HTC TyTn II Launched In India For 33K

High Tech Computer Corporation, better known as HTC, has finally announced the launch of one of the sleekest and most power-packed mobiles off their barn, the all new HTC TyTn II. The HTC TyTn II is a 3.75G/HSUPA Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Pocket PC that shall be available in India at Rs 33,000, almost the price at which one could also eye a NOKIA Communicator or an O2 XDA Smartphone.

"The launch of the HTC TyTN II, is all about fast, easy access on the move to the kind of features and connectivity previously reserved for the PC world,” echoed Ajay Sharma, the Country Manager of HTC India.

The HTC TyTn II, also known as Emonster in Japan, sports a new home screen, named HTC Home that provides easy access to contacts, calendar, push-email, tasks, mobile versions of office suits and much more. The smart phone has a 65K TFT touch screen (240x320px) and sports an awesome3.15MP camera. It weighs just 190g and stretches to 112x59x19mm.

The phone's 2.8in color screen slides up to introduce the fully featured QWERTY keyboard and the comfortable tilt allows you to chat, write emails or even play games with ease. It's said that this phone packs more power than the much touted iPhone but some video issues makes it lose the oomph!

An Interim Post

Yes, it's been a long vacation. Loads of things have been happening in my life. First, a really good news. I finally bought a laptop for myself. Now I hope I shall be able to contribute regularly to the blogosphere. The one I got is a Acer Aspire 5920, for 37 grands.

 

Also, got myself associated with the prestigious WATBlog. Just wrote my very first post on India's WiMAX scene, yesterday. It is great to know Rajiv Dingra and even better to get a chance to write for him. If nothing else, at least the experience shall help me acquire a huge amount of exposure in the blogging scene.

 

Currently, I'm in Mumbai, at my home, down with chicken pox. Yes, that's one of the reasons why I'm able to post on the Labyrinth, after so long. I hope I shall be able to start writing again. Till then, thanks a lot for your appreciation and support.

Adios.

Labyrinth Getting Revamped!

Hi,

Shayon's Labyrinth is up for change. The yellowish colored theme is passé now and a fresh feel shall be induced. There's a huge chance that by the time you read this post, the look and feel of the blog has already changed. And just in case it still hasn't, that's because it's still in the transition.

Yes, before I forget, I would need a good logo for my blog and since I ain't that great a graphic designer myself, I'd like to ask you if you'd be kind enough to help me out. In that case, kindly shoot me a mail to shayon.pal+labyrinth@gmail.com and I shall get back to you within 24 hours.

Moreover, I shall have to get all my previous widgets back up and working, so it's going to take some time. Kindly bear with me.

Thanks.

Labyrinth Back In Business

Finally I heave out the sigh of relief. As I'd mentioned in my last post, Labyrinth had been blocked by Blogger, categorizing it as a potential spam blog. However, after I asked them to review my blog, I just got the clean chit today. This is what the support guys at Blogger had to say:

Hello,

Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Well, all the while when Labyrinth was blocked, I had been trying to figure out a way to contact the Blogger support and ask them a few questions but I realized there's not a single place where they've put up their email address where the users might be able to reach to them? Do you think it's right? Or is it that I'm too naive to figure out the contact info?

Good Ol' Orkut Has Changed

It was high time that Google had considered me too to be worthy enough for being bestowed with the latest look of Orkut. I have been hearing about the change in their popular social networking site Orkut's layout on The official Orkut blog , Google Blogoscoped and various other news sites for the last 4 days. Even here in my college, quite a few students have been blessed with the new design, but not me. Although Orkut's blog had said "We're rolling it out to groups of users at a time over the next week", it was getting tough for me to keep patience. Well, finally I too get to use the latest layout from today and I thought, why not check out every nook and cranny of the new layout and find out how much our good ol' Orkut has actually changed.

Changes in Orkut (that I could figure out):

• Added a few lovely round corners here and there.
• The tabbed links actually look and feel like tabs now.
• The special first character for your name is missing now.
• It looks like a complete package now. No more a social network under the development phase, if you know what I mean.
• They have now added breadcrumb-like navigation for communities.
• A very useful navigation bar added at the top (reminds me of free blogs on Blogspot, though).
• Options like "send message", "send teaser", "add to crush list" etc have been removed from the main profile page. Rather, they can now be view by pointing your mouse on the "more" link below the profile pic. This is for others' profile page, not your main homepage.
  Update: However, I feel the "Report Abuse" link should not have been hidden. It should rather be prominently visible to the users.
  
