brands – leader brands and challenger brands. Leader brands are those brands who often command the largest market share or value. They mostly have a first mover advantage or are early entrants in the category. They have deep pockets and often act like a bully. Challenger brands are new entrants in the category who have the ability to change the game as the stakes are relatively lower compared to a leader brand. They can either belong to the same category or come from a different one to create a disruption in the category. A classic example is what Apple did to Sony Walkman with iPod.

However, in some cases a leader brand can also become a challenger brand. It ise not complacent with its success. The brand constantly keeps innovating and raises the bar for the competition. Some brands that follow this are Apple, Amazon, Facebook.

One such Indian brand that seems to fit this is Tata Sky. Even though this brand had the first mover advantage in the DTH category it keeps introducing new and innovative offerings at regular intervals. This offerings are often industry firsts where other players like Airtel, Videocon, Reliance have no choice but to copy and make it available to their customers

Tata Sky has launched many firsts in the DTH space. Some firsts, according to my guess, include Interactive TV with ActivZone like games, education, movies, cooking, darshan etc; pause and record live TV feature; HD channels; pay per view movie; recording on the go and the latest of all is a Tata Sky Mobile Access App.

Available free on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch this app allows you to see what your facebook friends are watching, set reminders for your favorite shows, use your phone to control the TV, discover the most-watched and highest-rated shows and much more. This is currently the number one app on the Indian app store.

I do not know about their services as I am not their customer yet (using CAS offered by cablewala), but if at all I am going to switch to DTH, it is certainly going to be Tata Sky.

I only hope they stay true to their promise of ‘Isko laga dala toh life jingalala’

Top 12 Blockbuster Movies That Should Be Re-Made Into 3D

2010-06-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

Mr. James Cameroon has changed the way we are now going to see movies on the big screen. Avatar in 3D is the biggest hit in the Hollywood history and has set the trend for others. Currently, every third movie released in the multiplex is a 3D version. Now, only if Mr. James had invented this technology few years early we would have got a chance to see our favorite blockbuster movies in this new technological avatar.

Nonetheless there is no harm in wishful thinking. Here is a list of top 12 blockbuster movies which I think should be made in 3D. The visuals effects in these original movies are so brilliant that the 3D version will be just breathtaking and outstanding.

1. Transformers - 1 & 2

2. Lord of The Rings Trilogy

3. Independence Day

4. Minority Report

5. Armageddon

6. The Matrix

7. King Kong

8. Iron Man

9. Harry Porter Series

10. Gladiator

11. Day After Tomorrow

12. Shrek

Mr. Steven Spielberg are you reading this!!! :-)

It Is Time To Take Your Brand Up With ‘Air’vertising

2010-04-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

IPL 3 season is on and if you have seen even one match (I’m sure it is more than one) you would be surprised to see some new ad formats. Micromax during strategic timeout, Karbonn mobile in a middle of an over and Kingfisher at the time of Third Umpire are just some of the new ad formats that would have caught your attention. According to me, the one that stands out (or should I say stands up) is the MRF blimp hovering in the air.

Each time the camera focuses on the MRP blimp you just cannot miss it. In fact the blimp also gets a mention by the commentators. The best part about this MRF blimp is that it is clutter free, non-intrusive and non-irritating (like most of the other TV commercials). It is a first of its kind format and it seems to have caught the attention of the other marketers as well. Vodafone too has created its own blimp (they call it airship) and have a contest where the winner gets a chance to fly in it. http://is.gd/bDanR

Volkswagen has used this medium recently to the launch its Beetle. http://is.gd/bDakl

Tata Photon took to skies to promote their Tata Photon Plus mobile broadband service in Bangalore http://is.gd/bDalG.

IKEA too has interesting campaign where we see furniture falling from the sky in the middle of a street.

Welcome to the world of ‘air’vertising. Although this medium has not been used extensively, this one is sure to grab the advertiser’s interest and consumers eyeballs. I am sure we will see more use of ‘air’vertising by the marketers in the near future as the format is new, unconventional, clutter free and effective. Airships, Blimps, Air Balloons, Sky Banners are just some of the ‘air’vertising options which can be used by the brands in their campaign.

So next time when the campaign is on air…we know where to look.

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams – Randy Pausch Last Lecture

2010-04-10T03:11:00.000-07:00

There more than 1 lakh self books to choose from at amazon.com. These self help books are self prescribed motivational pills which help us when we are down. The effect of these books is temporary and lasts only for few days. No wonder we have so many best sellers. I believe that speeches given by individuals whose lives are truly inspiring and motivating are more impactful and moving than reading these slef help books.

One such talk was given by Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He gave his last lecture at the university on achieving your childhood dreams. His speech is full of humour, antidotes and surprises. It is an hour long speech but every second of it is worth it. In case you are time starved then you can pick up his book and read at leisure.

Some of my favourite quotes from his lecture are noted below.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt just how we play the hand.

Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.

You got the get the fundamentals down because the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.

When you are screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up.

When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be.

You critics are the one who tell you they still love you and care.

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Become a professor because you are such a good salesman that any company who gets you is going to use as a salesman and you might as well be selling something worthwhile like education.

Be prepared: 'luck' is where preparation meets opportunity.

Find the best in everybody; no matter how much long you have to wait for them to show it.

Be good at something: it makes you valuable.

Why A World Class Brand Is Not 'Made In India'!

2009-12-22T06:17:00.000-08:00

Every time I look at the top 100 global brand list (http://bit.ly/rqrH) it makes me wonder why not a single Indian brand features in the list. What are the reasons that Indian brands fail to make the cut? Are Indian products below global standards? Is it because Indian companies lack technical expertise to make such products?? Or does the Indian consumer mindset act as a roadblock?

I think it is difficult to single out one key reason why Indian brands do not fare well on the global map. Superior product quality is one main ingredient missing in our Indian brands (http://bit.ly/a2A0n). Besides this, I see three 'CO' reasons which explains why Indian brands fail to become world class brands.

1) ‘CO’UNTRY’S IMAGE - Remember the simple math equation we studied in school - A = B and B = C hence A = C. Well, this equation also holds true when we talk about country's image impacting the local company’s image and in turn affecting the product image of the company. (Country’s image = Company’s image = Product’s image)

The values, beliefs and image of the country play an important role in shaping the success for the brands of the local companies of that country. Switzerland is the best example to explain this.

Switzerland as a country stands for high quality, precision, class, innovation and aspiration. These same qualities are reflected in their brands. Brands like Rolex, Swatch, Swiss Army Knife are world class brands not only because these are great products, but the country's image lends its credibility and values to these brand to make it a truly world class brand.

Other countries like US, Japan and Germany are fine examples where the countries values are ingrained in the brands.

When we talk about India, corruption, poverty, world’s back-office and Incredible India are some of the attributes get associated with our country. One marketing campaign (Incredible India) is not going to be enough to correct the image of our county. These strong negative connotations have severely tarnished the image of the country. Due to this, no matter how well our Indian companies try hard to make a global brand, the fact that it is ‘Made in India’ will always act as a dampener. Would you wear a Levis or a Rolex or Gucci if it was made in India?

