A few days back, around the Kindle 3 (not official version name, but third generation in releases) launch, I tweeted saying the Kindle is now tempting me, and I might just take a dive into the world of eBook readers, and add another gadget to my bag.

Surprisingly, several folks on my social networks advised me to go for iPad (with the Kindle app), which is ’obviously shinier and better.’

And then I wondered. Not just me being an Apple anti-fan, I still think this advice was wrong on many counts, probably swayed by Apple’s ‘magical’ hype.

Price: $139/$189 Kindle vs. $499 iPad
Whie I specified, I was intending to go for the Wi-fi Kindle, at $139, it is clearly a case of apples vs. oranges, or maybe even cashewnuts vs. oranges.

Battery Life: 3 weeks vs. 10 hours
Kindle’s battery life with wireless always on is a claimed 3 weeks. On a long trip, 10 hours is all you would read?

Reading experience:
There is a reason why no eBook reader in the market has a colored screen - LCD, LED, or any other display technology. iPad, or any other handheld device, does not offer the paper-like screen or the optimum contrast and sharp display to read indoors as well as in sunlight.

Thoughts? iPad is a great consumption device, but I prefer my Dell Mini notebook, which also allows me to do ‘real work’ and run regular Windows apps.

P.S. I did explore other eBook readers like Nook and Sony Reader, but they don’t work in India.

P.P.S. A couple of Indian eBook readers have also been launched - Infibeam’s Pi and Wink. No verdict on them, as yet.

I’m happy to be invited by Dr.Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital for ‘Amarjyoti’, an eye-donation function/campaign, organized on the occasion of 25th Eye Donation Fortnight observed from 8/7-9/8 in India. The objective of the event is to promote the message of eye donation.

Dad was always ahead in social initiatives, with female foeticide and pulse polio campaigns really close to his heart, and I’ll be proud to represent him for his eyes that helped two corneally blind people see the world.

The families of donors would be honored by Dr. Kiran Bedi.

P.S.
More than 12 lakh people in India are waiting for cornea in donation.

 

Please read this, and share with your network to avoid being duped.

Over two months back, I did a small investment with Kotak after a telemarketing call with Ashish Gupta (9278865096).

I was promised:

• Life Insurance in name of my mother
• No exit load
• Partner offer (with Apollo Munich) of medical insurance for my mother of the value of INR 100,000

The agent - Narendar (9953870604) - visited me at work and got the paperwork done. After two weeks I recieved the policy document, and the pain.

Issues:

• Life Insurance was in my name
• Exit load was applicable
• No information on the medical insurance

Repeated calls to Ashish Gupta on the number went without response for three weeks. He was usually out for lunch or meetings, as I was told.

Once I connected with him, and he said he was travelling (for lunches?) and unavailable. He promised me to get the life insurance name rectified and get me the application number for Apollo Munich, which then I can follow up as well. I ignored the exit load promise, as I understood it was just a false claim by the agent.

Meanwhile, my sister enquired from another Kotak agent, Rahul (9899996634), who said there is no such partner offer running. However, he offered to get the life insurance thing rectified and took the policy document promising a week’s turnaround time. Since then, he’s gone untraceable.

It’s been over six weeks, and I have no communication from Ashish. Repeated calls to his number have had calls taken by his colleagues who say they’ll pass on my message.

Pooja said she’ll call back in five, and never did. Subhash Yadav, the supervisor, said he’ll get Ashish to call and sort this by 5:30 that evening, hasn’t responded as well.

If you get a call from these agents or numbers (in brackets), please do not make any investment. Better still, tell them that you’ve heard of my experience.

I’ll write to Kotak’s grievance cell soon since the customer support has not been helpful. Next stop would be a complaint to IRDA.

@dtptraffic

If there’s one social media effort from a government agency that I’d really appreciate, this is it. They even made it to the popular blog, Mashable, for booking traffic offendors through Facebook photos.

Delhi Traffic Police is on Twitter giving traffic updates all the time, and in a burst in rainy and traffucked day like today. If you don’t use Twitter on mobile, make sure you subscribe to their updates via SMS.

*salute*

Times Internet Limited, the internet arm of the Times of India group, has been a pioneer in Web business under the Indiatimes brand. Sadly though, I’ve forever hated the portals/services they’ve introduced, much because of the shoddy Web development and user experience they offered.

The Times of India site did a refresh some time back (@urbaneye, the CEO of Indiatimes, tells me that another revamp of TOI is coming next week), and yesterday ET’s site did a major revamp, and finally is a fine news portal, fitting to it’s status as the leading business daily in print.

Coca-Cola India has launched Maaza Milky Delite, a blend of mango pulp and milk. It is priced at Rs 15 for a 200-ml pack.

Coke would test market for two months in Kolkata before launching it nationally.

Wipermen!

Cyber City, Gurgaon

A financial portfolio management service.

Although I’ve never used it, but I guess http://moneycontrol.com also has a similar service. Incidentally, paisa.com allows you to migrate your portfolio from moneycontrol to paisa.com.