Micrsoft kicks off Ad Campaign -Delicious or Desperate?

The $300 million ad campaign of Microsoft which started on Sep 5, last week is getting mixed reviews.Some say its boring,showing a not funny Seinfeld and are confused about what exactly the ad wants to tell the viewers.But others as well as MS say that it is the first ad of the complete series and was intended to create merely a buzz than to change the consumers view about MS or Windows Vista.The ad mentions nothing about Vista but ends with a Windows Vista Icon with the tag line "Future is Delicious". While Apple Fans are happy that the ad was not well received,they say the ad is desperate attempt by MS to attack Apple. Guys at CP+B say that even though the ad bombed,it has sure created a buzz which was the whole idea.

Watch it yourself and decide if MS' future is delicious or desperate

Fiat 500 Cinquecento-the Costly Cute Car

Its a car ,a classic,its cute and its also costly. Meet the Fiat 500 Cinquecento a blast from the past,originally introduced in 1957-50 years ago.

Its got great style bringing the cool retro look to the Indian roads.Its got the 74bhp, 1.3 multijet diesel (same engine as Swift diesel in India) which reaches 0 to 100 in a decent 16 .81 seconds and tops a good 155km. Well its definitely not a speedster but sure can find its way through the narrow Indian streets.It weighs only 980 kg but at the same time sturdy enough to be handled in Indian roads.A huge list of customisation options are available from stickers to body kits.

All this is good except for the price tag .Its priced at a whopping Rs 14.85 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi-Almost 18 lakhs on road). Now that's too costly for Indian roads!!(one of the main reason is that the car is imported from Europe )

If your pockets are deep enough you will definitely will love this stylish small fun ride.

Or you can wait for the VW Beetle which is set for its Indian launch 2009

Sony Vaio TZ-Total Recall

Sony Vaio Laptops are always Hot -yeah but that's the problem.
Due to some flawed wiring in the Vaio TZ laptops,the laptops are getting overheated becoming a potential burn hazard to its user.So far more than 200 cases have been reported of users getting minor burns.Due to this Sony is recalling around 440,000 laptops of the 19 models of its Vaio TZ series.

Although Sony has taken the responsibility by taking the necessary actions it is already feeling the heat. Though it may not cause any serious financial problems now,its brand value has been seriously affected.Sony shares fell by 4.2 % hitting a three year low on Friday after the recall was announced.

This is not the first time Sony is having battery problems.In 2006 ,Companies like Dell,Toshiba,Hitachi,Lenovo recalled around 9.6 million laptops which had Sony batteries after reports of overheating causing burns.
It high time for Sony to do some damage control to maintain its brand value to retain its loyal customers like me :) BTW I writing this post using my Sony Vaio CR which looks good but not hot enough to recall!!!

Happy Teachers Day

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William A. Ward
I thank all my Teachers who opened the doors of knowledge for me & I Wish them a very Happy Teachers Day.

Ganesha & the Golden Boy

After laptops,cellphones this year  Lord Ganesha poses with Olympic Shooter Abinav Bhindra

    "Happy Ganesh Chaturthi"

Make Room for Google Chrome

That's right people, Google has did it again what it does best.....simplifying and thereby enhancing the online experience. There are many interesting things around Google Chrome, the new web browser from the search engine giant.

The Timing: Microsoft recently released its improved IE 8.Now users will be curious to compare and contrast between chrome and IE8.Though I think both are quite well differentiated.IE boasts of its security factors but Google stresses on fast, no frill web browsing.

Firefox Getting the Heat: Mozilla which has a profitable business relationship with Google(Google accounts for $56 million of the $66 million that Mozilla Corp. made in 2006) is not very much comfortable with Chrome as it poses a direct competition to . However Mozilla's CEO John Lilly said "Competition leads to innovation.More smart people thinking about ways to make the Web good for normal human beings is good, absolutely". Sergey Brin, Page's fellow co-founder, said Google planned to continue to work closely with Mozilla and hoped to see future version of Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox become more unified over time.

Apple Connection: Chrome has used Apple's Webkit extensively in developing chrome.Sundar Pichai, Google's VP of product management said "We have borrowed good ideas from others,Our goal here was to bring our point of view but do it in a very open way,"

Another interesting thing is the comic book released by Google which explains everything about chrome,why  & how it was developed & its special features. Even non techies will be able to understand why chrome is said to be a good browser. 

What fascinates me is how Google steadily expands its web presence .First just a search engine. then web 2.0 sites (orkut, youtube etc) now with software like Chrome and Android, Google is set to capture the mobile Internet domain....No surprise if they develop a OS in the future.

Netizens believe that if something is from Google it must be Good. Lets see if Chrome captures  their hearts...

Yahoo Set to Smash its Mash

Yahoo has announced that it will be closing it will be closing its social networking site Mash.Even though Yahoo has a wide base through its popular mail service(personally i prefer Yahoo mail over Gmail except for the spam) it has not been able to attract its users to its other services like Google.Flickr is one of the most successful website in the Yahoo mix.

Mash had everything, all the popular features from the popular websites like Facebook,MySpace,Orkut etc. So what went wrong with Mash? Nothing except that nothing was new. Product differentiation-that was the missing element.It was seen us a mash up of other popular sites and was not able to differentiate itself from other networking sites. It did not have any unique features other than 'create profiles for your friends' which was not welcomed by many users. Nor it has a special focus on a specific demographic like Bebo-under 21 or HI5(Latin America).

Mash will be off the web by the end of September,but Yahoo 360 which is a similar service will be continued. Yahoo is trying to give Y! 360 a complete makeover and also has announced a launch of all new networking site.

Lets hope the users will go Yahoo!! looking at the new site......