2) ‘CO’MPANY’S FOCUS

At first we Indians drove Fiat than came the era of Maruti Suzuki and now we have Nano, the world’s cheapest car. This sums up the underlying philosophy of the Indian companies and the Indian market. Indian companies make products which are affordable, durable and most importantly, which satisfies the basic utility of the product. Making aspirational products which has top class design and style is still not the focus of the Indian companies. Is the Indian consumer market driving our Indian companies to make such products or are the Indian companies forcing the Indian consumers to accept such products? It is a typical chicken and the egg problem of which comes first.

Today, where MNCs have entered the Indian shores, Indian companies like Reliance, TATA, Godrej, Videocon, Bajaj are feeling the heat and fighting a losing battle when it comes to brands. These Indian companies have large market capitalization but small market share and even smaller brand equity compared to foreign brands across consumer categories.

3) ‘CO’NSUMER PSYCHE

Indian consumers purchase habits can be aptly summed in three words. ‘More (quantity) for Less’. Indian consumers crave for more quantity at the same price, preferably at the lesser price. Indian consumers are value conscious customers. Value for money is the most important proposition for the Indian consumers. Brands are still looked upon as products and quantity is still the king for an average Indian consumer. This psyche will be seen across the country be it metros or small towns. Maruti, Lifebouy, Rin are not the best brands in their categories but they are leading brands in the country working on the price proposition.

Bottom-line is will India ever have a brand which will be called a World Class brand? A brand which will be used by consumers across the globe? A brand which will be in the same league as Disney, Apple, Google, Toyota etc?

Do you think India can have such a brand? or Does India already have such a brand which can be called a global brand? Do share your thoughts.

Indians Sayin To Foreign Brands 'I'm Lovin It'

2009-11-05T23:03:00.000-08:00

We wake up to our Nokia Phones, paste our teeth with Colgate, eat Kellogg’s for breakfast, wear Arrow shirt and Blackberry trousers, drive Honda City to work, work on a Dell laptop, order lunch from Subway, visit Facebook to stay connected with friends, dinner at McDonalds, ice cream at Gelato and end a day with ‘Good Night’.

It is interesting to see that foreign brands have become such an integral part of our everyday lives that we Indians (knowingly or unknowingly) wear, use, talk, eat, drink (may be swear) foreign brands day in and day out. The only thing left Indian in us is our Indian name. Nothing wrong in using foreign brands, but what is disheartening to see is that Indian companies fail to give us these aspirational brands.

Is this true or a myth. To just validate this, I did a quick survey among my friends / colleagues on brand they would like to use in few consumer categories, if money was not a constraint. I am sure you will endorse this list as well.

Q: If you were given a choice which is the brand you would want to buy and use in each of the product categories. You may have already bought the brand and currently using it. It can be Indian or international brand. Also, please do not mention luxurious and overtly expensive brands. Eg: Porsche or Ferrari when it comes to cars. Answer should be Honda City, Ascent, BMW, Mercedes etc.

There you go, the list speaks for itself. But what this list does is it raises few interesting questions from the branding perspective.

- Are foreign brands really superior in their quality than Indian brands?
- Do Indians lack trust and confidence in Indian brands?
- Do Indian companies give priority to profits over brand building?
- Is the image of our country driving people away to adopt Indian brands?

Will try to answer these questions in my next post. Meanwhile, do share your thoughts.

Buying Your First Bike...This How I Bought My First BIke…

2009-04-23T11:18:00.001-07:00

I have always wanted to have the thrill of riding the bike. That dream is now reality and I cannot express how excited I am to get my hands on my new bike. Since this was my first bike and I do not have any experience in bike riding…. I decided that it should not be heavy on price, pockets and to ride…

Before I began my search for the bike I was very clear about few things.

The bike should be very stylish (Most important factor for me).
Do not spend too much on the first bike. Should b within the budget of Rs 50k – Rs 70k.
The bike will not be of TVS or Bajaj. (did not want Indian companies)
It should be a city bike and not with too much power.

Keeping in mind these aspects I began my search for my first bike. I visited the websites of all two wheeler players in India (Hero Honda, Bajaj, TVS, Yamaha, Honda). Frankly I was really disappointed to see that there were hardly any bikes which were STYLISH. The bikes I shortlisted on the style factor were: Hero Honda Karizma, Yamaha FZ16, Honda Stunner and Bajaj Pulsar.

I also tried reading reviews about these bikes on the blogs and websites. I found http://bikeadvice.in/ quite useful for bike reviews. The on road prices for the bikes were Karizma (85,000), Yamaha FZ16 (77,000), Pulsar 150cc (67,000) and Stunner (60,000). Since I did not want to spend too much on the bike I had shortlisted Honda Stunner and Bajaj Pulsar.

I asked a few dealers and coupe of my friends who have been riding bikes for their opinion. They said that Pulsar has very high maintenance, very common on the road and accident prone. In fact you will see that 1 in every 3 bike on the Mumbai roads will be Pulsar. Stunner on the other hand was very stylish, lighter and cheaper compared to Pulsar. Hence, I went for Honda Stunner. Yes, my first bike is Honda Stunner.

Honda Stunner comes in four colors, Black, Red, Yellow and Grey. Black and Grey were quite dull and do not stand out. Red and Yellow are catchy but since red was quite common I went for yellow. In fact, to select the colour I went to the Honda godwon at Cotton Green. I booked the bike last week and expecting the delivery this Saturday. This is what it looks like.

Some Tips

Honda Unicorn is the latest bike which every dealer/biker recommends and it is giving tough competition to Bajaj Pulsar. If not for style I would have gone for this bike. It costs Rs 68,000.
Buying a bike is not the same as buying a car. There are very few company owned showrooms. You will find dealers selling more than one brands.
Use www.justdial.com to find the two wheeler dealers in your area.
In case you want special number be ready to shell out minimum of Rs 300.

Will post my review on the bike in few days.

Two Thought Provoking TED Talks Worth Watching

2009-03-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, I heard two very thought provoking talks on Technology Entertainment and Design (TED). For late comers like me, a quick note about TED. Every year TED hosts conference and events which showcases best in technology, entertainment and design. The site puts up all the talks for those who cannot make it (common man like me cannot make it anyways).

Let’s get back to the talks. The first talk was by Barry Schwartz who talked about paradox of choice. He says that for progress of our civilization, one needs freedom. And with freedom comes the power of choice. However, this choice is actually doing more harm than good in today’s world. More choices lead to more frustration and less satisfaction. He has even written a book, aptly titled ‘The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less” Get the talk here.

The other speaker was Sir Ken Robinson, who talked about how school kills creativity. He said that our education system was established in the era of industrialization, hence the subjects which we study in school and colleges are the ones which facilitates in getting us a job. Subjects like Mathematics, Science, etc are given more importance than Arts, Painting, and Drawing etc. Why dance is not taught everyday in the school like Algebra? Why Arts is the least accepted field in most of the countries? Get the talk here.