• The way "trusty", "cool" and "sexy" meters have been incorporated looks much better now.
• "Edit Profile" page looks much cooler.
• The fact that you can now crop your profile picture after uploading just rocks!
• Update: Thankfully they have done away with the line "You are connected to xxxx users via xxxx friends" from the main page. It was an useless piece of information, anyway.
• Update: You can now know about every change that your friends make, right on your homepage.
  

Changes in Orkut that would have been desired:

• Akin to the Orkut extension for FireFox, I would have preferred if I could have direct access to a profile's scrapbook, album or communities or send message to him/her just from a profile's picture or name.
• I wish instead of just "scrap tips", there would actually be a rich text editor for scraps and messages to be able to modify fonts, add pictures or insert smilies.
  Update: Or, how about keyboard shortcuts? Say, Ctrl+B for bold and Ctrl+I for italicized text.
  
• I would've preferred to be given an option to write in Indian languages.
• After you reply to someone's scraps using the "reply" button just below that profile's scrap, you can't refresh your scrapbook without sending the same scrap again to that profile. It's so irritating while trying to chat with a friend that I just end up scrapping on my friend's scrapbook itself, the old way.
• I hate the fact that you can send a message to either one person, a group or all friends at the same time. What if I want to send a message to my classmate, my girlfriend and my brother? How do I group them then? I would rather have the option of tagging people and then message them according to tags or I should be allowed to manually select profiles from my friends list, the way my email client allows me to select addresses from my address book.
• It's time for Orkut to shed the Beta tag.
• Update: Just as, in GMail, we get a notification and request to "update conversation" the moment we get an email concerning the same conversation that I am currently reading, I'd love it if I could get a similar notification asking me to "update scrapbook" the moment I get a scrap from a contact. That ways I don't have to keep a track on my GMail inbox or Google Talk to know whether someone has scrapped me.
  

My perception of the latest change:
On the whole, Orkut definitely looks much better than how it was before. Yet, as I've already pointed out, there are still more scopes for improvement. Allowing user post videos and html on scrapbook was a huge step Orkut had taken. Somehow, the very first time I looked at the new design, it suddenly reminded me of Windows Live Mail and Hi5.

Anyways, I guess we just got to change to survive. Darwin's theory always stands true, be it a living being or be it a website. I have pointed out as much changes and wanted features as I could. But that doesn't mean you aren't welcome to add to the list ;-).

Happy Orkutting!!

A Little Sneak Peek Into Latest Design Of "Shayon's Labyrinth" - Suggestions Expected

Remember my last post on update on the Labyrinth and when I'd informed about increased feed subscribers to this page where I was talking about giving this blog a new look? Well, I wasn't bluffing! The above pic is a new design that Ashwin just suggested that I could implement. Well, as far as I'm concerned, it definitely looks pretty good and futuristic but I'd rather prefer a planar look. I was thinking about joining the lines at the top and make the header look like a paper weight on the page. Or, I was also thinking of just making two sheets of rounded papers, one for the main posts and other for the sidebar and just keeping the header on top of them. If not, then we shall have to remove the gaps that have been created right below the header, in the above pic.

So, what do you say about it? Do you think our ideas are good enough? Or do you too have something to contribute? Do feel free to keep upping the comments count.

Yahoo Gets You Texting, Out Of Beta Now!

The news is out. Yahoo Mail is said to come out of Beta on Monday (Pacific Daylight Time). After shifting to Beta about 2 years ago, Yahoo has incorporated a lot of changes in it's email service. Keeping in tune with GMail and Windows Live Mail, Yahoo had been forced to up the bar for its competitors. After announcing unlimited quota for it's email users, Yahoo Mail had also incorporated chat feature from within the mail window, courtesy Google Chat, and had also improved the performance of Yahoo Mail Beta a lot.

So, we know all about it. What's the news, buddy?
News? News is Yahoo has upped the ante again. Just like Yahoo Messenger, you can now even send text messages to mobile phones in USA, India, Canada & Philippines using Yahoo Mail. Although I'm sure rest of the world won't be kept waiting for long, the very fact that India has been included in the very first list is a pleasant surprise indeed! Well, whether it's free to send unlimited SMSes to the same number or whether you need to get at least one reply from that number after you've texted thrice (same as yahoo messenger) is unknown, yet.

So, what do you say? Wanna start texting your buddies?

Hooray! Increased Feed Subscribers on Labyrinth!!

(Click to enlarge)

Wow! It seems all my hard work is finally paying off. I can't believe sprucing up my blog page would fetch me so many subscribers, and that too overnight. It was just yesterday that I had installed the menu bar at the top, gotten the links work fine and even asked George to help me out with the header.

