Came Across A Wonderful Quote from Kathopanishad:
You are what your deep driving desire is
As is your desire, so is your will
As is your will, so is your act,
As is your act, so is your destiny !
Author: ashokkarania
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International Film Festival Ahmedabad – Rejoice !
Cinema is an integral part of our lives. Apart from enjoying movies with our dear ones over Popcorn Tubs, we learn, understand ourselves and cherish values. Cinema is our passport to the great culture, principles and living of our brethren across the globe. Cinema is a unifier. It is a celebration of human endeavor and spirit.
One of the things I missed the most in Ahmedabad was world-class cinema and special screenings of foreign movies. I had to feed my hunger for quality cinema through DVDs. But my dear friend Shiladitya Bora was a beacon of hope for discerning movie fanatics in Ahmedabad. He clubbed his passion with organizational expertise and brought the First Short Films Festival, International Film Festival and the weekly movie screening through Sunset Boulevard. Of course, there will be a movie on the struggles and times of Shila to make this Film Festival and Film Culture a reality !
And finally the new avatar of Film Festival is here – The International Film Festival Ahmedabad.
Visit the Site www.ifilmfest.in for more details.
Let me share the quick overview:
– Gala Opening Ceremony on August 4, 2010 evening.
– Opening Film: Harishchandraschi Factory
– Special Screening of AISHA with Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Cyrus Sahukar, Lisa Haydon & Ira Dubey
– Film Appreciation workshop by Kuhu Tanvir, India Editor of WideScreen Journal.
– Filmmaking workshop in association with Whistling Woods International by Anjum Rajabali & Somanth Sen
– Special screening of The White Elephant with Mr. Aijaz Khan, Piyush Mishra, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Prashant Narayanan
– An exhibition of rare film posters & show cards of past 50 years.
– Best of National Institute of Design(NID) Live Action & Animation Short Films
– Best of Whistling Woods International Short Film Package
– Best of World Cinema
-Independent Feature Film competition
– 23 award winning film screenings across 5 days at PVR Cinemas, Acropolis Mall, the festival venue.Check The Video Report on the last year’s festival:
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Inception : A Must Watch Movie!
Inception – Awesome! Mind-Blowing!! Just Watch It !!! You Cannot Afford To Miss It !!!!
Inception is a sure fire Oscar winner ! Christoper Nolan Directed Leonardo DiCaprio Starrer Inception is an intelligent thriller ! The Movie focuses on the life of Dom Cobb, who enters the dreams of the people and steals the information which otherwise is never accessible. In order to re-unite with his family, he is given a challenging task of planting an idea – Inception ! This is one of the most difficult and risky job for Cobb. But he takes it up and creates a team to help him.
The concept is truly out of the world. The execution is flawless. Chris Nolan’s direction is awesome. The screenplay and the pace of the movie are exciting. The cinematography and special effects match up with the acting power of the top class cast.
The concepts of Totem, Dream Within Dream Within Dream, Contagious Ideas, Cobb’s Wife Track etc really are well conceived.
Watch It ! It is a movie you want to watch it in theatres and then discuss with friends over a coffee. Do not miss it ! Chris Nolan brings another winner after The Dark Knight.
Inception has a great run in India. It has gone ahead of all other releases with it including 3 Bollywood movies. We watched it along with a packed house in Ahmedabad – it is really an amazing movie.
Links:
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InfoStretch Introduces Revolutionary Mobile Cloud Testing Service In India
InfoStretch Adds Indian Handsets And Carriers To Perfecto Mobile’s Global Remote Testing Network To Facilitate Easy And Efficient Remote Testing Of Applications On Real Handsets And Carriers.
Ahmedabad, India, June 24, 2010
InfoStretch, a global leader in mobile testing and certification services and customized mobile development, today announced the launch of India Mobile Handset Cloud to make Indian handsets and networks available to the global community of mobile developers and content providers and to offer Indian developers access to the global network of remote handsets.
By combining its testing expertise, automation framework and global reach with Perfecto Mobile’s leading automated testing and remote Handset access technology, InfoStretch now offers a unique end-to-end solution for a wide-range of testing needs through one single source.
“InfoStretch is committed to serving the global mobile ecosystem by ensuring quick, easy and effective solutions to test and launch applications with highest possible quality in the global marketplace,” said Rutesh Shah, CEO of InfoStretch. “Our partnership with Perfecto Mobile enables us to provide innovative and cost-effective solution to test applications on global handsets and carrier networks,” added Shah.
