Pandora - Created by the Music Genome Project

Music lovers will be delighted to experience this site. They provide free music, actually a lots of them. And that too without flouting any laws of the land. It's like your personal DJ - just tell them what you like and they will play songs and music similar to that. Their selection is excellent and you can help them build the station for you. None of my words can tell you what you will experience. Give it a try at  www.pandora.com/

Google working overtime on Gmail?!

Google has been rolling out new features in Gmail more often now. In the past 1 month alone they have added three major features - two of which were a necessity for it to challenge other major email players. The integration of Virus scan for all attachements sent or received by Gmail has been long pending. Google unveiled this feature along with RSS feeds feature as part of Gmail.

I'm not sure how effective this feature will be because, in the past few days I always miss seing the feeds that are displayed at the top. But the fact that they allow the users to customize the feeds makes it a good feature.

They have also added the long pending request to have contact groups so that you can send a mail to a group of people using a single address.

To top it all, Google has unveiled Mobile Gmail. Now you can access your Gmail account from your mobile phone or device. Just point your phone's web browser to http://m.gmail.com. Perhaps they plan to go live around April 2006.

Direct To Home (DTH) race in India

I'm waiting for the successful launch of Insat 4 A series on December 21, 2005 as scheduled by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) as it will take the DTH race in India to the next level.

Currently there is only one major private operator offering DTH services in India - Zee. Doordarshan's DTH venture is more for the masses as it would be offering only free to air channels with absolutely no value add.

Zee which offered its DTH hardware for about Rs. 7500 (USD 180) till about 6 months ago has already taken the lead in the price war by slashing it to just about Rs. 4000 (USD 90) including one year subscription to all the channels on plate!

The Tata-Star venture (Tata-Sky) has finaly got the government approval. They have blocked transponders in Insat 4A which is currently set to launch on Dec 21, 2005. (It has been delayed by about 4 months now). Once the satellite is on orbit, Tata-sky will have the necessary infrastructure in place to start beaming in the Ku band. It is expected to launch with about 150 channels. It is expected to go on air by around April-May 2006.

Another major player waiting in the final rounds for approval is Sun Network. It is expected that they will take south India by Storm by their pricing and aggressive programming once they launch.

Anil Ambani's ADAE has also approached the government for DTH license. They should also get through.

But, much depends on the Satellite launches as all these players need them to in place before they can beam their channels.