The picture above is a summary of my feed subscribers for today, as charted by FeedBurner, my RSS feed management service. Even until yesterday, the maximum subscribers I'd ever had was 16. I was pleasantly shocked to find that it has increased to 27, today. As is pretty apparent in the above report for today's activities on my page, I've gotten the highest subscriber today, in the past 30 days. I can see I have 80% new visitors on my page and people have actually started to reach my page searching for terms like "sort my inbox", "mozilla" and "problogger" (that was a shocker, especially because the site itself gets a huge turnout as compared to mine, where it's mention only in my blogroll.

Well, what can I say? I love Google and I love FeedBurner (which incidentally is again a Google service, now). I'm now just keeping my fingers crossed while anticipating the reaction from all you readers, after I get the revamped look of my blog, live!

Update on the Labyrinth!

It's been a long wish, to be able to install a menu bar on this blog. There are so many information that I'd like to be available for the readers and it' was becoming too tough to accommodate them all on the sidebar. It was getting too cluttered. Well, thanks to Hans, I could finally set it up on my page. Do let me know what you think about it.

And yes, I've set up a new section in my page, called 'Bugs', where I'm going to report all the bugs that I could find on this site. These include wrong scripting, dead links and various other abnormalities that might hinder proper navigation on the site. As a reader, you too are requested to inform me any problems that you might come across. I shall try my level best to sort things out.

Climbing Up The Search Engine Ladder

Wow! Since the time I have been consciously trying to improve the PageRank of my page, this web page has climbed up quite a bit. I was just searching for my name (Shayon) on Google & Yahoo and, I must admit, I was impressed to check out the results. Not so long ago, I had to go to at least the next page to find my blog listed in the results and now, it' secures the 2nd place on Google and 3rd on Yahoo! I guess I shall have to be some more famous and stay online for a few years more to overtake Mr. Robert Lewis Shayon (top result on Google), who writes for Waymark Press :-p. And of course, I am surely gonna buy shayon.com (result #2 on Yahoo) one day, although $60 is a little too steep, I must say.

Oh boy! Ego surfing does make you feel happy!! ;-)

I signed up for PPP!

I have been blog surfing, as usual, the other day when I suddenly stumbled upon this page that introduced me to PayPerPost. I wasn't too sure what it's all about, until I visited the site myself and skimmed through their forums. I must say, it was pretty impressive. I have been blogging for over 3 years now, but I had never known that earning the moolah while you do what you love the most, blogging, was so easy. All one needs to do is sign up their own blog pages on PayPerPost and voila! You are all set on your way to be a millionaire! On PayPerPost (PPP), all you need to do is choose the firms whom you'd like to repesent or whose products intrigue you. Check out their websites, read about their products and when you feel you are satisfied, come back and write about them on your page. Yes, it's as easy as that! What I loved the most about PPP is the fact that you can write about only those products that you feel are good. There is no pressure on you. Moreover, you can even write about them as and when you find time. You can choose your advertisers yourself, as per your taste!

So, what do you say? Personally, I feel, if you have a personal page or a blog, PPP is a great way to earn some money! What more? Since you register your own page with PPP, it also helps you to drive traffic to your blogs and personal pages.

Google's Privacy Concerns

I'm sure you must be aware of the loads of privacy concerns that Google has been churning out in various quarters and among the public in general. Well, here's a video uploaded on YouTube from Google itself, telling you what they actually do with those cookies that they store in your computer and whether and how they know who you are and what you do. Hope this video succeeds in putting some of your concerns to rest.

Bloggers' Union

It seems us bloggers are finally getting recognised. Blogging is finally coming of age. I'm sure you must have heard a lot about bloggers earning simply by posting on their or others' pages or by advertising extensively. What more? Bloggers are also proposing to form unions for themselves! Yes, you read that right. News all around the internet is abuzz with the discussion of whether bloggers should need to form an union or not. "In a world as diverse, vocal and unwieldy as the blogosphere, there's no consensus about what type of organization is needed and who should be included. Some argue for a free-standing association for activist bloggers while others suggest a guild open to any blogger -- from knitting fans to video gamers -- that could be created within established labor groups."