You can watch these talks on the TED site for free and it runs without any interruptions. You can also download on your desktop for later viewing. (Not all talks)

So You Did Jailbreak the iPhone 3G...Now Install These Apps.

2009-02-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

For all those who are not sure if they should jailbreak their iPhone 3G? Read here.

For those who have already done that, here is the list of apps you should have in your jailbreaked iPhone 3G.

Cycorder: One of the many things missing in iPhone is video recording facility. This app lets you record videos is easy and quick way. You can also transfer these videos to your PC. I am still to figure that out.

BiteSMS: Yet another feature we all sorely miss is forwarding messages. BiteSMS is a simple and easy to use app which lets you forward and delete messages. MySMS is another similar and feature rich app. I don’t use it because BiteSMS gives me the basic feature of forwarding sms I am looking for.

MxTube: You Tube app in iPhone lets you bookmark your favourite videos. But each time you want to check out those videos or show it to some of your friends, you need wifi connection. MxTube lets you download your favourite videos right in your iPhone. It also has search option.

Snapture: Mr. Steve, so what if you have not given me a zoom option in my iPhone camera. I now have Snapture. With Snapture you get zoom feature, colour mode feature, and burst option.

MakeItMine: This app lets you customize the carrier logo and the time to any name and number that you want. A simple and no-nonsense app. Check the screenshot below.

iSpazio Dockflow : Do you like the album cover flow feature in the iTunes? Now you can get the same look to your dock. This one is visually stunning. Check the screenshot below.

Famous Quotes Widget: If you are found of quotes then you will surely love this app. This app gives you a new quote on the lock screen every time you are about to unlock the screen.

Firefox Safari2: If you are a Firefox fan or want to give a new look to your safari browser, then this is the app you need get. It does not have any of Firefox features except for the looks.

Five Icon Dock: Ever wished you could fit in one more app to you dock? Well, your wish comes true with this five icon dock. So now stack your favourite and most used icon along with four others.

Genesis of this post: I am about to upgrade my iPhone from firmware 2.1 to 2.2.1. I did not upgrade to 2.2 bcoz I did not want to install my cydia apps all over again. So I have jotted down all the apps and themes I will have once I upgrade my iPhone.

Please note, I might have missed out of few interesting and useful apps. But this list is based on my limited knowledge and personal usage of the apps. More suggestions are always welcome.

How Many Technology Brands Can U Recall? - TechQuiz

2009-02-09T05:00:00.001-08:00

Today, technology is an integral part of our lives. The way technology is shaping our lives; the day is not far when our school textbooks will have its own technology dictionary. :-) So, what will our technology dictionary look like? This is a small attempt to make a technology dictionary from A to Z. The dictionary is in a form of a quiz.

So, how many technology brands can you recall? If you recall every brand then you are certainly a geek. :-)

(Click here to zoom)

Note: There were some alphabets which had more than three brands. Eg: W – Word press. But I have refrained from adding more than three brands for each alphabet.

If you want the answers or have suggestions, just drop in a mail at sagar.sha@gmail.com or a Tweet @sagsha

Disclaimer: The logos used are only for representative purposes. Not for commercial purposes. Please don’t sue me.

(Almost) Complete Guide to Mahabaleshwar

2009-01-28T05:54:00.000-08:00

It was a three day weekend holiday on 24th Jan to 26th Jan and my wife and I decided to go take a break from our work and take a trip to Mahabaleshwar.

I am sharing my experience on how I planned the entire trip, what are the places to see and miss at this hill station and some tips to help you save that extra penny.

HOTEL
It was in the month of December I started to make hotel and bus bookings with my cousin who runs her own travel firm. It turned out that all the hotels which I wanted to book were already full, including Valley View Resort. So, I tried my luck with travel portals like makemytrip.com and yatra.com to see if they can come to my rescue. To my surprise, Valley View Resort was available for booking.

I went with this hotel because the hotel pictures looked good, reviews were decent (but not too many) and more importantly, it was within my budget and available. So, I booked this hotel through makemytrip.com, which was my first transaction with this portal. It turned out to be quite a nice experience with the hotel stay.

Hotel: Valley View Resort
Website: http://www.valleyview-resort.com/
Booked from: makemytrip.com
Costs: Rs 3500 (inclusive of taxes and meals)
Rating 4.5/5
Recommended: Yes
Positives: Near to market, quick service, excellent food and decent room.

BUS
Thanks to my iPhone. I searched Neeta Travels on my iPhone Maps and to my surprise I found a travel agent in Dadar. I booked the bus tickets with him. The bus was very comfortable while going (although it arrived quite late) but little disappointing while coming back. I don’t know how they allot these buses. There were five Neeta Travels buses that left on the same time on 26th Jan from Mahabaleshwar. We were unlucky to get this untidy bus while coming.

Bus: Neeta Volvo
Booked from: Neeta TPH Travels
Cost: Rs 500 per person
Recommended: Yes
Best time to travel: Take a night journey (10.30 pm form Sion)
Caution: There are other buses like Dolphin, Nakoda etc but there did not look comfortable at all.

Mahabaleshwar Market
In the market you will find ladies footwear (every third shop), gaming parlors (slots machines, video games etc), restaurants and retail stores selling Mapro / Mala juices, chikkis etc.

Sight Seeing
If you like seeing different sight seeing points then you are in for a treat. There are tons and tons of sight seeing spots like Echo point, Needle Point, Wilson Point and many more. We thought there was no point in seeing so many points. Hence, we took a tour which had a mix of sight seeing spots along with Strawberry Garden and Table land.

There are seven different tours you can take from Mahabaleshwar. Each tour covers three to ten different tourist spots depending upon the distance location and closeness of the tourist spots. The charges for these tours range from Rs 355 to Rs 500. There is a fixed rate card hence no tension of cab driver taking one for a ride.

Places worth seeing: Venna Lake, Parsi Pont, Table Land, Mapro Factory, Needle Point, Kate’s Point, Echo Point, Lingmala Waterfall.

Place you can give a miss: Babington Point, Mala’s Factory, Plato Point, King’s Chair.

Some Pictures

Smart Travel Tips
· Plan your holiday, if possible in non peak season. You will save costs on hotel which is usually the most important component of the tour. Also you will get your peace and space since it is less crowded.
· Plan atleast two month in advance in peak season and one month prior in non-peak season to get hotel and bus of your choice.
· Take a bus with a night journey to and fro.
· Bargain with the taxi guys for the sight seeing fares if you want to do more than one tours. This will work in non-peak season.
· Make sure you leave early for sight-seeing since the taxis are limited during peak season. Drivers will go where there is more money.
· Ensure the hotel in near the market. Or else you will have to take cab each time you want to move around.
· Mahabaleshwar is closer to Pune (2.5 hours) so plan the trip from there and preferably have your own vehicle.

Happy Journey!

