Swoopo seems to have got it right

The concept is not new or novel, I am sure we may have seen it in one form or the other. But swoopo may have got the execution just right. The potential the site offers is amazing and the numbers once you start crunching them are mind boggling.

Its so simple in concept that you will hit yourself in the head for not doing it yourself. :)
But then its always the case after its been done by someone. Check out Swoopo here.

Unlocked iPhone 3GS is not Unlocked after all!!!

Earlier this year when Apple announced that the unlocked version of the iPhone was available, I thought I could grab one at last. But with the new iPhone 3GS in the offing at that point I decided to wait it out.
So last week I went to the nearby Apple Store with grand plans of picking up my iPhone. Apple ofcourse had other plans for me. I was told that even though the iPhone was available unlocked for $699 only, I could still use it only with an AT&T network. And further, it was locked to the geography as well.
That would mean I would not be able to use that unlocked iPhone, that i would have paid $699 for, with Apple Partners in other parts of the world :T Mobile in UK or Hutchison in India for example.
So what is Apple's idea of an unlocked phone?
According to the guy at the Apple store, the unlocked iPhone caters to people who would like to gift someone with an iphone but without a data plan.That person would ofcourse still have to have an AT&T plan to use the iphone!!
Somebody's got something wrong here. Apple, come on!!
The Apple store i went to is in St Johns Town Center, Jacksonville, Florida.

Bangalore needs a few Quick Wins!!!

A few decades ago, a mention of Bangalore would have extracted comments like nice town, peace ful town, pensioners paradise etc. Go back just a few years, and Bangalore earned itself new adjectives like IT City, Silicon Valley of India. It even managed to add itself to the Oxfored dictionary as a verb.

Today, the mention of Bangalore, will only generate clamouring for Infrastructure, roads, pollution and so on.

But you may think this is despite the fact that Bangalore has quite a few Mega projects being rolled out. But this is not so. I feel this is because of the fact that Bangalore has so many Mega infrastructure projects that are going on together, with no end in sight.

The only win Bangalore has to show is the International Airport, which was itself delayed by several decades.

What Bangalore needs is a cohesive Mega Plan, which includes all the large Mega projects like the Metro, and several small projects.

The government has to bear in mind that people can put up with only so much. If we wait for all the Mega Projects to end, it may be too late and Bangalore may lose its stature as the IT Capital to nearby cities or even countries.

It is important that a small win is planned every 6 months, that people can celebrate. It will earn the government the support and backing it requires from the public over the next 5 years.

The plan to move the Race Course outside the city and building a World Trade Centre means yet another mega project that will not have anything to show for 3-4 years. Where as converting the Race Course to a Park, can be a quick win. It will also give Bangalore much needed lung space in the heart of the city.

Similarly, the Metro will take a few years to complete. However, something like a mono rail may be easier to implement. Kicking this off in parallel, will ensure a few monorail successes in between every phase of the Metro. This will give the public, a much needed boost while Bangalore undergoes this phase of rapid transformation.

We will get a National ID Card Again!!

The move to invite the Infosys Co-Chairman Mr. Nandan Nilekani to take charge as Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, in the rank of Cabinet Minister is indeed a very promising move and augurs well for the future of this nation.

Now, this is certainly not the first time that we have set out on the task of issuing a National Identity Card, but its certainly the first time that we seem to be involving the right people to get the task done.

This is certainly a huge challenge and making it a reality will certainly require a lot of conviction and drive.

The possibilities, once this is a success are innumerable, from improved security, better controlling and tracking of financial transactions, control over black money, better and more effective rollout of subsidies by reducing overhead and leakage to name a few. In general it will give the government the ability to link actions to consequences. This is a necessity in a huge country like ours that can otherwise go berserk.

But there are several issues like authentication, validation, duplication and roll out to such a huge population.

Today there are several solutions that technology offers to solve some of these problems. The use of biometrics - fingerprints, retina scans etc can ensure that we avoid some of these issues.

The other issue is Bureaucracy. To get anything in our country from a Ration card to a passport or anything that is a necessity, will mean having to deal with all the babu's enroute. We have to find an alternate route to this until a basic level of integrity gets ingrained within our social sensibilities. We should consider having a public-private partnership, where in the private partner would be responsible for the actual rollout, biometrics etc. The database itself can be maintained by the government for obvious security reasons. The idea is to somehow solve this problem, however that may be.

The other issue is the type of rollout. We seem to have been obsessed, previously, with issuing physical cards with chips that hold all the information. The problem I have with this is with the cost of implementation this will entail and the risk to security.

a) Supplying physical cards with chips are costly.

b) People tend to lose things. And every loss will mean replacing the card, which will translate to additional costs and overheads.

c) Handing over cards with chips provides a window for a security breach.

We do not need cards. People just need to know the number that will identify them. They can chose to memorize it, write it down or use any method they may deem fit.

Challenges are plenty, but under Mr Nandan Nilekani's leadership, this is a success story thats waiting to be scripted.

Jai ho!

Nandan@TED

Some very valid points brought out in Nandan's speech at TED.com. Click here to watch this speech.

HTC Magic is here

But it looks like its not going to bother Apple... iPhone 3G S it seems will hold its ground after all...
See the review for the HTC Magic here.