Techkeyla » apple

Podcast on Apple iPad

Sujoy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:10:06 +0000

So, I am giving in to my laziness syndrome. I have been writing for my other blogs as well, and hence, not much time to write for Techkeyla. And I have found the perfect solution. Video podcast.

So here it is. Techkeyla’s first video podcast, about the Apple iPad. Kindly leave your comments.

Is the iPhone losing its Mojo?

Sujoy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:56:32 +0000

I know I am being a bit nasty to say this, but for all tech lovers who have been following tech headlines for the last couple of months, we have certainly seen a loss of interest for the Apple iPhone. And why is that? Primarily because iPhone’s 3GS has not been revolutionary in terms of the differences between the 3GS and its predecessors [ of course a better processor and video camera were included]. And add to that, the surging popularity of the Android family backed by HTC’s range and Motorola’s Milestone/Droid did not help much to the iPhone camp.

2010 does not look good for iPhone either. All the focus from Cupertino seems to be static on the rumored Apple tablet -iTablet or iSlate. There has been a sort of a tradition followed at Apple, the announcement of a new version of iPhone every year: 2007 -iPhone released. 2008 -2nd Generation, and 2009-3GS. But 2010 is looking quite hazy in terms of what new can the iPhone offer.

The appstore of the iPhone has already touched the 100,000 mark. But with such huge quantity, there comes the risk of becoming static in terms of growth and expansion. The big question that faces Apple is what more can the iPhone offer?

The Android Alliance with players like HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericcson in the bandwagon certainly poses as the future of smartphones. And with consumer-friendly price tags for some of the phones [ HTC Tattoo, T-Mobile Pulse], owning a smartphone couldn’t have been easier and cheaper. The Android is also fast catching up in terms of developers community making a range of applications. And with HTC’s announcement of 2010′s range of new Android phones, iPhone could soon be facing a big challenge to sustain its domination of the smartphone market.

Here’s wishing iPhone a quick and speedy recovery.

So how much does the iPhone really cost on Vodafone UK?

Sujoy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:20:20 +0000

In an earlier post [ Compare the UK iPhone price war: O2 vs Orange vs Tesco] we compared the actual price of an iPhone in the UK on the three carriers. Today, Vodafone released its tariffs for the iPhone. The question remains that whether the fourth addition to the iPhone carrier range really adds value for the customer or is it just yet another player which doesn’t add any significant change.

The data download limit for Vodafone remains capped at 1GB per month. Compared to the Orange data plan which allows 750MB download per month, it is not much of an improvement. But what about everything else? Let’s find it out.

The detailed per monthly chart for the iPhone is given below.

Click on the image to see the full resolution.

Vodafone has certainly got more range of tariff plans, but the minutes offered by Vodafone is lesser compared to O2 or Orange. It is instead compensated by Unlimited Texts. Other than that, the tariff plans are pretty much the same. What do you say?

Compare the UK iPhone Price War: O2 vs Orange vs Tesco

Sujoy — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:28:50 +0000

Right, so here we are with not one, but three official carriers who are providing the iPhone in the UK [ unlike the US, where AT&T still has the exclusive rights]. We had O2 originally who were the sole carriers in the UK, but when the contract between O2 and Apple expired this year in November, Orange sprung into action. Yet, the rate and plans revealed by Orange for the iPhone were of no noticeable change than the ones of O2.

And now, UK’s biggest retail supermarket – Tesco – in partnership with O2, is posing as the third official carrier of the iPhone in the UK. The rate plans were released today [ visit: Tesco iPhone website]

So which one of the three is actually the one to look out, or has anything changed at all? Has the addition of 2 more players in the iPhone market brought any real value addition for the customer. We’ll try to answer that question with comparative spreadsheets of the various rate plans. Hit the jump to view the spreadsheet.

O2:

The first carrier of the iPhone offers the rate plans shown below. [For the higher resolution image, click the picture]

[Rates Source: O2 iPhone Website]

So, the O2 offers the iPhone in Pay & Go for £342.54 (8GB), £440.40(16GB) and £538.30(32GB). But the main competition arena for the carriers is the Pay-monthly deals.