Inspirational Quotes from the Apple Man – Steve Jobs

2009-01-27T01:57:00.000-08:00

There are three tech companies I admire the most, Apple, Microsoft and Google. But when it comes to leadership of these companies, no one comes close to Steve Jobs. What separates Steve Jobs from the rest of the tech entrepreneurs is his ability to blend art and science (read creativity and technology) into one and bring out products which re-defines the category.

Here is a compilation of the best quotes from this Apple Man whom I admire the most for his creativity, vision and leadership. His speech at the Stanford University is also worth reading.

Life and Career

· Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

· I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.

· People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

· We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.

· I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.

· Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.

People

· Recruiting is hard. It's just finding the needles in the haystack. You can't know enough in a one-hour interview. So, in the end, it's ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they're challenged? I ask everybody that: 'Why are you here?' The answers themselves are not what you're looking for. It's the meta-data.

· When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is -- are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They'll want to do what's best for Apple, not what's best for them, what's best for Steve, or anybody else.

Customer

· You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.

· Our DNA is as a consumer company -- for that individual customer who's voting thumbs up or thumbs down. That's who we think about. And we think that our job is to take responsibility for the complete user experience. And if it's not up to par, it's our fault, plain and simply.

Innovation and Design

· It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it too. That's what we get paid to do. We just want to make great products.

· Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.

My Personal Favorite:

· Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs. Get Well Soon.

Photo: ideaonly.net

You Know Twitter Has Gone Mainstream in India When….

2009-01-23T02:49:00.000-08:00

There were 100+ ideas generated on Twitter within a span on four hours when Twitterite (@Sampad) just shot of a question 'How do you know Twitter has gone mainstream in India?

So overwhelming was the response that the hashtag #twitindistream featured in the top 10 Trending Topics on Twitter for quite a while.

Photo Coutesy : sampadsain.com

The responses were quite creative, hilarious and also true to some extent. Below are my 30 odd personal favourite tweets.

1. When Kaamwali bais (house maids) create a hashtag and bitch about their memsaabs.

2. When parents say ‘Beta vaha pohachte hi Twitter karna’ [Son, tweet as soon as you reach...]

3. When Amitabh, Aamir and SRK have their own Twitter accounts and it becomes the Breaking News on Aaj Tak.

4. When railway stations will announce via twitter rather than by loudspeakers.

5. When ‘Hand’ is replaced by’@Handle‘ as the new logo of Congress.

6. When our leaders ask for ‘Tweevotes‘ instead of ‘Votes’ during elections.

7. When visitng cards will have Twitter handles (@handle) instead of email ids.

8. When a minister will tweet his resignation and send a DM to CM with plea not to accept the resignation.

9. When #Reliance will launch a company named BIGtwit.

10. When Aamir, SRK and Akshay use Twitter to promote their next big budget films.

11. When a book is released ‘100 Signs of Twitter becoming mainstream in India‘ and becomes a best seller.

12. When every bollywood movie will have a twit version for those who are short of time.

13. When school exams will say ‘Answer in Twitter’ instead of ‘Answer in Brief’.

14. When you set twitter as your homepage of your computer.

15. When Political Manifesto will be ‘Roti, Kapda, Makaan aur Twitter’ for aam aadmi.

16. When MNS will make it mandatory to type all Tweets in Marathi.

17. When Twitter birdie becomes the next face of a brand like #Vodafone Pug but with permission.

18. The channel has a reality show called ‘Kaun Banega TwitterPati’.

19. When people join language courses to learn new language - Twittsh.

20. Some time later an award winnig movie is released, called ‘TwitterDog Millionaire‘.

21. When PM addresses a Tweet Conference to the entire nation on Twitter.

22. When India hands over Tweets of terrorists as proof to Pak and Pak accepts it.

23. When reality shows ask people to vote using tweet instead of SMS.

24. When Ekta Kapoor makes a new serial ‘Kahani Twitter Twitter Ki‘ and will get highest TRPs (Twitter Rating Points).

25. When Mumbai university introduces a new subject in colleges ‘Tweetology‘… and makes it compulsory.

26. When Walkie-Talkies are replaced by Tweetie-Talkies in the army, with paandus, and other events.

27. When Indian Cricket Team has Twitter logo on their T-shirts and bats.

28. SS, MNS start tweeting from the places they are wrecking -> Just broke a shopper’s stops glass door, kaay majja aali [In english - What fun] :P

29. When government applications ask for twitter names along with email IDs and phone numbers.

30. When you name your child as Twitter instead of Ram, Rahul or Raj.

And the best of all “When mainstream media takes cues from this and prints all the ideas along with original twitter handles.”

For a complete list click here.

Download Paid Apps For Free - Seriously!

2009-01-13T02:54:00.000-08:00

Are you still wondering weather to jailbreak your iPhone or not? Well, here is the biggest reason you should jailbreak your iPhone. You can download tons of paid (and expensive) apps without paying a single paise (read cents). For other reasons and pros and cons of jailbreak read this.

Following are the steps to download those apps for free.

1) Open Cydia

2) Go to Manage

3) Select 'Edit' and then 'Add'

4) Entre this URL http://cydia.hackulo.us/

5) After Installation, Go to Sections in Cydia and select Hackulo.us

6) Install 'Installaous' and 'miPatch Firmware 2.2.1' one after the other.

Now you are ready to install those paid free apps. There are two ways to do this.

1) iTunes (Recommended)

Go to http://appulo.us/appdb/ and select the app which you want. (.ipa format)

After you download the app on your desktop, just add the app on your iTunes and Sync with your iPhone.

2) iPhone

Open Installous (it will open appulo.us). Now select or search the app you want to download. Once you select the download source, you will be asked to download or install. Select 'Download'

After the download is complete go to 'Download' section and install the app.

Thanks Hackulous !!!

iPhone Movie Converter - See Your Favourite Movies Right In Your iPhone

2009-01-13T02:15:00.000-08:00

For all the iPhone lovers who want to watch your favourite movies and TV shows, there are tons of iPhone video converters in the web sphere. However, most of these are paid, trail version or convert only limited part of the movie.

Videora iPhone Converter is a free and easy to use iPhone Video Converter. You can convert unlimited number of movies and TV shows.

It also gives you an option of choosing the video and audio quality of the movie.

Go and download Videora iPhone Converter Now and Here.

How To Fold A T-Shirt In Less Than 30 Seconds

2009-01-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

For all the male bachelors and married men, it is time to show your skills and impress your lovely ladies. Now you can fold a T-shirt in just 30 seconds (even less actually). Yes, that right. This is a very useful video of how to fold a t-shirt in a jiffy.

It is very easy to master the skills and I am personally using this trick to fold my t-shirts quickly. It really works!

Enjoy Folding!!!

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish - Speech by Steve Jobs

2008-12-26T00:46:00.001-08:00

Steve Jobs is one of my business role models whom I admire for delivering cutting edge and stylish products. He does not depend upon the consumer research too much (I think) because consumers will never be able to come up with products like iPod or iPhone... but he is still able to come up with products which define the category.

His speech at Stanford University Graduates, June 2005 is one of the best inspirational speeches I have ever read. I think one can keep reading this speech again and again and get a motivational kick.

