These guys have taken the idea of “disruption” to an all-time high…having turned it now into a web-statement of sorts.

First it was gmail…launched in a market where hotmail & yahoo were kings, usa.net had gone paid, rediffs of the world were trying hard to get attention….basically a very crowded & highly competitive market. So google walks in & “disrupts” the proceedings – 1GB mailbox, by invite only.

2 propositions that turned cult in 5 minutes…EVERYONE wanted one, EVERYONE wanted to have those invites to give out..

So email was great, beating IM was next to impossible, with nearly ALL of us active on either Hotmail or Yahoo messengers. The solution – Disruption again.

Suddenly IM was on email…made sense, didn’t it? You logged in to check mail and logged in your IM around the same time..by combining the two, gmail made Internet communication one seamless experience, and NOBODY has been able to replicate that! And then they even went voice – along with the two other biggies, but essentially kept up with the user experience expectations.

Oh and then there are these 1000s of other benefits – POP access (yahoo pay attention..msn burnt their hands), easy UI..all that & more, that basically started settings standards.

Finally, they have probably put a huge big nail in everyone else’s coffin (not the last one I presume) by going video (MSN/Skype had it)…within Gmail..disruption all over again. And great timing too, considering webcams cave become standard pre-installed accessories only recently!

It makes sense to visit the church of google, I say!

1. Read international reviews & opinions, a lot of which may not be applicable to India

2. Tread the dusty Nehru Place (New Delhi) or equivalent lanes in the city and dodge the dodgy hardware shops and hope to get a good deal

Both are impractical and unfriendly options, and more often than not, the only savior is the IT department admin at your place of work or Word-of-Mouth via friends. The only problem is that these routes can only yield limited info and hence, limited results.

Thankfully, India now has its own laptop review site – with Indian content, products that are available in India, best laptop deals and more.

http://laptopcommunity.com/ is a community review site designed purely for Indian audiences and their needs. Still in its infancy, and hence beta (!), the site already has 100s of laptop models reviewed including the latest hp laptop, Dell, Apple & Acers of the world..and a list of models rated prominently basis their popularity with users. There is also an integrated discussion board (PhPBB based forum), product videos, Q&A, latest India-specific news & new launch info and some well written & regularly updated articles relevant to the site’s content.

Users who consider themselves laptop experts can join the community as experts to guide others. I am joining for sure…think I have had enough of providing gyaan to all & sundry, and it wont hurt to spread my wings a bit! Brands can look at the site as a niche opportunity to advertise their products to a bang-on TG…makes sense.

Try it out..and do leave a comment here about how you find the experience!

BarCampDelhi5

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

BarCamp Delhi is proposed to be a camp where enthusiasts get together and discuss/ brain-storm/ share opinions/ information/ wisdom about anything. Be it Web Technologies, technology related trends, Mobiles, Hacking, Blogging, Vlogs, Social Media etc. that interests the people.

When?

11-12th October – Barcamp Delhi 5 has tentatively been decided to hold on these dates.

Where?
How to register & Volunteer?

* Click on BCD5Campers to register yourself.

* Barcamp is your event. Help this event by Volunteering in some or the other tasks: BCD5Volunteers

Proposed Talks/ Sessions

See the list of sessions planned and/or add your talks: BCD5Sessions
IIT Delhi

On the History of Barcamp, please read here.

Here is what they have to say:

To mark our 10th birthday and celebrate the spirit of our users and the web, we’re launching Project 10^100 (that’s “ten to the hundredth”) a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life. CNN will be covering this project, including profiles of ideas and the people who submit them from around the world. For a deeper look, follow along at Impact Your World.

During the next three months, the Internet search company will solicit world-changing ideas from anyone, anywhere, no matter the size or scope and will reward the top five ideas with $10 million to see their projects come to life. Google will select the 100 best ideas before having the public vote for the top 20 semifinalists in late January. Five finalists will split the $10 million, which Google will give to them to help get their projects off the ground.