We tried to calculate the per-month(including) for O2′s pay-monthly deals. [All rates are per month, including Phone costs, and averaged over the contract period]

On the 8GB iPhone 3G- it ranges from as low as £34.26 [for 24 month contract -600 mins/500texts and Unlimited internet] to £73.41[ for 18 months contract-3000 mins/500 texts].

On the 16GB iPhone 3Gs-the lowest rate was for £37.89[for 24 month contract-600 mins/500texts and Unlimited internet] to £73.41[for 18 months contract-3000 mins/500 texts]. Now this is a redundant plan, which pretty much leaves the 8GB iPhone plan as a stupid addition.

As for the 32GB iPhone 3Gs – the lowest rate was for £41.56[24 month contract-600 mins/500 texts and Unlimited internet] to £78.79[for 18 month contract-3000 mins/500 texts].

The iPhone certainly does not come cheap, and O2 has no unlimited talk+text plans similar as offered by Orange and Tesco.

Orange:

[Rate source: Orange iPhone website]

[For the higher resolution image, click the picture] The Pay & Go iPhone rates for Orange, O2 and Tesco are not much different at all. But the major difference between O2 and Orange is the offering of Unlimited mins, text and internet on the Orange plans. Of course, Orange caps the unlimited internet usage at 750 MB per month-as per the fair usage policy – which is in fact complete bull crap.

Secondly, for the lower rates, Orange offers better value for money.
Such as for £29.36 a month, Orange offers 150 mins/250 texts [ for almost similar Phone prices on 18 and 24 month contracts]. Whereas O2 offers 75 mins/125 texts for the same amount of monthly pay-plan [half of Orange].

But this difference is not there for the higher pay-monthly plans. So if you are going for the higher pay-monthly plans, there is practically no difference between choosing Orange or O2 as the Per-month cost works out to be quite similar.

And then enter – Tesco Mobile

[Rate Source: Tesco Mobile iPhone Website]

[For the higher resolution image, click the picture] So Tesco’s offering is a bit different from the pay-plans that we have seen so far. Or is it? It does offer a 12 month plan which no other carrier offers. This means, we won’t have to wait for long before we upgrade the next version of iPhone, as and when it rolls out from Cupertino. But the per-month rate calculated is repulsively expensive. Tesco has its own £30 sim only plans which allows customers to avail unlimited texts/calls and internet. An additional 30 quid per month and £50 up-front will now get you the iPhone 3GS 32GB. It works out to just £64.17 which stands at almost half of the rate offered by both Orange and O2. But again, this is a 24 month contract.

Also, as I mentioned earlier – the 12 month contract flexibility is the one to look out for.

So, how do the prices of the three compare to each other.

Best Phone Price:

8GB: Tesco sells at a total of £462 for 12 months – which inflates to £693 for 18 months. But comparing 12 and 18 month deals is not fair. So we’ll just drop it.

So, as 12 month deals are only offered by Tesco, Round 1- goes to Tesco. Also the £20 month pay-monthly gives back £60 monthly credit and also for every pound you spend on your bills, you earn Tesco Clubcard points which you can redeem for your Tesco grocery shopping.

For 16GB:

24 month contract: Tesco’s rates: £1440 for 24 months.

The closest that Orange comes is at £2936-for unlimited stuff and O2 offers something similar for £1321.38

And for 32GB:

24 month contract: Tesco’s rates: £1490 for 24 months [Just £50 more than the 16GB version, hmm!]

Orange offers almost the same for £2936.16 and O2 for £1761.84

The final verdict:

Pay & Go – Either of the three. Maybe Orange, coz it has Orange Wednesdays – offering 1+1 free movie tickets for Wednesdays.

12 months – only available on Tesco – clear choice.

18 months – Orange or O2 doesn’t matter. But if you’re choosing the £29.35 tariff, go for Orange.