Here is the speech in text as well as the video format.

"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The First Story is About Connecting the Dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.

Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: 'We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?' They said: 'Of course.' My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.

Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My Second Story is About Love and Loss.

I was lucky--I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation--the Macintosh--a year earlier, and I had just turned 30.

And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down--that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me.

I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me--I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

Fired From Apple

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My Third Story is About Death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.'

It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Diagnosed With Cancer

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer.

I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months.

My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery.

I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.

And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.

This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.

It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.'

It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Trivia: What is common between Steve Jobs and me?

We share the the same birthdate - 24th Feb.

Company Logos in Recession - Quite Funny

2008-12-24T02:33:00.000-08:00

Something to put smiles back to our gloomy mood. How do Company Logos look like in recession times?

For More: check out the here.

Best Global Brand Survey - Interesting Takeouts

2008-12-24T01:34:00.000-08:00

Interbrand and Businessweek releases the Best Global Brands report every year. This year too they have published the report on the world’s most valuable brands. If we look at the table very closely, we can learn a lot of things about these global brands.

See Complete Table Here

Some interesting findings:

All the brands are consumer brands which are directly bought, used and consumed by the consumers. Only a handful of brands are B2B brands.

These global brands are truly global, in the sense that they are known across the globe, even if they are not present in that country. For instance, everyone knows about Starbucks in India even tough it does not have its shop in India.

Every global brand is a leader (or next to leader) in their respective category in their home market. Some in the International markets as well.

These global brands have powerful brand recall. They generate top of mind recall in their respective category.

Automotive, Financial Services and Consumer Electronics are top three categories that dominate the global brand list.

It takes a lot of time to build a global brand. However, there isn’t a magic number on the number of years it takes to build a global brand. The best example is Google which is just a 10 year old brand whereas Coco Cola is 122 year old brand.

Only three nations, United States and Europe and Asia rule the Top 100 Global Brand list.

United States clearly dominates the list where one is every two brand comes from this country. Infact, 8 out of top 10 global brands belong to US.

European countries like Italy, France and Switzerland capture the other half of the global brand list.

Only two Asia countries Japan and South Korea feature in the list.

I leave this post with an important question; “Will India ever have a Global Brand?”

Ingredients Of A World Class Brand !

2008-12-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

Today, the word ‘Brand’ has become a generic term for ‘Products’. The old adage of ‘People no longer buy products but buy brands’ could not have been more true than our present times. Just take for instance, iPod. If you want to buy an MP3 player it has got to be an iPod, right?

Now, let’s say you enter an electronics store to buy an iPod. The salesman shows you an iPod look-alike Mp3 player with same features, same colour options and same accessories to that of an iPod. In fact, he will also give you a reasonable discount on it. The only catch is, it does not have an Apple logo on it and it does say it is an Apple product. Will you buy it? Chances are you won’t. That my friend is the ‘Power of Branding’.

So what is branding? Is it just the name or a logo of a product? Or is it advertising or selling products in a different way? There is no clear cut definition of the term brand or branding. Many authors and brand experts have different way describing the term and each definition looks correct if we look in its context. (This is what I like about marketing! Interpret the way you want.)

According to me, Brand(ing) is all about creating an experience, an aspiration, an emotional connect and a sense of belonging for the consumers with the product or service. Brands should stand for their values and deliver consistently on their promise.

Coca Cola is more than 150 year old young brand. Three ex-CEOs of the company are no more but this brand still lives on and is the number one soft drink across the globe. Just think about it, the company sells just ONE COLA DRINK and it is the number one brand in the world. So what does Coca Cola do differently from another other cola brands? Why is Coca Cola a world class brand? Is it the best cola drink in the world? Certainly not. But what it does with its brand is certainly the best among its competitors.

I think to make a world class brand a company needs to have few ingredients. These ingredients are essentially what existing global brands display and what the brand manager should keep in mind to take make his brand a world class brand.

Brand speaks for itself…

This is by far the most important factor for any brand. If the brand does not deliver on the functional attribute, it will not succeed even if you pump in millions of dollar on branding and communication. In fact, if the functional feature of your brand is unique, powerful and simple then I believe that half of your job is done.

Brands like Apple, Google, Amazon, Toyota and Sony are leaders in their product categories because their products are so cutting edge and at the same time so simple to use that the customers turn into fans and they become the spokesperson for the brand.

What’s in a Name…

‘Nothing’ if you ask Shakespeare but ‘Everything’ if you ask any Brand Manager. Brand Name, Tagline, Logo, Mascots and other such brand elements are an important brand constituent for every brand. These brand elements help consumers connect with the brand and hence have to be kept simple and easy to identify with. These constituents stand for the values and proposition the brand promises to deliver.

Companies and brand managers have to be very careful while dealing with these brand elements. These elements are like the pillars for the brand and they do not change in whichever country they are present.

Nokia’s “Connecting People” slogan or Nike’s ‘Swoosh’ symbol or Microsoft’s Windows Logo are some of the examples which are synonym with the company name and do not change in any of the markets.

Adapt and Adopt

It is crucial for any brand entering the new market to understand the local culture and taste of the market. The company should modify its product and services according to the local market and at the same time retain its core values. This is very difficult task for the company but will pay off if done in the right way.

McDonalds is the best example which comes to my mind when it comes adapting and adopting to local markets. In India, McDonalds does not serve beef in its burgers. Instead it offers McVeggies and Mc Aloo Tikkis which are unheard of in other parts of the globe. At the same time it retains its core value of Quick, Clean, Value for Money and Consistent quality across the outlets. This has worked wonders for the company and is clearly the number one fast food restaurant in the country, if not the world.

It’s all in the Mind… Top of the Mind

Which is the first brand that comes to your mind when you think of cars, music players, jeans, soft drinks and electronics? It is Toyota, iPod, Levis, Coca Cola and Sony. 9 out of 10 people will answer this. And this clearly shows the power of brand and the importance of brand recall. They say out of mind is out of sight. No wonder we are all bombarded with zillions of advertisements everyday.

To become a world class brand, the brand should be right on top of the consumer mind in that product category. If not number one, then certainly number two or three. This feat is achieved only when the product is delivered consistently on the attributes listed above.

Don’t Wait To Innovate

Every product has to go through its life cycle. And to ensure that the brand does not slide down it has to constantly re-invent itself. Innovation is the name of the game when it comes to brand survival. The world class brands constantly innovate with its brands and its brand elements. They spend large amount of budgets on R&D. This innovation can be new product altogether (iPod to iPhone), change in brand logo (Xerox), change in packaging (Shampoo sachets) or change in variants (iPod 8GB to iPod 16GB).

Proctor & Gamble, Sony, Apple, Nike, Google, Walt Disney are some of the companies which spend a lot on innovation and come with new products and services.

World Class Brand – ’Made in US’

If the America sneezes than the entire world catches cold. This is also true even for world class brands. Most of the global brands originate from the US. An interesting statistic is that 8 out 10 global brands are from US. (Source: Interbrand Global Brand Survey). The inference we can draw is that brands that want to be a successful world class brand need to be accepted and successful in the America. So no matter where your brands originates, it is mandatory to have your footprints in the US markets.