Watch the video:

The categories for entry seem to be primarily humanitarian aid innovations, including things like water solutions for rural villages in developing countries, and solutions for bringing wireless internet to disconnected rural areas.

If you have ideas that you feel can help make a difference to the world, now is your time to act.

Check out www.connectedindians.com!

The Connected Indians movement aims to be the catalyst for delivering the power of the Internet into the hands of a billion Indians. Intel states that its success will hinge on spirited public and private participation.

Over the next few months, Intel will mobilize people, resources & infrastructure to facilitate Internet adoption across India.

Over time, this collaboration will help build partnerships between people, Industries and stakeholders via a complete and connected ecosystem to accelerate the growth of Internet and its benefits to the society.

The Connected Indian web site is an innovation in itself wherein users can click on an interactive map to locate their co-ordinates, and then post their voice for an Internet-enabled India. Not only that, they can utilize the in-built feature to invite more of their friends and peers from their web contact lists to add in more numbers.

There is also an India Speaks section that highlights different areas where Internet is making a huge difference in the way people, processes, industries & services in India are progressing with the power of the Internet.

Intel is following up this movement on-ground with specially-designed “Net Yatras” wherein it will showcase Internet’s benefits to Indians using interactive tools & techniques.

This is one movement that has been designed with a specific cause in mind and Intel promises that for every 10,000 Connected Indians who register, the movement will donate a PC to selected government schools in rural areas.

Now that’s what we call a spirited initiative!

Know more about the movement here.

Join the movement here.

Join the Connected Indians Orkut Community here.

Intel’s partners in this venture include google, HCL, Zenith, Edurite, MAIT, BSNL, Reliance Communications, Tata Indicom, Acer, Intex, Novatium, Wipro, Asus, CII, e-zone, lenovo, NIIT, Tata Communications, Croma, NASSCOM etc.

It will be interesting to see the kind of products & services Intel will introduce to take this step further & forward. Here’s wishing Intel all the best for the initiative & hoping that more & more brands take such steps towards better propagation and acceptance of technology!

Luna Yang wrote:

Hi Masala Digital Team,My name is Luna and I’m a Stanford intern at Cooliris. You posted about PicLens recently – thank you! Since you use and enjoy PicLens, we thought you might appreciate an update on our product as we’re releasing some exciting new features today.

One of the biggest changes is that PicLens will now be known as Cooliris. Not only is the brand of our product undergoing change, but so is our product. We are very pleased to introduce Cooliris 1.8 with a few new additions that will make the lives of our users easier.

• Sharing: Interact more within Cooliris by sharing cool content you find in Cooliris with your friends. All you need is their emails to send them the images and videos you find interesting. Your recipients don’t even have to be PicLens users to receive your content. And now with our new international content and Olympics channel, there’s even more to play with – share the gift of a 3D Cooliris Internet experience!
• Cooliris for Developers: Enabling websites has just become the work of less than 10 minutes with Quick and Simple! Even sites with complex media are now better served with Full-Featured Cooliris support. Our new Developer Forum is a quick way to find the answers to all of your enabling questions. We’ve got you covered for all of your enabling needs.

You can download Cooliris 1.8 at http://cooliris.com and find out more about Cooliris for Developers at http://developer.cooliris.com. We hope you and your readers enjoy Cooliris. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and look forward to hearing your feedback.All the Best,
Luna and The Cooliris Team

What is Piclens? 

It’s a free browser plug in from Cooliris, which provides astonishingly good image browsing facilities on the web. The best way to describe PicLens is that it’s a like the slideshow feature in Picasa or a similar photo viewing tool, but applied to web pages. Clever use of zooming, panning and 3D style presentation not only improves your ability to scan, but is also visually stunning. Piclens provides full screen immersive picture browsing of web sites that support Media RSS.

How and where it works 

To use PicLens, a user clicks a small translucent icon   that appears atop the image of   interest once the plugin is installed. The PicLens slideshow interface appears and the user can move from one photo to the next or press play and enjoy the show. A user can intuitively browse images within search results, photo albums, and Media RSS enabled websites.

