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Fennec -Firefox for mobile out for Nokia N810 (Beta)

For those who surf the web in their firefox a good news, Mozilla’s community browser Firefox will be soon available for All Symbian devices and Windows mobile devices in the form of Fennec Mobile Browser. Now the Fennec is in Beta and released for Nokia’s Internet device N810.

Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size
Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size

Considering the most of Symbian softwares are released first on N800 and N810, it shouldnt be too long before we get Fennec for other Symbian devices. Mozilla also is developing Fennec for Windows Mobile Platform and would be launched along with Symbian launch.

The below is simplified version of Fennec logo for small screened devices

Fennec Simple Logo - Firefox for mobile

Fennec is poised to be main competitor for Nokia’s S60 3rd version builtin browser Opera Browser and Windows Mobile IE.

Fennec team aims to achieve following features for Fennec in the initial stable release.

1. Faster/Simple and less memory hungry broswer with intuitive mobile UI.
2. Support for all the features of desktop Firefox engine like AJAX meaning ‘FULL’ web browser unlike other mobile browsers. Developers need not worry about writing a separate web page except adapting for the disaplay size.
3. Secure Browser implementation which will mimic its desktop brother.
4. Fully integrated application instead of just browser, aim is to make Fennec fully compatible with other phone feautures like Call,Contacts,Mapping applications and even more.
5. With addons Fennec will act like a mobile platform itself.

The Fennec team is also working on some of the cool touch screen UI proposals which could hit Iphone later but expect Fennec to be available on Nokia N97 much earlier than Apple’s Iphone.

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Performance evaluation drama peaks at TCS (TATA Consultancy services)

Every year the annual performance evaluation (or Rating as TCSers call it) goes with lots of drama but this year it is going to be even more chaotic thanks to the economy.

The ratings or the actual values were released on 17 March 2009 and the final Bands will be released on April 11 2009.

Apart from many other dumb reasons managers have one more reason to tell their team members for their poor rating – economy !.

In most cases the employee would have done his/her job perfectly but the Manager will try to convince these poor souls that the entire company is in losses because of the one or two days vacation the employee would have taken, or the bugs in the system etc.

And the real cultprits who are responsible for not foreseeing market realities or signing hopeless contracts at the bare minimum pricing would still get better ratings.

If a Project Manager is able to convince most of his team members to take poor ratings he will get a good rating from his boss. So you can understand how the situation in a team would be. Now top reasons a manager might give to reduce your performance evaluation ratings

1. If you want release I will give you lower rating and this is how TCS works.

2. You haven’t done any certifications this half yearly, Next time try to improve.
(Our hero would have worked 12 hours shifts everyday for no good)

3. You haven’t contributed anything to the Centre level activities (like dancing or singing !!)

4. We thought of giving you even lower rating, but I argued with top management for this rating for you.

5. You haven’t contributed to Knowmax, PIPs blah blah blah

6. Your rating got reduced in curve fitting which is out of my hand. (As if curve is some indeterminate shape and values in curve are random)

7. You have been given better rating last time, so give chance to others.

8. I made a mistake while giving the values as I was doing it in late night. Please don’t make it as an issue I will compensate next time.

9. Our project doesn’t have money.

10. We will send you to onsite soon.. so your rating doesn’t matter.

Please add your own views experiences here and pass on this to your friends as well.

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Best wireless internet option in India – Airtel vs Reliance vs BSNL?

Yet again im searching for a wireless internet option in India. When you dont have a permanent residence or if you are in IT industry like me change is the only permanent option. After enjoying few years of uninterrupted high speed broadband access now im pushed to plow the local wireless options which are at best pathetic. But then I dont have a choice. Many of the below mentioned options must be verified in different areas, in your area the results may differ.

Airtel GPRS/EDGE Network :

When was in south I always relied upon Airtel GPRS/EDGE which is very reliable and with prepaid this is one of the cheapest options.

All the below options are unlimited in Airtel (No excess charges) and best part all these options available in Prepaid

Monthly rental : Rs 375  (topup with 375)

Daily pack : send a SMS     GPRS to 56789     (Rs 20 deducted from balance) 24 hour unlimited access.

Weekly pack : send SMS   GPRS7 to 56789  (Rs 75 deducted from balance) 7 days unlimited access. 

APN name : airtelgprs.com  

Username: (leave blank)

password : (leave blank)

If your area has good Airtel Signal then Airtel is the cheapest and best option available. In Mumbai airtel signal is not good in high towers.Whereas in Chennai Airtel is the best. Airtel also has USB and PCMCA data cards available.

Vodafone :

When I tried last time Vodafone was nothing better than Airtel but it was more irritating with lots of restrictions in download limits. It really doesnt have any unlimited options and actually there is no proper data plan in its prepaid. So Vodafone might not make the cut against other operators unless it does something special.

But I remember Vodafone having a Rs 19 recharge for 1 day internet. But this is nowhere to be found nowadays in Vodafone website.

BSNL – (GPRS/EDGE/3G/WLL)

Currently BSNL is the only complete operator with services in all spectrums and speeds of wireless access. Though BSNL at times can be irritating currently the public mobile operator has the best plans in market.

BSNL’s GPRS/EDGE in postpaid is very cheap starting at Rs 150 with unlimited option of Rs 349.  

With its WLL data cards it offers unlimited internet faster than dialup for just Rs 250 per month and this was much better than I expected  even in a rural area. But WLL data cards are allowed to roam only 200 km surrounding your actual locations.So for roaming users throughout India this maynot be best option.

3G is definitely an option to checkout but with its high prcing and low monthly download limits, I wonder anyone will be willing to take the risk. Moreover 3G coverage is limited to certain cities.

Reliance Netconnect :

I never really had good opinion of either Reliance or TATA indicom. But Reliance’s Netconnect with a datacard seems to be very reliable, Im able to get average of 10Kbps download speeds in peak hour (8-9 PM) and decent speeds of 20Kbps download at off peak hours. It is definitely better than a 64 kbps / 128kbps line. But for that matter you should not expect blazing speeds of broadband with this option.

Many users get disappointed because of this misconception, anyway Reliance Netconnect seems to much faster than Airtel/BSNL GPRS/EDGE.  But if you have an option of taking BSNL/Airtel Broadband always go for the broadband lines as Broadband is reliable , cheaper and faster. 

In my case I was getting poor speeds in my hotel bedroom and much higher speeds in the hall. If you are in a relatively open space speed is very good. This was the case with Airtel and BSNL as well. 

TATA indicom walky:

TATA indicom offers unlimited internet through its walky, it definitely depends on the area in whihc you live, If nothing else is available and TATA indicom WLL phone has good reception there is nothing wrong in selecting TATA Indicom’s WLL service walky.