Besides these essential ingredients, Patience, Vision and Consistency are the key for the successful global brands.

8 Must Have iPhone Apps

2008-12-13T00:45:00.001-08:00

Have you bought that new iPhone and don’t know which applications to download from the App Store? Or finding it difficult and frustrating to select the best apps for the iPhone? Look no further. Given below is the list of all the applications you ‘must have’ for your iPhone. Have rated these apps based on their utility levels.

Around Me - This app finds the nearest restaurants, cafes, pubs, movie halls, banks etc based on your current location. So let’s say you are in Bandra and you want to find out the nearest restaurants in Bandra. Just select ‘restaurants’ and it will search for all the list of all hotels in and around Bandra. It will give you the address, contact no and distance from your current location.

Utility Rating: 5/5
Price: Free

Facebook: This app does not need any explanation. If you have a Facebook account then this is a must have app on you iPhone. They have recently updated few features as well. I think they have got the best custom made app for iPhone.

Utility Rating: 5/5
Price: Free

Remote: Would it not be cool to control your iTunes library running your PC with your iPhone. This app does exactly that. It gives you complete control of your iTunes playlist, videos, audio books etc. Tough I do not know how many are going to actually use it.

Utility Rating: 5/5
Price: Free

Stanza : Arguably the best e-book reader on the iPhone. It has lot of free eBooks which you can download from the online catalogue.

Utility Rating: 4/5
Price: Free

Greetings: 123greetings.com is passé. If you want wish your friend on his birthday or sorry to your wife for the fight you had last night then this is app comes handy. There are lots of occasions for which you can send a greeting card. The quality of greeting cards is also very nice and new ones keep getting updated.

Utility Rating: 4/5
Price: Free

Backgrounds: There are tons of iPhone wallpaper sites. But how about a cool application that lets you download and save free wallpapers on your iPhone itself. This application gives you the best iPhone wallpapers across various themes like abstract, nature, cars and so on.

Utility Rating: 5/5
Price: $0.99

Facts : Did you know that the average person laughs 15 times a day? Or the average person has over 1460 dreams a year? If you are fascinated with such facts than this app is a must download. It has categories like Humans, Superstitions, Animals, Misc etc. A got app to have to pass your time during travel.

Utility Rating: 4/5
Price: Free

Picture Dialer: This app lets you dial to your loved ones by simply tapping on their picture. The picture display is just awesome and the user interface is really easy to use. This one is a must have app for your iPhone.

Utility Rating: 4/5
Price: Free

20 Most Useful Shortcuts for MS Word - Part 2

2008-12-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

Now that you have mastered know-me-all keyboard shortcuts its time to move to the next level. Find below the Cool MS Word Keyboard shortcuts which will help you get work done faster. Once you start using these I bet you’ll never have to touch that mouse again.

Cool Shortcuts

1. Ctrl + E : Centre alignment of the paragraph

2. Ctrl + L : Left alignment of the paragraph

3. Ctrl + R : Right alignment of the paragraph

4. Ctrl + J : Justify alignment of the paragraph

5. Ctrl + Right Arrow : Moves one word to the right

6. Ctrl + Left Arrow : Moves one word to the left

7. Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow : Selects one word to the right.

8. Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow : Selects one word to the left.

9. Shift + Down Arrow: Selects the entire line by placing the cursor at the start of the line

10. Shift + Up Arrow: Selects the entire line by placing the cursor at the end of the line

11. Ctrl + ] : Increases the font size by 1 point

12. Ctrl + [ : Decreases the font size by 1 point

13. Shift + F3 : Changes to word / sentence to UPPER case, lower case and Sentence case. (Same as Format > Change Case in toolbar)

14. Ctrl + Enter : Page Break from the point cursor is placed

15. Ctrl + 1 : Single line spacing

16. Ctrl + 5 : 1.5 line spacing

17. Ctrl + 2 : Double line spacing

18. Ctrl + Backspace : Delete one word to left

19. Ctrl + Delete: Delete one word to right

20. Alt + _ (letter underlined below each toolbar word)

The last shortcut will open the toolbar option one wants to select.
For instance, To select File: Press Alt + F. (File) This will open File option.
To select Bullets and Numbering: Press Alt + o (Format) and Alt + n (Bullets and Numbering)….Isn’t this great !!!

So, guys start using these keyboard shortcuts and let your mouse go on a vacation.

Please share tips and tricks you think will make life simple.

15 Useful Shortcuts for MS Word - Part 1

2008-12-12T22:07:00.000-08:00

Folks, it’s time to save more time. I always thought why do people don’t use keyboard shortcuts in MS Word to get work done faster. Maybe they don’t know these shortcuts. And hence, for the benefit of those who do not know, I am listing down some of the most useful shortcuts that will make your life easy.

I have categorized them into two.

1) Know-Me-All Shortcuts – These are the basic MS word shortcuts which everyone should know.

2) Cool Shortcuts – There shortcuts are the one which are more useful and most of us did not know. You can use these to impress the lovely ladies around you.

Know-Me-All Shortcuts

1. Ctrl+N : Open a new word document.

2. Ctrl+O : Opens a previously saved document.

3. Ctrl+X : Cut the text selection.

4. Ctrl+C : Copies the text selection.

5. Ctrl+V : Paste the text selection (Make sure cursor is placed where you want to paste)

6. Ctrl+B : Makes the text Bold (Press the keys again to remove the selection)

7. Ctrl+I : Makes the text Italic (Press the keys again to remove the selection)

8. Ctrl+Z : Undo the last action. (You can repeat this several times)

9. Ctrl+Y : Redo (You can repeat this several times)

10. Ctrl+S : Save the active document.

11. Ctrl+A : Selects all text and graphics in the document.

12. Ctrl+F : Find

13. Alt+F4 : Exit - Closes Microsoft Word.

14. Ctrl+U : Makes the text selected Underline (Press the keys again to remove the selection)

15. Ctrl + P : Prints the file

The 20 COOL Keyboard shortcuts are avaliable in my next post.

Take “Ctrl” of your “Word”

Interesting Ads - Series 2

2008-12-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

In India, there is a revolution in outdoor media. The booming of retail malls, multiplexes has opened up a whole new avenues for marketers and media agencies to tap their target audience. With this the outdoor ads are getting creative day by day and are grabbing the audience attention everywhere.

Some creative work displayed below. Kudos to these Indian ad agencies.

1) Brand : Axe Deo

2) Brand: Juice Salon

3) Brand: Lux

4) Brand: Simply Marry.com

5) Brand: Tata Sky Plus

Source: afaqs!

Interesting Ads - Series 1

2008-12-12T04:27:00.000-08:00

One of the most powerful, creative and effective type fo ads are Social ads. These social ads communicate in a more direct way and makes one think about the particular cause.

Came across few innovative and creative social ads worth sharing. These are arranged in order of my preference.

1) Stop Racism.
- Simple yet powerful way of delivering the message.