24 months- Tesco ftw!! Unlimited Text, Calls and Internet – including Web and Wi-Fi which includes BT Openzones.

Now, it will be a tough act to follow for Vodafone when they release their rate plans early next year. As for Christmas time, I think Santa’s iPhone gifts will come with a Tesco Mobile Sim!

Please leave your comments on this comparison post! Cheerio!

Apple It’s Only Rock n Roll in Images

Sujoy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:30:58 +0000

Okay first get this. Steve Jobs is back, and he did confess he was unwell and even got a liver transplant. But the good news is “he’s Vertical”!! Engadget has a short video of his keynote today at Apple’s “It’s Only Rock n Roll’. It has been embedded at the end of the post. But for now, its picture time baby. Apple’s iPod event of the year in images. Get ready!!

Let’s rock in Apple style!!

More pics after the Jump!!

Matt Parkman from Heroes, I mean that guy who plays Matt Parkman…yeah, you know him!

We all love some Microsoft bashing, don’t we?

Look who’s back!! It’s Steve!

The line-up for the show!

The new iPod Touch range, with even more space.

Love those Graphics. The polygons override.; pardon the pun

One more thing; iPod Nano has a cam; Oh, but the iPod Touch doesn’t. Shame!

The Nano also got an FM radio. But why didn’t it before?

The colors and the hues!

Someone has to give the ad-agency some brownies!!

Yada Yada…Bla Bla!

Oh Norah! Sigh!

WWDC 2009 Keynote Images – Say hello to iPhone 3GS

Sujoy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:19:09 +0000

The new iPhone is here, and in full 3GS glory. Here S stands for Speed, and it is claimed to be the fastest iPhone yet. It has major hardware upgrades for a faster performance. Plus a 3MP video camera, Digital Compas, Voice Controls and an impressive price-tag [ for the current version]. Explore the Launch of the new iPhone 3GS in the pictures below. Cheers!

The Phone that changed..

Say Hello to iPhone 3GS

Looks the same as before

Performance Comparison

3MP camera on the iPhone

Macro Shots on the iPhone Auto Focus Camera

Video is ON..on the iPhone

Video Capture Specs for iPhone

Voice Control in the iPhone

Digital Compass with Maps

And the price is..

Jun 19 for UK and US

August launch for India

And it's a wrap for WWDC 2009 Keynote! No "one more thing"s

Hope you liked the post. The comments are open for you to scribble. Cheers!

WWDC 2009 Keynote in Images – iPhone OS 3.0

Sujoy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:56:41 +0000

This is Part II of the WWDC 2009 Keynote in Image series. And the following images are from the iPhone OS 3.0 demo at the Moscone West.

iPhone OS demo begins

Thank you for the Apps

A billion apps download in 9 months

Cut Copy Paste in iPhone

Landscape Typing

Tethering with iPhone

App developers revenue model

iPhone meets Satnav TomTom

Games Galore in iPhone

SDK

ESPN Alert

iPhone OS 3.0

Next up: WWDC 2009 Keynote Images from the iPhone 3GS launch. Stay tuned!

WWDC 2009 Keynote in Images – Macbook and Snow Leopard

Sujoy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:32:43 +0000

We have liveblogs and then some more liveblogs. I remember somebody did say “Pictures speak louder than words”. So here we are recreating the WWDC Keynote 2009 and telling you the tale of the event at Moscone West, San Fransisco in the form of images. This is a three part post; the first part which is this one, will be carrying images of the Macbook Launch and the Snow Leopard, the second part will be carrying images of the iPhone OS 3.0, and the final part will have images of the new iPhone 3GS launch. So do stay tuned for the next posts which will be up soon.

Phil is in The House

WWDC Entrance People Queue

Inside Moscone West Waiting for Phil

Mac vs PC Ad

Specs of the new Macs

New Mac's got SD Love

Say Hello to Snow Leopard is Here!

Quicktime X unveiled

64bit processing

Open Standards

And the family goes for!

For the loyal ones

Next Up: iPhone OS 3.0 at the WWDC Keynote 2009