GMail introduces Group Chat and New Emoticons

The new Gmail Seattle team is happy to announce two additions to Gmail's built-in chat capabilities: group chat and enhanced emoticons.

To start a group chat, click "Group chat" from the "Options" menu when chatting. Enter the names of the people you want to add, and, bingo, you're in your very own chat room. All the familiar features such as chat archiving and taking the chat off the record still work as well.

These features only work with the latest version of Gmail, which we are still rolling out to IE6, international and Google Apps users.

I would like to see the same features to be provided to GTalk users too in near future.

Official Link

BSNL - 100 mbps DataOne Broadband in next 2.5 years

WOOOOOOW! Isn't that an amazing news. Yes, there is some fact in this story. The same was conveyed in Economic Times dt. 19-Nov-2007.

“BSNL is also working on a project to offer at least 100 mbps of broadband speed for all. Currently, it is about 2 mbps. This will be done in stages where in the first stage fibre lines to the nodes will be converted to fibre optics. In the second stage, the plan is to offer fibre to premises and this will allow 100 mbps. We hope to achieve this in the next two and half years.”

For complete news, please visit this link.

The question remains same:
1) Is this gonna really happen?
2) What will be the tarrif?
3) Will there be Unlimited Download plan with better speed (other than the current 256kbps)?
4) How frequently will BSNL upgrade their tariff? Its been more than 1 year, since I can see any change in the tariff. After the 2mbps plan, BSNL has still left the Unlimited Downloads plan to 256kbps. Will they atleast consider to increase the speed to 512kbps for Unlimited downloads?
5) The night time unlimited download plan (2am to 8am) still holds good for Night Watchmans. A common man can benefit night time unlimited downloads only by drinking lots of Tea during midnight!!!

Windows XP SP3 is on the way...

Just days after Microsoft Corp. delivered a release candidate preview for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), it has quietly issued a similar milestone for Windows XP SP3 to about 15,000 testers, the company said today.
The service pack, the last major update to the six-year-old operating system, is slated for release sometime in the first half of 2008. Microsoft has not been more specific than that six-month stretch, and today even took the time to remind everyone that the half-year window is not a lock. "We are targeting [the first half of] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM [release to manufacturing], though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority," a company spokeswoman said today.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is highly anticipated and according to testers from the Devil Mountain Software group, gives a 10% performance boost compared to computers running on Windows XP Service Pack 2. This is using the exact same computer configuration as well.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 is twice as fast as Windows Vista in the OfficeBench benchmark program. 15,000 testers have been given Windows XP SP3 Release Candiate. It will feature over 1,000 hot fixes and patches which have been put out over the past three years and at least four new features.

Windows XP debuted in October 2001 and was last updated as SP2 in August 2004.

Links - Windows Service Pack Road Map

Computer Power Supply - SMPS

On Friday midnight, my computer UPS started beeping. I woke up and noticed that there was no power supply in my home and there was a burning smell coming from the back side of my PC. I realized that I used my PC to max extent (almost running 24hrs) and the SMPS (Computer Power Supply unit) is blown. My computer dealer confirmed that the SMPS needs to be replaced.

The next question was - "whats the best SMPS to be purchased for a heavy PC user like me?". While discussing with the dealer, I learnt that they supply the local made SMPS to all the PC's which usually costs Rs.500 to 700. These are not heavy duty ones and you would need a better one for heavy usage. I was recommended the Cooler Master Extreme Power Duo 600W SMPS which costed about Rs.4000 (including all taxes). This SMPS includes the power supply for SATA Hard disk/DVD drives. Check their SMPS products here.

Antec is another company which provides hi-end SMPS and cabinets. I heard about the model SP-450 through my neighbour.

In the shop, I saw a cool cabinet (left pic) of Antec which costs Rs.8000, which is transparent from one end. You can see all the PC internal parts from one side and USB/Multimedia connectors are available on top side.

Change your operator, not your mobile number

In a major bonanza to over 37.5 million mobile customers, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced the introduction of “number portability” in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Under this system, subscribers do not have to change their mobile phone number if they shift from one operator to another. This means that if you are unhappy with your service provider but have been unable to shift to another because it would mean changing your phone number, you will now be able to switch while retaining the same number.

The facility will be available to mobile customers by the fourth quarter of 2008.

Market surveys have shown that up to 50% of all mobile users in India are unhappy with their operator, and are willing to switch to another service provider if allowed to retain their number. Number portability has so far been introduced in Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, the US, the UK, most of Europe and Pakistan, among other countries.

Complete News Links:
- Economic Times
- Times of India 13/Nov/2007

Happy Diwali 2007

Wish you all a Happy Diwali 2007

Google Begins 'Gmail 2.0' Rollout

The new look has been made available to about 1% of all Gmail users and is being rolled out to the rest on an ongoing basis. Google on Tuesday confirmed it is giving Gmail a new look. Two prominent blogs that cover Google -- Google Blogscoped and Google Operating System -- have posted screenshots of a new Gmail interface that has been made available to a limited number of users. They're calling it "Gmail 2.0," even if Google isn't.

-Complete Article

More Links:

- Google Unofficial Blog

Gmail has a new architecture that improves the performance and the usability. Now you can use the back button in your browser and bookmark URLs from different Gmail views because the URLs change when you go to a different section. The messages are prefetched when Gmail loads so you don't have to wait too much until a message is displayed.The new contact manager has inline search, better options to delete contacts or add them to a group, the address is now structured and you can enter usernames for different IM networks. You can also export the contacts in vCard format, export the contacts from a group and print your address book so you can use it offline... More with Pics