2) Most child abuse is committeed by the person a child trusts.
- Never thought, the middle finger could be use to communicate such a powerful message.

3) Shahrukh - Actor; Earning Rs 247 per minute.......Indra Nooyi - CFO; Earning Rs 2911 per minute. Don't abort the girl child.
- Very true in our Indian context. This one should be translated in all the languages and put up in all villages across India.

4) Notes are not the only things children share in school today.
- Frankly I never knew that the children use school notebook for a smoke.

5) Child Education Society. Calling for support.
- This one takes a little more time to understand what it wants to communicate.

Dec 12 2012 – The World Will Never Be The Same Again!

2008-12-12T03:19:00.000-08:00

Ten days and four years from this date of writing this piece of blog, the world is going to witness a great transformation that will take the humanity to higher level or will see an end of civilization. (later one more likely)

The Mesoamerican (or Maya) Long Count calendar is going to end on December 12, 2012 and astrologers predict a big change in the climatic conditions (Pole shift or Galatic Alignment) which will not be repeated for thousands of years.

There is also a movie titled 2012 based on this theme. The movie is going to release on 10th July 2009 in US box office. Meanwhile, you can catch the trailer which looks just mind blowing and awesome.. I just love the way these guys in Hollywood make movies.

Please share any information you have on this topic.

8 Tips To Help Parents Raise Their Kids

2008-12-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

I came across an interesting research done by Steven Levitt in his famous book Freakonomics. The research was conducted among kids and parents across schools in Chicago. The author analysis the way the parents raise their kids and its affect on the test scores of the kids.

The research throws up some very interesting insights and breaks the conventional wisdom of effective parenting. He says there are eight factors which help kids score better in their test scores and other set of eight factors which do not have any effect on their test scores.

8 Factors That Affect The Test Scores

1. The child has highly educated parents.

2. The child’s parents have high socioeconomic status.

3. The child’s mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child’s birth.

4. The child has low birthweight. (Negative Effect)

5. The child’s parents speak English in the home.

6. This child is adopted. (Negative Effect)

7. The child’s parents are involved in the PTA.

8. The child has many books in his home.

8 Factors That Do No Affect The Test Scores

1. The child’s family is intact.

2. The child’s parents recently moved into a better neighborhood.

3. The child’s mother didn’t work between birth and kindergarten.

4. The child attended Head Start.

5. The child’s parents regularly take him to museum.

6. The child is regularly spanked.

7. The child frequently watches television.

8. The child’s parents read to him nearly everyday.

To summarize, I think factors which are very important to keep in mind while raising the kids is highly educated parents, high economic status, speaking in English at home, loads of book at home and television should not be looked as child’s enemy but as a friend.

Addictive Games For Your iPhone

2008-11-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

There are tons of games on the App Store (1573 Games at the time of writing this post!) … but most of the games are what I call them DIDI games (Download It and Delete It). These games are useless, waste of time, and needs to be deleted as soon as you download.

To make life easy, I am listing the most interesting and addictive games I have downloaded and played since I bought my iPhone. Most of these games are free or will costs maximum $1.99.

Application which have are labelled as ‘Lite’ connotes that it is a demo (lite) version. It is usually a free app which allows you to experience few features before you buy the main app.

Everest: Hidden Expedition: If you like solving puzzles, mysteries, jumbles etc. then this is a must have game for your iPhone. You will not put down that iPhone until you finish this game. This is an object-finding game where you race with other three contestants to climb up the highest mountain in the world: Mount Everest! With each passing stage the game becomes more and more challenging and the pictures are breath taking. This game is worth every cent!

Addictive Rating: 5 / 5
Price: $ 1.99

The Stone of Destiny: This one too is a find the hidden objects game. The difficulty level is slightly easy compared to the Everest Hidden Expedition. The graphics are quite impressive. The game has 25 levels and also many puzzling minigames.

Addictive Rating: 5 / 5
Price: $ 0.99

Sextuple Word Lite: This is a very interesting word game on the lines of Yahoo! Text Twist game. You have jumbled six letter word and you need to make as many three, four, five and six letter words as you can. Get half of the words to move to the next round. This one is a must have for the word game addicts.

Addictive Rating : 5 / 5
Price: Free

Word Freak: One more must have word game for your iPhone. This game will remain on my iPhone for a very long time. The game is similar to Cows and Bulls we play with paper and pencil game. The game will pick five letter word and you have to guess it. If the letters matching the word are in exact position then it will be marked in red colour but if the letter match the word but not in the right position it will be marked in yellow. You can also sync your scores online to feature among the Top 100 scorers.

Addictive Rating : 5 / 5
Price: Free

ESPN Cameraman: Do you remember the puzzle of finding five differences in the two pictures? Well, this one is exactly that. You have to find five mistakes in the picture, with time ticking and with only 3 hints. The pictures are simply amazing (famous sports events). You will love the thrill and speed of the game. Here too, you can sync your score online for Top 100 scorers.

Addictive Rating: 5 / 5
Price: Free

Solitaire City Lite: For all those Solitaire addicts and Spider fans this is best version to have on your iPhone. The user interface and the graphics are just too good.

Addictive Rating: 4 / 5
Price: Free

aMaze! Lite: You think your hands are steady as a rock. Try this game. A very interesting and challenging game. You tilt and move the iPhone to make the ball pass through objects till you reach the blue marked hole.

Addictive Rating: 4 / 5
Price: Free

Why you should (or should not) Jailbreak your iPhone 3G

2008-11-20T03:52:00.001-08:00

For all those who do not know much about iPhone hacking, here is a quick tip. Jailbreaking and Unlocking are two different things.

In 'Jailbreak' you tamper with the OS of the phone to have news apps, themes, wallpapers etc whereas in 'Unlock' you hack the phone so that it works with any other carrier of your choice. For iPhone 3G jailbreak tools are readily and freely available but hackers are yet to find a solution to unlock it. (Even if they do.. don't unlock or else you will lose your warranty).

To Jailbreak an iPhone is very simple and takes around 15-20 minutes. Please don't spend money to Jailbreak iPhone. Just follow these easy steps given on the site and be ready to install apps and change the look of my iPhone 3G. And yes, while jailbreaking the phone...if you find it is is taking time to start...don't panic!

Tutorial : http://www.iphone-hacks.com/2008/09/25/how-to-jailbreak-iphone-3g-21-with-quickpwn-21-for-windows/

I recommend you Jailbreak your phone only if you want customize the look of your iPhone with Themes, Sliders, SMS Wallpaper, Signal Bars, Battery Icon etc. or you want some (not many) interesting apps like Bite SMS (forward SMS), Cycorder and Qik (video recorder), Categories (to put app in folders) and Un Unlockable (hide the slide to unlock).

Check out the screenshots!

Google Voice Search for iPhone - Awesome but only for US

2008-11-20T03:22:00.000-08:00

Google Voice Search App is finally here. The video demo (see below) makes the app look really awesome and must have app. Unfortunately, like many other apps this one too is limited to the US boundaries. We will have to wait and watch till it come in India.