Support is currently provided for Flickr, Facebook, Friendster, Picasa Web Album and image search results from Google and Yahoo. Site owners can add support to any site with photos by including Media RSS support.

What you can do on Piclens.

3D Wall

Transform your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for online photos and videos

3D Video Search

Fly through 1000s of You Tube videos faster than you’ve ever imagined possible

 Discover

MSNBC, ESPN, movie trailers…Get the latest news, photos, and video feeds

Shop Amazon

Browse products from Amazon in a new virtual window shopping environment

Conclusion

The full screen rendering does require a decent internet speed when displaying large photographs, but visually the results are stunning. This Firefox plugin is going to find a lot of fans very, very quickly

Resources

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/26/full-screen-web-photo-browsing-with-piclens/

www.greatapps.blogspot.com

www.piclens.com

Targeted at the tech-focused youth, the community focuses not only on technology, but also features information on exciting career options and some interesting on-site games to engage the audience. The youth Network is a one-stop shop for the youth to find interesting & relevant information, understand computing-related technologies, refer friends to win rewards, participate in exciting games & contests and  a lot more.

The network also offers an innovative web-based referral scheme, wherein members can pass on PC-sales leads that they may come across within their peer group/friends/family to GID’s (Genuine Intel Dealers) and earn exciting rewards upon closure! This in our opinion is one learn & earn program that is relevant, exciting and can be utilized with minimum fuss!

Bigger plans are afoot to make the website even more relevant & focused in the coming days.

Solutions|Digitas designed the new look and feel and worked with Intel in bringing in content partners. They also are managing the website and will be responsible for future updates, promotions et al. Solutions|Digitas’s involvement is not just limited to the online aspect of the program. They are also actively managing all on-ground promotions including those at colleges, malls & multiplexes.

You can join the network here!

Amul, which established its presence in Second Life in March by setting up its virtual parlour, is now working to expand its presence in the virtual world.
Trimensions, a Gurgaon based company, is helping Amul to develop its existence on Second Life. Rahul Dutta, chairman and managing director, Trimensions, says, “Amul is planning to buy eight-10 islands, equal to 160 acres of virtual land, in Second Life to set up a simulation of its production and distribution facility. The objective behind launching a virtual setup is to demonstrate its functioning to the consumers, and experiment with any change in the production or distribution system virtually before executing it in the real world.”

Screenshot of Amul Ice-cream parlour

Dutta adds, “Setting up ice cream parlours on Second Life was actually a pilot project. It will take around six months to launch the virtual Amul setup on Second Life.” The Amul ice cream parlours showcase topical ads of Amul starting from the late 1990s, Amul TV commercials and product displays.
Before Second Life, Amul’s presence in the online world was restricted to Amul.com (a corporate website), Amul.tv (showcasing short films and TVCs related to Amul) and AmulIcecream.in (to sell ice cream).
Second Life is an Internet enabled virtual world in which users can create their virtual identities. These identities can move around, interact and socialise with other users. Members of Second Life can participate in individual or group activities and create and trade items like virtual property and services with each other. A member has to pay for the space he purchases on Second Life. Second Life is developed by Linden Lab, a company based in the US.

Around 13 million users worldwide, including 50,000 Indians, are registered with Second Life.

© 2008 afaqs!

Simple and addictive, it showcase three kinds of Butwhy’s:

Butwhy board: Ask your "but why" questions. e.g. Washing liquid contains real lemon, while a lemonade contains artificial flavor..But Why?

Butwhy photos: same concept in photos..e.g.

Butwhy stories: tell a story and ask the reader-butwhy? visitors can them offer interesting answers to a given situation.

There even is a contest on – post your butwhy to win exciting prizes. I do not think this is an individual’s attempt..and in any case, given their massive showcase of a popular model, it seems something is cooking.

Overall, pretty interesting..Looking forward to find out more..