• The BSNL 3G USB data card was a simple thumb drive like device white in color and the friend who was kind enough to lend it to me for testing said the card was bought for 3,500 Rs/- which includes the service activation charges – i assume
• There was no driver CD as the data card itself has space inside it and the drivers were installed without any hassle in my laptop with windows vista basic along with a Dialer application
• The dialer app was slightly confusing at first but there was on the top left corner to show the signal strength and a 2nd icon near it to show the internet connection log and on pressing that we are presented with a connect button and a log grid to show the usage details
• I actually tried it in 3 different locations and in only one location was I able to get a connection and the signal strength showed 2-3 bars.
• And in that location I was able to get decent download speed and on checking with a online speedometer application the measured speeds were 200 Kbps.
• And BSNL have lots of prepaid and postpaid plans available and the tariffs are pretty ok …but I am not sure how far private 3G operators could offer in terms of tariff to get people to use 3G

All in all BSNL 3G is a OK proposition if the area where you use have decent 3G reception and hopefully BSNL can provide customer service to back it up.

• Quality / Price : The quality of the product was good to ok with lots of choices but prices are bit higher i feel when compared to shopping directly
• Payment  / Shipping : They offer a variety of payment modes, I use only internet banking which I’ve found sometimes the order didn’t get confirmed the first time but it ultimately did and shipping – the items usually get delivered by the 10th day.
• Deals : I get emails of various deals in my inbox which makes the items a bit cheaper
• Customer Care : The customer care which I’ve used via email were pretty prompt in one case refunding the amount and another case of re-sending the missing items in my order.

• Android – The official site for android
• Android & Me – A great site on the latest android based news with a online shop for accessories and a forum to get help
• Android Central – Another great site dedicated to providing latest news, reviews on android and android based phone
• Android Guys – A great blog for android related stuff , lots to explore
• Android Wiki – A complete lowdown on the android OS on the wikipedia homepage. A interesting and detailed info on android

Here is a screenshot of my phone’s homescreen with the Lake theme taken with “Screensnap” – a cool & free software to take screenshots of your phone

There is nuthin much to share this month in terms of sms or funny emails / pics but here is a link I received on Easy Yoga . Click , See and Smile…..

• Opera Mobile : The katest version 10 is still in beta but provides a great browsing experience, the only let down is it is RAM hungry
• Touch Comic : A great app for reading comics in cbz format, with option to zoom , fit to width etc.
• Fring : A great app for chatting, making video calls and some social networking too
• Device Info : This is a great little widget listing out all the phone’s hardware and software resources in a graphical and easy way
• GMail : Its a java app, but a easy way to catch up with gmail. Its not perfect for a touchscreen phone but still my daily used app

Still there are some more free apps like skyfire, nimbuzz  which I am yet to try. If you know any free good apps for Series60 V5 please post your comments here

The phonebook migration was a hassle with the exported data from MyPhone Explorer not able to be recognized by OVI Suite. But by using Microsoft Outlook I was able to get it done. Usually I edit contacts in my SE phone and then sync it to computer but in my 5530 I do all the editing stuff and creating contact groups in my laptop and sync it to my phone which I find more easier.

Syncing photos, music , message all are pretty easy and straight forward. But the given music player didn’t have the capability to do any Tag editting might be the Nokia OVI player app helps in that matter (But I haven’t tried that yet). I also haven’t tried using the online OVI contacts, calendar sync service and so I am not sure how far it works with the OVI Suite.

But updating Nokia 5530 firmware to V11 through OVI suite was a breeze and the process went without any Hiccups….

To conclude, pretty good app somewhat bloated but easy to use via bluetooth / usb cable but could have had features like a OVI store client inside and a better way to archive sms in the pc etc.

• Nokia Beta Labs : This is Nokia’s official app labs site and it has some good apps to try out like Nokia Messaging, Ovi Mail, Ovi Contacts, Nokia Photo browser etc
• S60 BetaLabs : A nice blog with lastest info on various s60 apps and has some excellent themes to download
• NokiaTouch.Me : Another excellent site full of apps, games and themes mostly for S60 V5 touchscreen phones
• TehkSeven : A great site to download high quality themes
• Moubail : This site has info on latest apps for nokia touch devices and my personal favorites are their two widgets Device Info and MatchEm (Free)

1. Click ‘Menu’ and open the ‘Organizer’.
2. Select ‘Synchronization’.
3. Select ‘New Account’ and choose ‘SyncML’ as ‘Account type’.
4. Enter ‘Google Sync’ or any name of your choice.
5. On the ‘General’ tab, enter the following values:
* Server address: https://m.google.com/syncml
* Username: your Google Account username, e.g. you@googlemail.com
* Password: your Google password
6. On the ‘Applications’ tab mark ‘Contacts’ only.
7. On the ‘App. settings’ tab select ‘Contacts’.
8. For ‘Database name’ enter ‘contacts’ (lower case), leave other fields blank.
9. On the ‘Advanced’ tab, enter the following settings:
* Sync. interval: choose how frequently you would like to synchronize with Google.
* Allow Connection: Leave this as ‘Home network’, unless you also wish to synchronize while roaming internationally.
* Connection: Click on ‘Connect using:’ and select the Internet access point for your carrier. Leave other settings unchanged.
* Secure Connection: On
* Leave other settings unchanged.
10. Click ‘Back’ and select ‘Yes’ to save your changes.
11. Highlight your new account and press ‘Start’.

Some pros of a postpaid subscriber are, a fancy number,your cellphone service runs unhampered without any sudden interruption due to zero talk amount and getting to manage your talk plans and other services better. But on the other hand you can’t actually keep track of daily expenses of your mobile service and those who talk a lot might face huge bills at the months end

I thought Mobile Number Portability would be a solution to my predicament of changing numbers but as far as that goes it seems difficult whether it will be implemented by this year end.

So what do you think, is it better to be a postpaid or a prepaid subscriber ?? Vote or post your comments here…