3G speed on 2G Airtel plan

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This is yet another reason to love Airtel! 3G was enabled on my phone ever since they were offering free trials in the month of Feb-March 2011. However for some reason, even though my Nokia N73 was 3G enabled, I still got slow EDGE speeds, not sure why.

After I got my Android phone, I experienced real 3G speeds of 3.5 Mbps, however the free 3G trial ended soon after a few days. Yet, when I set my phone to 3G mode post the trial, I get a constant speed of 500-800 Kbps, which is on my 2G Mobile Office plan priced at 98/month with a 2G free data usage limit.

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On occasions, it has also gone up to 2mbps as you can notice in the screenshot. While this isn’t really 3G speed, however isn’t it awesome to get half to one or two megabits of bandwidth at the price of an EDGE connection?

The speed makes web browsing, downloading apps and files, as well as watching YouTube videos a cinch. They load in a jiffy and no buffering time as well.

Are you on Airtel too? Or another carrier? Do you get such amazing speeds as well? Do share.

EDIT: I see a lot of traffic coming onto this post through searching for how to get 3G speed on 2G Airtel. So even though I’m not sure of this method, you could try it.

  • You first need to have 3G network enabled on your number I suppose, so sms 3G to 121. You’ll have to subscribe to the 1 day plan for Rs. 8, just so you get 3G enabled.
  • Now as usual, activate your 2G plan of Rs. 98 for 2GB/month. This isn’t tested so please don’t blame me if it does not work. Set your phone to 3G and you might just get 3G speeds even on 2G plan, because 3G network might still be working.
  • I’ve read from another blog post, there’s another (tested and working) way to do this, by activating 100MB 2G plan for Rs. 10 after the 1 day 3G plan. The plan will keep getting renewed every 3 days and you shall be paying Rs. 100 for 1GB for a month, and get 3G speed. Although it seems costlier than Rs. 98/month for 2GB Mobile Office, but give it a shot if either one doesn’t work. At your own risk that is.
  • Please comment back if any of the method worked for you. Thanks.
UPDATE:
Here are Airtel’s official 3G plans. I suppose the first two are affordable if you aren’t going to make heavy usage of it. Free usage per monthly rentals are as follows:
200MB @ Rs. 100
500MB @ Rs. 200
1200MB @ Rs. 450
3p/10KB post the free usage. SMS ‘3G’ to 121 to activate. ‘3G USE’ to 121 to check usage.
(The above plans were told to me by the customer care guy. Airtel’s official site however differs: http://airtel.in/Airtel-3G/tariffs.html)


If you simply need 3G because EDGE is turning out tad slow for your daily surfing, app download and Whatsapping needs, try these packs out. And as I’ve confirmed, you are only charged for the number of days you use these plans. So if you deactivate 2G in the middle of your billing month, activate 3G for few days, return back to 2G, you won’t be charged entire monthly plan rentals for each of these activations. Not bad to try out the plans then. 

Super Mario for Nintendo 3DS!

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YES! The trailers are finally revealed. For the past couple of months, I’ve waited for this day in June when the E3 conference would be held, and Nintendo would offer a sneak peak into the game. Until now, all we knew was that it’s going to be a 3D game, and the return of the Racoon suit. But.. after watching the trailer LIVE on the E3 broadcast.. I was astounded. Take a look at the Official Trailer:

OKAY! So the trailer gave a demo of the amazing 3D world and the enemies and power-ups the game has to offer. I was okay until that point. Yes, I desperately needed a 3DS to play it. However, the next day or so, I discover THIS:
(WATCH IT PLEASE!)

And THAT is what FREAKS ME OUT. AAAAAAAAAA!!! What the..
The familiar 1-2 world we’ve played in the classic games, completey revamped to a fresh new 3D look. That is really what you can call a 3D version of the actual Super Mario Bros. platform games. It is like.. taking the 2.5D New Super Mario Bros. to an entirely new 3D level. I always wondered how they would pull it off, or rather, how would the platformer look in 3D. I thought it would resemble the other 3D games we’ve had, like Super Mario 64, which don’t really come close to the platform version. They are somewhat different in their own way.  Continue reading →

First post from my Android

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Hopefully I shall be posting more often now since I got WordPress on my new Android device, about which I have yet to write about as well.

This should cut down my laziness of blogging, as typing on a touch screen QWERTY keyboard in the comfort of your hands, should be easier than having to type on the desktop. Also having left Facebook, I would need another place to share my thoughts and experiences, and what better place can there be other than my personal blog!

P.S.: Yay I’m  a Moblogger now!

Internet upgrade to 512 kbps

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So yeah like.. after another eon (that lasted for 2 long years) of staying on a hopeless (in this era) 256kbps, thanks to my (generous?) ISP lowering their prices and introducing new plans, I could afford to make a plunge to half a megabit per second (God! Wonder when I’ll ever make it to a full megabit).

My earlier (2 yrs back) ISP was Sify Broadband, which had horrendous plans of 1500 for a 256kbps unlimited.. like WTF? So I was always locked onto 128 UL or a 256 night UL with a 150mb/day restriction (imagine the pain.. more so that you end up getting days cut off your account for every 150 mb extra data transferred).