So for time being (not sure how long) let's just enjoy the video and say .... WOW!!!

Awesome Mac Like Dock for Windows

2008-11-19T04:18:00.000-08:00

Whenever I visit the Apple Store, I always get fascinated with the user interface of the Apple MAC, particularly the Dock that sits at the bottom of the screen. The zoom in effect of the icons on the mouse hover is just amazing.

Till the time you and I get our hands on the Macbook let's get that dock for our Windows with Rocket Dock.

Rocket Dock is a cool application launcher for Windows that provides a dock similar to that of Mac. (screenshots below)

Here you can just drag and drop the shortcuts, auto hide the dock, customize the dock the way you like it and best of all you can minimize the active windows/applications to this dock so no one around can see what you are doing.

So next time you are playing a game or surfing the net, you just minimize the application to the dock… no one around will be able to guess what you are doing. (make sure the dock is in Auto Hide)

To download the software click here: http://rocketdock.com/download

Give A Facelift To Your Gmail

2008-11-19T00:04:00.000-08:00

Folks, its time to move from plain vanilla look of your Gmail account to a more classy and attractive grey and blue shade. (Firefox only)

Here are the screenshots of the new Gmail look.

The Firefox Add-on called 'Gmail Redesigned' is developed by Globex Designs. For more information and to download the add-on Click Here

I must say i impressed with their tagline “Illustrating Lives”.

For more goto: http://lifehacker.com/400156/google-redesigned-facelifts-gmail-and-gcal

iPhone Keyboard Tips and Tricks

2008-11-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some interesting keyboard tricks for your iPhone. These ones are easy to master and will save lot of time. So let's get started.

Always On Caps Lock
Double tap the shift button (upper arrow on left) to keep the caps lock on. To switch off this option double tap again. To do this you will have to go to settings > General > Keyboard > Enable Caps Lock On

Hold Shift Key for Caps
Another way to use caps lock is to keep holding the shift key with one thumb and typing the message with another finger. So if you want to write ‘I LOVE MY IPHONE’ just hold the shift key and keep typing it.

Type a Period
Now save time of typing a full stop at the end of every sentence. Just double tap the spacebar key at the end of the last word and you will see a a period and a space entered automatically after the letter. Certainly a Time Saver!

Auto Correction
Do you want to type words like “I’ll” or “Don’t” very quickly? Simply type ‘ill’ and press spacebar. Or just type ‘dont’ followed by spacebar to get 'don’t'. Magic!

Type the correct letter every time
A letter isn’t entered until you lift your finger off a key. So if you touch a wrong key by accident while typing, simply slide your finger to the one you meant to type. Let go when the correct letter or symbol appears.

Accept suggested word
If you want to accept a suggested word just tap spacebar. For instance, tap spacebar after typing ‘Morni’ to select suggested word 'Morning'.

Stop Googling... Start iGoogling

2008-11-17T05:45:00.000-08:00

Google needs no introduction. In fact, the school textbooks of the modern day will read G for Google instead of G for Goat or G for Gun.

Have you ever come across a term iGoogle? If not then just go to Google.com and you will see ‘iGoogle’ sitting pretty on the top right corner of the web page.

So what is this iGoogle ? To start with, iGoogle is a simple, powerful way of accessing all your favourite websites, blogs, and pages in one single window. Similar to a RSS Reader.

If you want to save yourself from the trouble of going to different websites, agony of waiting for the sites to load and disappointment of seeing no new posts or articles each time you visit the site then iGoogle is a perfect tool for you.

With iGoogle, you will be able to put all your websites under one roof and check out all the new items, updates, articles posted on the website.

Based on Google’s philosophy of keeping things simple, using iGoogle is not difficult at all. So, without much ado let’s get started on how to use iGoogle.

What you will need?
1) Google Account (your Gmail or Orkut account will do)

2) Address list of your favourite websites. (I have taken 5 websites technology sites for demo)

http://lifehacker.com/
http://www.engadget.com/
http://www.techtree.com/
http://www.technobuzz.net/
http://www.macrumors.com/

Steps to use iGoogle
1) Go to http://www.google.com/ig

2) Click on ‘Sign in’ and log in using your Google Account

3) Now that you have signed in, you will see the default iGoogle account like this. (pic below)

4) You will get live cricket scores, horoscope, Google News India and Gmail on this page.

5) Now click on ‘Add Tab’ option next to ‘Home’ Tab > Give a name to your Tab (eg: My sites are on technology hence ‘Tech-know-logy’ (pic below)

Note: If you are using a common name like ‘Technology’ then you will get pre defined site loaded on it. If you do not want this then uncheck ‘I’m feeling lucky, Automatically add stuff based on the tab name.’

6) Now click on ‘Look for new stuff to add’. You will be directed to a page to add gadgets (read websites)

7) Click on ‘Add feet or gadget’ (Orange icon of RSS feed) link to add your favourite websites one by one. (pic below)

8) After you are done adding all the websites click on ‘Back to iGoogle Home’

9) You will find the top three latest posts of each of these websites. (pic below)

You will soon get addicted to this once you start using.

There tons of other things you can do, like add more news items, change the theme, drag and drop the boxes, and much more

Must Have Firefox 3 Add-ons

2008-11-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

I had downloaded the new Firefox for some time now but did not get time to download the Add-ons. Last week, I happen to be on the Firefox Add-on site and was completely amazed to see these classy add-ons.

I am listing down these add-ons which will take your browsing experience to a different level.

Fast Dial: This add-on is similar to speed-dial on your mobile phone. Fast Dial gives you a one click access to your favourite websites. Fast Dial is a panel of thumbnails where each thumbnail has the site address preloaded in it. Just click on the thumbnail and you will be directed to the site. Saves trouble of typing http://www.google.com/ on the address bar.

ColorfulTabs: Add colour to your tabs. A simple and cool add-on to add different colors to your boring and lifeless Tabs. This one will get you a brownie point from your friends.

WebMail Notifier: This add-on sits on the bottom right of your browser and notifies you of new mails (unread) received in your inbox. And with one click you can open the mail account to check out the new mail. It supports : gmail, yahoo, hotmail and more.

FoxyTunes: If you like to listen to music while surfing the web than this add-on is for you. FoxyTunes gives you a complete control of your music player right inside your browser. It supports most of the music players, so compatibility will never be an issue.

Cooliris: Who would have thought that seeing the pictures would get a completely new meaning? Get Cooliris and see your favourite pictures like you have never seen before. The only glitch is the time it takes to load the pictures. But the wait is worth it!

Fast Video Download: Now, downloading your favourite videos from You Tube is just a click away. I haven’t tried yet but must be an useful add-on considering it has downloaded 69,43,701 times and has a four star rating.

Flagfox: A good to know type of add-on. In the words of the developer, this add-on displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website's server and provides quick access to detailed location and web server information.
Besides these add-ons check out the ‘Recommended’ and ‘Most popular’ section to find more cool add-ons.

For those who haven’t started using Firefox 3: Download Now!