The system provides a web-based user-interface through which the mobile community can quickly and easily use any handset in the same way a real-life user would, through its keys, touch-screen, or QWERTY keyboard, to validate that the handset and its applications work properly. The system will allow mobile developers to:
• Test on real mobile Handsets without having to physically obtain them.
• Test on multiple Handsets and geographies including India!
• Test on a variety of Handset models and OS versions.
• Access the latest and most popular handsets.
• Showcase their mobile application by taking screenshots and video clips.
• Run automated tests across multiple handsets.
The systems provide for Automated Solutions as well, through which users will be able to install applications on handsets, automatically send SMS and email messages to the Handset under test and intuitively compare how their mobile web pages are displayed on different phones.
“We believe India is a very important market for the next level of growth in the mobile industry,” said Eran Yaniv, CEO, Perfecto Mobile. “By partnering with InfoStretch, we are now able to offer our global customers an ability to test on Indian Handsets and carriers. With a proven track record and vast experience in the mobile testing market, InfoStretch is the ideal partner for us,” Yaniv added.
India is the sixth country in the world to have its own Handset Cloud, after US, UK, Canada, France and Israel. InfoStretch is instrumental in bringing the cloud to India and it manages a US cloud as well.
“The Indian mobile community can now access more than 1800 mobile handsets at a click of a button,” said Ashok Karania, Head – Business Strategy, InfoStretch. “InfoStretch also provides dedicated Private Handset Cloud systems for mobile operators, handset manufacturers, and independent software vendors. InfoStretch Services can be leveraged by leading VAS Providers, Mobile Development Companies, Gaming Companies, Media Houses, OEMs and Carriers to improve the quality of their mobile offering, “ Karania added.
About InfoStretch Corporation
InfoStretch is a leader in Mobile Application Development, Testing and Certification Services. InfoStretch also specializes in Enterprise application Testing, QA and Test Automation Services with specific emphasis on Enterprise 2.0 and Cloud Infrastructure based SaaS applications. InfoStretch delivers high-quality, reliable and cost effective services to clients throughout the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The company specializes in delivering outsourced business solutions that command deep technology knowledge, process proficiency and domain expertise.
For more information, visit http://www.infostretch.com
About Perfecto Mobile
Perfecto Mobile is a global leading provider of remote access and automated testing solutions for mobile Handsets. The Perfecto Mobile’s Handset Cloud service enables developers and testers, located anywhere in the world, access, via the Internet, a comprehensive range of the latest mobile handsets. Among its customers are Vodafone, Swisscom, Motorola and additional leading operators in North America, and Europe as well as some of the most important handsets manufacturers.
For more information, go to http://www.perfectomobile.com.
InfoStretch Media Contact:
Marketing and PR Officer
Tel: 079 – 4026 6277
Fax: 079- 4026 6230
Email: marketing@infostretch.com
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Pulse – The Best-Selling iPad App
GenNext innovates, defines and sets the course for iPad Apps. Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta have created the top paid app for iPad – Pulse. Pulse is an uber cool visual news aggregator and reader for iPad. It is stylish, clean, feature-rich and very usable.
The App is downloaded more than 15,000 times again proving the good content and useful Apps will generate revenues ! Innovation is rewarding !
Check the Video to know more about it. Download it to experience it !
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iPhone OS 4.0 – Apple Delivers!
Apple launched the most awaited and exciting update to its iPhone software – iPhone OS 4.0. Steve Jobs unveiled the new 100+ features to enhance the iPhone Experience.
InfoStretch‘s Research Lab is impressed with the following cool features:1. Multi-Tasking – This was one of the most sought after feature and Apple finally delivers ! Apple claims to multi-task activities without draining the batter power.
2. Enterprise – Apple iPhone wants to be a enterprise phone as well and challenge Blackberry. Some of the new Enterprise features include:
– Even better data protection
– Mobile Device Management
– Wireless app distribution
– Multiple Exchange accounts
– Exchange Server 2010
– SSL VPN support
3. iAd – Apple has introduced its own advertising platform – an ad plugin for app developers called iAd. People will watch ads while they continue to use iPhone or play games. It is definitely a vital tool and can challenge AdMob. The powerful advertising platform will 60% revenues to developers.
4. Game Center – Apple iPhone wants to be as cool as XBox as well. A lot of focus has been given to Game Center and features like inviting friends to play, competing with random players is available.
