Verified By Visa

Mastercard Securecode

In case you have not registered it yet, you will find that when you try to use the card, you will be transferred to a site where in you can register for same. You can also directly register by accessing the respective bank site

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank, HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank,

Inspite of its benefit (Secure transaction), people using it on international payment gateways will be not cheering the move. If you try using your Debit Card/Credit Card on international payment gateways e.g Web hosting payments, paypal,Google checkout, etc then the transactions will be declined. Process for authenticating transaction by “Verified by Visa” is given below (from hdfcbank website)

1. Select the goods or services you want from a Verified by Visa/ MasterCard SecureCode online store and proceed to the payment page.
2. Enter your HDFC Bank Debit/ Credit Card number and the online store will connect with HDFC Bank to check whether your Card is secured with Verified by Visa/ MasterCard SecureCode.
3. HDFC Bank initiates a Verified by Visa/ MasterCard SecureCode pop-up window on your computer screen that includes your Personal Assurance Message (PAM)/ Personal Greeting.
4. Look for and confirm your PAM/ Personal Greeting then enter your password. HDFC Bank will then confirm your identity to the merchant.

Problem is at Step 3 as international payment gateways cannot redirect to Indian bank’s for “verified by visa” or “securecode” key/password and without this “password”  transaction cannot be authorized. Any site which is not  registered for “Verified by Visa” / “Securecode” transaction will not be able to use the card. What can you do?? May be call up American Express  :)

I got this message after approximately 20 mins , so you can send sms well in advance. This connection is available for 1 hour and timer would start once you login.

Most of the people were expecting it to be priced around Rs 15k-20K but Rs 31k is way too much. If you search internet , you will find lot of articles which tell that iPhone lacks many of the basic CellPhone functionalities like forwarding sms , has only 2 MP camera,FM Radio. Anyways I have decided against buying iPhone. I think buying a decent Nokia Phone and iPod Touch will be a wise decision rather than investing in iPhone. Note that we still have not received details about data plans which Vodafone and Airtel will be releasing for accessing internet and other data services. But be assured that this will not be less. Both companies are expecting to sell 100,000 phones in next 1 year (by pre-registration) but after the price release, I do not see this happening (unless they cut prices drastically)

You can read more about it in below mentioned links

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=331955

http://www.vodafone.in/iphone/Pages/iPhone_details.aspx?cid=kar

UPDATE!!

Vodafone has announced the prices for the iPhone in India. 8 Gb model is priced at Rs 31000 and 16 Gb model will cost Rs 36,100. It will be available from Aug 22, 2008

iPhone is a product from Apple which seves as a Cell Phone, iPod and Camera (2.0 Mega Pixel)

Till now it is still not clear about the iPhone 3G pricing in India.It is priced at $199 i.e RS 8000 in US but according to analysts , it would be 20K+or more. In any case if it even touches 12-16 K , it would make a serious dent in sales of Sony Erricson and Nokia phones.

iPhone 3G is based on the 3G technology which gives fast access to the Internet and email over cellular networks around the world. It also allows you to surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video — even while you’re on a call. It is not clear whether Airtel and Vodafone will provide 3G facility.

Vodafone has till now announced to provide following facilities

1)8 Gb and 16 GB models

iPhone 3G comes in two models with space of 8Gb and 16 Gb.

2) Assisted GPS

GPS (Global Positioning System) helps you to find your location, get directions, and see traffic — all from your phone. As of now few Nokia model provides these facilities in India.

3)New Applications

iPhone3G includes many applications like Youtube, Calendar, Scientific Calculator, Safari Browser.

4) Microsoft exchange

This feature will provide the users to check emails through the phone. We have to see if it can compete with Blackberry.

Along with this , Apple also introduced Mobile Me for your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. It allows you to keep everything up to date.

One of the key application which I feel will be missed by most of the people is a Radio!! This does not have a FM Radio Facility in it.

My friend had bought a Dell XPS1330 few months back. The machine is quite sleek and weighs less then 2 Kg. But this comes in 13.3 inches screen size which I thought was bit less for me. I also looked at the Dell Inspiron series and they looked ok to me. All this thing was done over internet so I planned to go to Staples (located on Outer ring Road, Bangalore).

There were quite a number of Laptops which were available in the Store so I decided on following configuration as a minimum standard

1)Intel Processor with 1.7 Ghz +

2)2 Gb RAM

3)160 Gb HDD

4)Battery life

5)Processor Type – Core 2 Duo

6)Bluetooth/wireless

This was quite a small list and I added few items (in bold) after having look at features. I would say that in the end it made me realize that after spending 4 years in IT, I ought to have known more things

I had a look at quite a number of brands and made following observations

1)Compaq Presario

Compaq laptops looked to be the cheapest one available in the store with starting price of 34 K. They came with AMD Turion processor and Core Duo Processor.

Pros

Low Price

Cons

Basic configuration, not stylish.

Model Shortisted – C773Tu (1.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo T5550 2 Gb RAM, 160 GB HDD ) Price Rs 38,000.00

I would say that this was among the two brands which were least appealing.

3)ACER

This was the other one which didn’t appeal to me.

4)HP

HP gave a lot of options to me. There were quite a lot of models which I shortlisted in the category.

Model Shortisted – DV604TU (1.73 Ghz Dual Core Processor T2370, 15.4 inches, 2Gb RAM, 250 GB HDD) Price Rs 43,000

DV2762TX (1.8 Ghz Dual 2 Core,14.1 inches, 2GB RAM,160 GB HDD) Price Rs 50,000

5)Sony Vaio

Wow!! This was the first words which I said looking at the machines available for display. I would say these were the best looking machine with best configuration but high price. Also Sony claimed to have 4.5 hrs of battery life which is more then HP (2.5 hrs)

Model Shotlisted – VGN -CR35G/36G (2.1 Ghz Dual 2 Core T8100, 2Gb RAM, 200GB HDD) – Price Rs 55,000

Hmm..Now not sure which one to buy. I know it has to be either Dell or Sony Vaio , but both seems to be bit expensive. Dell takes 2 weeks to deliver and also does not have a local service center. As per information available from one of the salesman, Dell laptops are sent to Malaysia for repair and take much time to get repaired (Need to Confirm this).

But I would say that this also allowed me to know more about computer hardware stuff and the latest technology in the market. Say for instance there is a Laptop from Sony (Vaio TZ) which weighs 1 Kg and uses a Flash memory instead of conventional hard disk to store data. Price is mind boggling Rs 1,39,000 only..