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Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini receives a price cut of Rs. 1,000

Mid range android phone from Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini had just recently got a price cut of about Rs. 1,000. Most of the popular online shopping web sites like Flipkart and Letsbuy particularly have updated their sites accordingly.

Presently Xperia Mini is retailing at Rs. 12,000 including VAT. You can do more bargain at a local shop but i am pretty sure that most of the local shops and dealers here in Indian cities will still quote a higher price for this phone in the same way as they are doing for HTC sensation which also had recently got a price cut of about Rs. 6,000.

After this price cut Xperia Mini beats all other Smart Phones in this range from other companies like Samsung. Samsung have Ace as the only contender to Mini but the build quality of Ace is far lower than the Mini. Also ICS update for Xperia Mini had already been announced but there is no ICS update coming for Samsung Ace.

This price cut can also be attributed to the fact that Sony Ericsson is now just Sony and hence they are slowly phasing out their old Ericsson models and bringing in the new ones. We can expect more price cute from Sony in the near future when they are going to release the new Xperia line up.

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HDFC Netsafe vs. ICICI B2 Ewallet

Well you all might be aware of the benefits of using virtual credit card or also popularly known as VCC. If you don’t know about the VCC than click here to learn about it in depth. VCC is definitely the only alternative for those people who want to make payments online but do not want to buy a physical credit card for the same. This is the attitude of most of the Indians out there. As you also know that Indians cannot make international payment using their Indian debit cards as it is not valid internationally especially online irrespective of the fact that banks are claiming it as international or global card.

The two most popular VCC service provided by Indian Banks include

  • HDFC Netsafe
  • ICICI B2 Account

We will compare both these services feature by feature in the following paragraphs.

  1. Initial Opening of account : Opening an ICICI B2 account is a easy process as you just have to fill the online form and submit the documents to the representative who visits your home. B2 account is a zero balance account so there is no need to maintain any AQB in B2 account. The only disadvantage is that this service is available in very few areas. On the other hand for opening a HDFC account on has to maintain an AQB of Rs. 10,000 which is not a good option for students or other non working class. One can open a HDFC No frills account but whenever you ask the public relationship officer about the same they will entangle to you in such a loop of talks that you will leave the bank as they will force you to open a normal bank account. HDFC No Frills account is available everywhere in India.
  2. VCC Creation : Creating a VCC in both these banks is an easy task. You just have to follow in screen instructions to make one.

Characteristics of HDFC Netsafe VCC :

  • VCC can be either VISA or MasterCard depending on the fact whether you have a VISA or MasterCard debit or credit card
  • VCC can be loaded with any desired amount subjected to the maximum of the balance in your savings account.
  • Every time a new VCC number will be generated which means more anonymity.
  • Money from the VCC can be refunded to your bank account in case the VCC is partially used or completely unused.
  • Refunds can be accepted in this VCC. This feature is not mentioned on their website but is observed by me during a situations in which the seller refunds my amount.
  • The VCC generated by this service will not avail features like 3D secure (VISA) or MasterCard secure code. Due to this it cannot be used on the websites which requires these security measures to be activated before making a payment.
  • Can make payments via PayPal by attaching this VCC to your PayPal account but there is a risk that your account will be limited as every time a new VCC number will be generated.

Characteristics of B2 Ewallet:

  • This VCC is VISA only.
  • This VCC can also be loaded with any desired amount subjected to the maximum of the balance available in your B2 account
  • VCC number will remain same and the same card will be reloaded again and again.
  • Money from this VCC cannot be refunded back to your account in case the card is partially or completely unused. By this i mean money will remain under your control only but that money will not earn any interest. Money will remain in your Ewallet. So fill you VCC by only that much amount which you are actually going to use.
  • Refunds are easily accepted in this VCC as the card number will always remain same.
  • This VCC will have 3D secure service and thus is universally acceptable like physical credit card.
  • Can make payments via PayPal and can also be used to verify your account.

ICICI B2 Ewallet is definitely have a upper hand against HDFC Netsafe as the former is universally acceptable. Though anonymity is not present in Ewallet like it’s present in HDFC Netsafe but 3D secure registration will take care of this fact also.

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Galaxy R will also receive the ICS update within this month

galaxt r ics update

The much awaited ICS update for the high end Galaxy phones is finally here. Samsung has officially updated their status on the development if the ICS for their high end galaxy series of phones. The first Galaxy series phone to receive ICS update is Galaxy S2 that too will be available in limited areas only. Most of the area where it will be available includes some parts Europe and South Korea.

Other phones which will receive the update includes Galaxy Note, Galaxy S Plus. The hardware on these device is almost equal to or exceed the hardware of Galaxy S2. So from hardware point of view these all devices are compatible with upcoming ICS.

Galaxy R comes preloaded with Android Gingerbread 2.3.5. It is one of the first Smart Phone from Samsung in India to feature a dual core processor from Nvidia. It gives a direct competition to the world’s first dual core phone LG Optimus 2X. LG being a less popular mobile brand in India can’t reap great profits from 2X.

As far as the latest reviews go one cannot directly see what the new ICS will bring extra as this one also features the same old Touch Wiz interface from Samsung. But under the hood improvements will definitely be there in the form of battery improvements and over all speed.

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Roll out of ICS update for Galaxy S2 begins from 13th march

The much awaited Ice Cream Sandwich update from Samsung for Galaxy S2 is finally being roiled out by the manufacturer in a phased manner. The parts that will first receive the update includes Korea and European countries of Hungary, Poland and Romania.  The update can be applied to your device either through Wi-Fi or through Samsung Kies desktop software.

Google ICS is the latest stable Android OS from Google and was first introduced in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus about 5 months ago. The new ICS for Galaxy S2 definitely raise the hope of other galaxy phone users also. Samsung has also confirmed about updating some of the old Galaxy series phones to Android Gingerbread i.e. 2.3

There is no fixed information that when will Indian S2 user will be able to update their phones to the latest OS. Thought this update is much awaited but some user from countries where this update is released first are claiming to have some lag and choppiness after updating the phone to the latest OS. Though this has not been confirmed yet but still if this is true than i will better stay with Gingerbread rather than Ice cream.

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12 Mbps plan from Reliance is not feasible everywhere

The new plan under post-paid category from Reliance really looks good on paper but it is not feasible everywhere as claimed by their customer care executives. I have confirmed personally from local reliance engineer and also see myself this plan in action at one of my friends home. A 12 Mbps plan will at least give a transfer rate of 1.5 Mega Bytes Per Second but it is not giving the same. The maximum which i can get on their connection is 3.5 Mbps which gives a transfer rate of 437.5 Kilo Bytes Per Second.

A 12 theoretically will not be feasible on the present copper wire network available in most of the cities in India and also it will not be compatible with the present modems from Reliance. This can be supported only on the Ethernet network which according to Reliance is available only in Metropolitans.

So instead wasting Rs. 999 on this plan, go with some other plan at less cost. In case if in near future if this plan starts to work perfectly than this will be one of the most lucrative plan available in India (excluding plans offered by some local operators like Beam in Hyderabad ). This plan offers 12 Mbps of bandwidth for downloads up to 25 GB and 1 Mbps after that. From my personal experience Reliance is always a stable broadband service provider in terms of ping and jitter. Availability is the only issue with this provider as their network spread is much less as compared to other ISP’s like Airtel, BSNL.