Hathway (Mumbai), that is my current ISP, kind of lowered their plans by bringing down 256 Unlimited to 1444/- (3 months) and 512 Unlimited to 1698/- (3 months). So I didn’t mind paying 200 bucks extra for twice the bandwidth.

1 mbps, however, is priced at ~1200/- per month. This, I would have given a go, but not after I came across this line at the end of the tariff plan row for it.. ‘20gb Fair Usage Policy limit’.

Fair Usage Policy, my foot. That’s the new strategy ISPs in India have been using to offer limited connections under the hood of an Unlimited plan. Instead of naming it a 20gb limited 1mbps, they’ll still sell it as Unlimited, with possibly very little of the crowd realizing about this cap. Fair Usage Policy is acceptable in cases where there is seriously an over-usage of bandwidth that would considerably affects other customers. Setting the FUP cap to something around 50-70gbs is something to be called ‘fair’ enough. Otherwise, it only looks suitable of a plan for the end-user who pays the hefty amount simply to load pages faster or enjoy a faster stream of online videos. Those considering filling up on their anime or movie collection, would rather be contented on a lower bandwidth than having a nonsensical cap as such.

For my experience on this new 512 kbps plan, I’m getting the usual ~64KB/s download speeds and as for watching Youtube, the sole reason I switched for, it still won’t offer me a smooth playback of the default low-res 360p videos. Just have to be satisfied the 240p quality plays without buffering anymore, as compared to on 256kbps. Nevertheless, it’s an annoyance to keep selecting 240p every time you load a video (I’m not sure if you can set that as default.)

Use your native monitor resolution.. Or else?

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For Heaven’s sake.. People! Please, get out of that.. VGA 640×480 mode.. or 1024×768 on some LCD that is 17 inches and beyond. Try using the resolution that your monitor was meant for. Show-off that uber screen size! Unless maybe you really have issues reading due to low vision or the like.

Or.. Else… Maybe someday you’d face the wrath from someone like me 😛

27860_391184582373_645857373_4257719_4634132_nAbove featured characters are:
R – Raghav Passi,
N – Silhouetted Nish (Me),
S – Swarnava Seal

The comic was created in reference to an argument here.

New Facebook Twitter app changes FAIL

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The official Twitter app on Facebook that updates your statuses on Facebook from your Twitter account recently underwent changes. The first one was a neat addition of ‘via Twitter’ below the status message on newsfeeds, with a blue Twitter ‘t’ icon. Second time, they took it off and turned into a normal status again.

fbtw6 

For the third time change, which is the current one, they turned it back into the blue Twitter icon, plus added your profile link, which is a nice addition…

fbtw5

…BUT, at the cost of a very stupid decision to turn these statuses into application ‘posts’. They are no longer imported as normal Facebook statuses, so they will be treated as an application post on newsfeeds.

Tweets from multiple friends using Twitter app will be group and hidden.

fbtw1

WILL NOW BE SHOWN AS..

fbtw2

^—As you can see, my tweet is instantly hidden, even though it is my first tweet, and not a series of updates that would deserve hiding due to flood. And yes, there is also a borkage of commonly used emoticon symbols ‘>_>’ as >_>

Since these are not statuses, your Facebook primary status that is shown at the top of your profile page, right next to your name shall not be updated as well.

fbtw3

And, the WORST part of this change is that these posts are not visible on Facebook Mobile, because FBMobile hides application updates. They are only visible on Facebook Touch. Hence your mobile friends will miss out on your regular updates.

fbtw4

If you try to open a Twittered Facebook post notification on mobile, it’ll simply show this screen:

fbtw7

So I hope Facebook tries to correct this mistake annoyance very soon. Or I shall have to stop tweeting again =\

EDIT: An alternative to this is an app called Smart Twitter that treats your tweets as statuses.

Just Another Guy

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This is a lovely poem written by a dear friend that kind of describes the present me true to some extent.