There are lot of other features including a new Mail app, ability to create folders, iBooks etc. It has also made the developer community happy by offering a new SDK with more than 1500 apps for creating powerful interesting apps.
The Smartphone market is hotting up !
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Why T-Mobile, The Body Shop and Others Use InfoStretch
Suzanne Bowen, the multi-talented technology evangelist, was at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona. Suzanne is the force behind the hugely popular Techistan.net. She was our booth and I told about our innovation showcase at Mobile World Congress. Here it is:
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InfoStretch Hiring For Exponential Growth!
InfoStretch’s Is Growing At Gravity-Defying Speeds. The India Centre has doubled the office space and is looking at high energy professionals to fuel the growth. QA Experts, Mobile Evangelists, HR Whiz – We are looking for you !
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Book Review : Connect The Dots
Rashmi Bansal’s new book – ‘Connect The Dots‘ is a follow-up to her hugely successful book ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’. The earlier book mentioned the inspiring stories of IIMA graduates. Connect The Dots is about successful entrepreneurs without the typical MBA degree.
The book has classified entrepreneurs in three categories:
1. Jugaad – Ones who have no formal business training and learnt by observation, experimentation and application of mind.
2. Junoon – Ones who are driven by passion and ideas which are ahead of its time.
3. Zubaan – Ones who are creative people with unique talentThe book has a biographical account of the entrepreneur and advice to other entrepreneurs – same style as Stay Hungry Stay Foolish. The selection of the entrepreneurs is interesting indeed which adds diversity to the book and the subject of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs behind success stories like Reva, Dosa Plaza, Su-Kam, Crossword, Tantra T-Shrits, Veta, Fem Care are featured as well as Film Director Paresh Mokashi and Wildlife Photographer Kalyan Verma. Though there are no formulas to success, it is interesting to know the journey of the fellow entrepreneurs.
Rashmi Bansal’s style and language is amazing as always ! She has got another bestseller !
Read it !
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The FMCGization of Indian Mobile Handset Market
The Indian Mobile Handset Market is coming of age. There are more than 30 Indian Mobile Handset players. The Industry is going strong with impressive numbers and is now resembling the marketing favorite FMCG Industry.
Let us look at the few common features with FMCG Market:
1. Strong Global Players With Indian Challengers
Indian FMCG Market is a vibrant place with global players like Unilever and P&G. Global players have been successfully challenged by Indian companies like Nirma, Cavin Care, Marico, Ghadi etc.
Similarly, Global Companies like Nokia, Samsung, LG have been strong in India. In fact, Nokia enjoyed Maruti-like status in India. However, now it is challenged by Indian players like Karbonn, Maxx, Fly, Videocon, Micromax, Intex etc.
India is a very important market for Unilever as well as Nokia, P&G as well as Samsung.
2. Price Wars
The FMCG market has seen price wars and companies like Unilever launched Wheel to counter-attack Nirma. Similarly, Nokia, LG and Samsung have launched sub-2000 Rs phones to counter the various Indian brands.
3. Product Enhancements
Indian FMCG Players have used strong product features to differentiate themselves. Whether it is special packaging, different price points, product ingredients – FMCG players have been innovating and improving products.
Similarly, Indian players have innovations like Dual SIM, long battery hours to differentiate themselves apart from price advantage.
4. Distribution
In FMCG, Distribution is God ! Companies like HLL, Colgate, Cavin-Care have built a great distribution machinery. It is their biggest advantage. Similarly, Nokia and others have created a great distribution network and a strong sales team, which has resulted in nearly 2 million handsets being sold every month in India!
5. New & Improved !
FMCG Products excel in re-launches with minimal changes – The New & Improved. FMCG products play with different colors, size and ingredients.
Indian Mobile players are also playing with bold Indian colors, new sizes and aesthetic appeal.
6. Celebrity Advertisement
Indian FMCG Players have developed and promoted the concept of celebrity advertisements. In fact, Lux prides itself in promoting Indian beauties and every top celebrity is promoting multiple FMCG Products.
Videocon, Maxx India, Lemon etc have started using Indian Celebrities for differentiating themselves in the Indian advertisement scenario.
7. Counterfeit
The Global Players face the problem of product plagiarism in India. Whether is Vicks, Colgate or Parachute, there are several Indian versions.
iPhone and Blackberry handset designs are the most copied designs in India. There are many foreigns handsets which are openly sold with duplicate designs.
8. Product Flanking Strategy
Unilever, P&G started it and Nokia and Indian players are mastering it !