Well, to some extent, I'd say that, if not a full fledged union, today's bloggers do need some security. Today, there are people who blog for their companies, their products. There are bloggers who are as passionate about their blog pages as in the work they do for their companies. I myself have been up all night, innumerable times, just to frame up a great post or probably trying to give more exposure for my page. There are times when I'm online 7-8 hours, at a stretch, working on my blog. Well, here I just maintain a personal blog (although I'm planning to shift the realm towards tech blogging) but think about those who give up all of their days and nights just to dish out the latest happenings to their readers. It's true that blogging gets recognized these days. It's my blog that got my name printed in a newspaper for the first time ever (well, actually second time. I'd rather prefer to forget about the first occurence). Of course, I should never deny Sakshi's help,. It was precisely her post that earned me all the review.

Okay, I got deviated from the topic I know. Anyways, what do you say? Should there be a proposed Union for the bloggers or is it just another soon-to-die fad? Afterall, it's us bloggers who can make all the difference!

iPhone

Here's a video showcasing the features of the latest tech phenomenon, the iPhone!

Some More Update To The Page

Well, just incorporated a rating system for all my posts. It seems, although it works with all my posts, it's just the very first one that isn't compatible. Great! now some more debugging to be done!! :-(

UPDATE: Sorry, had to deactivate the feature. It was looking too ugly.

Where Am I?

Just added a nifty tool to my sidebar, titled "Right Now I Am...", that'll allow me to publish my whereabouts for all my blog trotters. What's more intriguing is the fact that I can even update the status while I'm on the go, via my mobile. It just so happens that it's churning out wrong timings. I mean, even if I post something right now, it says "12 hours ago". So, unless I confirm that I've sorted out the bug, whatever timing you see, shown out there, kindly subtract 12 hours to know when that certain status was originally posted. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Update (Aug 20, 2007): I've removed this certain feature 'coz it was getting too irregular from my side to update it. And if I don't update the status frequently enough, it made no sense.

Updates & More Updates

Well, loads of Updates pending! Got the Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, yesterday. Finally back in college now. Had loadsa fun in Kolkata, this time. Still gotta write about my night stay in Howrah station. Then I'll be off with a review of the book. Yes, I'm gonna post the spoilers here! Oh by the way, I already have the ebook version of the latest Potter series. I've already mailed it to quite a few friends of mine who, I know, shall be interested. If you too want a copy, kindly leave your email address in the comments section. As for the rest, as I've already said, loads of updates are due, now. Hope i get to be more regular at the college Computer Center.

Ciao!!

NOKIA, Photobucket & The Wall Mag!

So, can u see the picture of a pretty NOKIA handset at the top? Well, I happen to be a proud owner of one of them :-P. The reason ain't all that romantic, though. My previous phone, the NOKIA 1108, had been flicked by some unfortunate bloke off my pocket, while I was travelling in a inhumanely congested train, from Kanjur Marg (that's where my office is) to Dadar. At the first, I was definitely very very pissed off. But then, u hardly have anything you can do, in these situations, have you? Hehe, "unfortunate bloke", 'coz my sim was blocked with pin code and the phone was locked with security code. He can't even insert a new sim in it 'coz in that case he shall have to insert the security code! :-P Anyways, wot had gotten me pissed off the most was the fact that I lost all my fucking contacts and messages. Over 250 of my contacts got washed off in a jiffy. Hope people do respond to my mails fast and send me their contact numbers.

Oh, did you hear that Yahoo! Photos is shutting down? The moment I heard that (about a month ago), I've been wondering how to save the hundreds of pics I have storred in there, in the past 3 years. Although Yahoo! has given options to export your pictures to a lot of other photo hosting websites, it was getting tough for me to choose between Flickr, Photobucket and Shutterfly. After some research, I realised Photobucket was the one for me. I just started the export of my pictures from Yahoo! Photos onto Photobucket, right before I started writing this post. They say it's gonna take them about 72 hrs, that's 3 days. Hope it's a satisfying service!

While I was in college, staying in Hostel 'E', the topfloor boarders of the same had formed a community called "TopFloorers" which consisted most of the top floorers and a few regulars from other floors and hostels too. My dear friend Rathin suddenly, out of the blue, thought up of creating a "Wall Magazine" where bits and pieces could be shared by us all, and hence "The Wall Mag"was born. It gives me immense pride to inform that I happen to be a co-admin of that blog page. It's a novel idea that Rathz has started, hope the tradition of the TopFloorers continues.

Amen!

Root for the TAJ....!!!

This monument speaks volumes when it comes to love. It has given soul to the word and to the ascribed feeling of love.

And today- The monument that has put India on the itenary of every tourist.... it needs our support.... and loads of smses... to make it one of the seven wonders of the world.

To support, simply sms TAJ to 4567. Lets vote... vote for your country.... and vote for Love....!!! For further read click here .