 

~~~Just Another Guy~~~

So this is a little poem,

About this guy I know,

Really strange he is,

When he hides really low.

 

Sometimes he gets all emo,

And blocks everyone he knows.

He doesn’t have any foes,

As he keeps all his friends close.

 

Okay, Maybe not all,

And certainly not that close,

He just tweets about his life,

From the bathroom and from his course.

 

But he is very lazy,

As he does nothing but tweet.

He talks to various people,

But with them, he’ll never meet.

 

Everyone loves him,

As he can be very sweet.

But he’s kinda annoying,

When he tries to be discreet.

 

He is always evasive,

And never says yes or no,

He’ll say “maybe”,

To a question you’re dying to know.

 

He’s amazing at making excuses,

And tries to get away,

And when you are concerned about him,

He’ll say nothing but “k”.

 

Anyway, I’ll take my leave,

As he won’t read this I know.

He’ll have all the free time,

But still won’t read my notes.

 

So I’ll say bye to him,

Won’t even leave a little post,

‘Ola’ I won’t say,

Because that’s what’ll make him miss me the most.

Using Mayflash Wi-Fi Link dongle in Vista / Windows 7

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As all owners of this Wi-Fi dongle must have gone through this issue, probably the most of them have not found a solution or workaround yet, and stick to using Windows XP or a virtual XP machine on Vista/7 to use the dongle for connection to DS.  By default, the dongle installs as an Atheros adapter in Vista/7, which can be used as an ‘Ad-hoc’ connection for setting up Wi-Fi, but it only works for laptops and other network devices. Nintendo DS does not seem to be assigned an IP automatically.

PA.67449.002[ Click to buy one for your DS/PSP/Laptop ]

After a year of annoyance trying to use Virtual XP for DS, I’ve finally found a working solution. Let me share the same with you in simple steps.

  1. Get zydas_vista_compat.zip (Mirror link)
  2. Install the ZDWlan driver. Vista/7 might have already installed your Wifi dongle with the Atheros device. Force it to install the ZDWlan driver from Device Manager as ‘Update driver’ ‘Let me choose on my own’ ‘Have Disk’ and navigating to C:\Program Files\ZyDAS Technology Corporation\ZyDAS_802.11g_Utility\InsDrvTemp_USB and choose ZD1211BU.INF.

    zdwlan8

  3. Now run the ZDWlan utility. As you’ll notice it will simply appear for a second on the taskbar and vanish, while it is still running in the background (taskmgr). End the process. Right-click ZDWlan application and give it Windows 2000 compatibility with Administrator privileges (or Windows 2003 if that doesn’t work). Now the main application interface will open once you click on the ZD icon in tray.
  4. Choose Mode: Access Point. And in the Bridge Adaptor settings, choose your Internet adaptor.

    zdwlan2

  5. Ensure that ICS is turned off on your Internet adaptor settings.

    zdwlan3

  6. Get NAT32 and winpkflt_rtl.zip
  7. Install both. Now open NAT32. Select Internet adaptor as ‘Internet’ and Wifi dongle adaptor as ‘Private’

    zdwlan4 

    zdwlan5

  8. Hit Apply twice until you get this window.

    net32

  9. Now select the Access point from your Nintendo DS WFC menu, do not set any IPs, test connection.. and voila! =D

    connectionSuccessful

Meeting up in real with an online bud

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I dunno why I’m blogging this.. but well it was a special day for me so thought I should share it.. maybe with my own self =P

So I have like.. hundreds of online friends, bring it down to a few dozens who’re really good friends, bring it even more down to those who’re very close to me at intimacy levels. But my communication with them has always been limited to either textual or verbal communication over the web or on the phone. And I kind of preferred it since I am a different person online, and somewhat different offline, slightly an introvert, less talkative with strangers, until I get to know them better. As also, I have to balance my talks with every individual, talking in their level of understanding of the subject I’m talking about, also their interests and dislikes to be considered, and their way of thinking on things that I think more about or least care of. All this separation of talks makes me turn into multiple personalities, and each person sees me differently, lol. Somewhat complicated =P

So getting back to the topic, and to the point, yeah I had my first encounter in real with an online friend for the very first time. Bhumin Sangoi was someone I found via Orkut, during my mass adding of Pokefans to converse with, especially him because he resides nearby, around 4 railway stations away. We kinda got chatting, and then got onto phone calls.. was happy he was one of those phone addicts who do not talk less than 1 hr atleast at one go =P

And then finally, on the 26th of Feb., i.e. yesterday, I kind of left college early due to free lectures there on, and some holi mania starting up, getting the college floors wet, making me escape before anything turns up on me =P At the very same time I remembered Bhumin’s XIIth board must’ve just ended, at around 13:00 hrs. While I was at Worli, coming to Dadar, he txt’d me that he could wait for me and catch up at Borivali in my train, and then we could meet up for like 2 stations before I get off. I felt that wasn’t a good way to be meeting up someone for the first time.. 2 stations.. that’s like 10 mins.. way too less for someone you’ve been talking to on the phone for hours, lol. Randomly I came up with the idea of meeting up at Mc Donalds instead, because I had been craving to visit it since a long time (thanks to the inspiring pamphlets they deliver home >_>), and plus he’s a McD buff so.. that would be a great idea to spend some time together.

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I got into a Dadar local, he had to wait for me for half n hour or so, sowwie for that! ^^ And then I got off at Borivali platform 3, walk all the way to 1, and further to 7 where he was supposedly waiting for me. And then yeah.. we met! ^_^ walked all the way to Mc Donalds which is at Kora Kendra, some 10-15mins walk in the blazing heat >_< Had a Pizza Puff, Coke Float and French Fries. Apparently I was supposed to be treating him, but he paid off most of it.. and wouldn’t accept the money.. Stubborn he bees!! And then we took an auto back to Borivali, had a nice talk in the train for the next 2 stations, then I had to get off =( though we kept talking on the phone until he reached home, lol.

All in all it was a fun experience to be meeting someone in person. He’s a fun chap to be with, maybe we’ll meet often, and have some (Nintendo) DS gaming sessions ^^ The sad part is that I didn’t take any snaps, I have this habit of snapping every meet, with my friends, just for remembrance later. Maybe next time! (No they’re always kept private btw =P)