BlackBerry’s Pearl in a sleek ’n’ sexy look

THE base line reads — small, smart, stylish. And the all-new BlackBerry smart phone lives up to it. And all those who have previously seen a BlackBerry phone will surely ask this — Is this really a BlackBerry or is it just a look alike phone? Stop right there and don’t rattle your brains. It’s really a BlackBerry phone and it’s called the Pearl. Simply put, it’s sleek, suave and sexy and very different from the BlackBerrys’ you have seen thus far. It’s slimmer than the Motorola Razr and has the oomph factor. Guys swear the four-letter word followed by awesome and the women say it’s beautiful. Well, those are the kind of first impressions you get from onlookers. And with the Black-Berry Pearl 8100, the company is not only attacking the high-end business segment, but the mid-to-high end mobile consumer too. Competition is already sweating, as this phone is so good looking that people have actually started buying it only for the phone and not for the USP of BlackBerry — the email push functions. If ‘Research in Motion’, the owners of the BlackBerry brand, launch this product for mass market minus the executive functions, making the price attractive, it would be a huge hit considering the interest it has already generated. The phone costs Rs 24,999 (inclusive of all taxes) and the retail pack includes a standard charger, USB cable and a headphone. We were provided with an evaluation unit minus the headphone as such we could not comment on the quality of the headphones. But, from the images available on the internet, the earphones look neat and up market. The first thing that you will notice about the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is the half ‘qwerty’ keyboard. That’s the downside. Known as SureType, one wonders why a need for another input style, which may be difficult to use. No doubt, it’s difficult to use. It’s a drift from the existing numeric keyboards, which is the most popular among mobile users. And it’s a partial drift from the ‘qwerty’ keyboard too. No doubt, It takes time to get used to. But, what covers up for the half ‘qwerty’ keyboard is the smart word builder. It’s the smartest word builder amongst all the phones available in the market. It recognises words from your phone book and also adds up new words as it types. Apart from a few words, which it would never add to its memory, ‘sms’ing is easy and fun. Next, the BlackBerry Pearl sports a pearl like trackball navigation system that makes using this smartphone easy. It functions well and doesn’t hurt the thumb on excessive use like the five way joystick. And navigation is smooth. Another innovative thing is that a small LED above the screen illuminates different colours for different status messages — green for wireless, blue for bluetooth, red for new messages, and amber for low battery. The only issues we faced with the Balckberry Pearl were the screen lighting and voice activated dialling. The screen lighting would diminish while using the phone and light up again on its own. So sometimes, as you use the phone the brightness may be just right but it would turn a little dark while using the phone. This surely was a major issue. The other — voice activated dialling was sub par. It did not recognise words and even numbers. About 90% of the time it would get even the numbers wrong. Perhaps much has to do with the Indian accent, which its software does not recognise. The multimedia features were up to the mark considering it’s the first time such features are introduced in the BlackBerry. The pictures taken from the 1.3 mega pixel camera were fine. The only issue — no video recording. Music played fine and videos looked good on screen, though it did not play in full screen. The battery life was decent considering the phone packs so many features. You can easily use it for up to three hours before the battery dies out. Call drops were average though the phone reception is sharp and gets to normal fast. This helps because unless the reception drops to zero for sometime, the phone connection remains active.

table 1

Is it worth prepaying your home loan early?

INTEREST rates on home loans have consistently been on an upward trend in the last couple of years. Every time the bank intimates an increase in the interest rate, one wonders whether the raise has gone a bit too far and is it time to retire the loan. The key to decide on the prepayment of the loan is whether your own funds can fetch you better returns than the interest that you are paying to the bank. The crucial element to the above equation is the impact of income tax, both on your returns and the rebate available on interest payment on home loans. Under the I-T Act you can get deduction against the interest payment on home loans up to Rs 1,50,000. This means that if you are on the highest slab of rate of personal income tax, you can save up to Rs 50,490. The rate of tax on your returns depends on the asset class that you choose and the tenure of the investment. Table 1 shows the target interest rate that you need to earn to break even. The current rate of interest on home loans is around 10.5%. Assuming that you have a loan outstanding of Rs. 20 lakh, annual interest payment to the bank will add up to Rs. 2.1 lakh and you will be eligible for a tax rebate of Rs. 50,490. Therefore, your investments should at least earn you Rs. 1,59,510 post tax, which is a return of 8%. To keep the illustration simple, I have not taken reducing balance in to account. There are various asset classes to choose from, to make your investments. As per the statistics published by the Reserve Bank of India, there is a strong bias amongst the Indian households towards putting their money into bank deposits. These deposits are currently offering 8 to 9% return but are taxable at the rate of personal income tax which makes the effective rate of return 5 to 6%. Holding on to the loan while keeping your savings in bank deposits is certainly not a good idea, unless you have a need of liquidity in the near term. MFs periodically launch fixed maturity products that are currently giving a yield of around 9%, which after long term capital gain tax comes to around 8%. These products further invest in ‘AAA’ rated fixed income securities, maturing normally in line with the duration of the scheme. Table 2 shows the amount you can save annually by retaining the loan based on different rate of returns: The other point to note here is that even with the current rate of interest, home loans are the cheapest loans that you can get. If you need liquidity or expect a big expense coming your way in near future, it makes sense to retain the loan.

IPTV - Just in CASe you are Net-savvy

WATCHING TV will never be the same for the Indian consumer. With CAS (conditional access system) already a part of the TV viewing experience, DTH (direct-to-home) creating a flurry with TV consumers, the option of IPTV (internet protocol TV) has set the stage for an interesting battle for television supremacy. ET tries to put things in perspective for everyone from couch potatoes to the net-savvy Indian channel surfers.
IPTV is often confused with television on the internet. Simply put it means getting TV through the good old MTNL telephone line. The telecom giant calls it ‘triple play’ — that is, your MTNL connection will work as a telephone, internet connection and a television content provider. IPTV is different. Via IPTV, content will be viewed through technologies used for computer networks. Of course you don’t need a computer for that.

HOW DOES IT WORK?


To take advantage of this medium, viewers will need a broadband connection and a set-top-box (STB) to send and receive requests. IPTV uses a two-way signal sent through the service provider’s network and servers. Since the connection is different from the normal internet connection, it does not affect the surfing experience. The only similarity IPTV has with newer media like CAS and DTH is that this too comes with a STB. But its STB is nothing like the ones that come with the DTH or CAS. Since the entire network works on servers, the STB for IPTV comes with no moving parts. Says AS Oberai, director, IOL Broadband, “The content is stored on servers so the STB does not need to have hard disk, but at the same time it is far more complex as IPTV allows viewers to control (read: play and pause) content.”

THE COST FACTOR

The cost of IPTV, providing only TV viewing and games, will be equal to other services and is likely to fall thanks to competition, says Mr Oberai. At present, a connection costs a shade above Rs 2,000 including installation. The STB costs Rs 999 while the router costs Rs 199. All these are one time costs for the consumer. Users also need to pay for the pay-channels that they have chosen from a bouquet, which have a similar fee package as with DTH and CAS.
“As of now, there are nearly 100 channels available on IPTV, but that number is expected to scale up in the next few months,” say industry players.

THE USER EXPERIENCE

With IPTV users can expect personalisation and interactivity. IPTV will allow for gaming-on-demand and video-on-demand service means that user will get to watch movies of their choice. The network of servers allows viewers to select even avail of value-adds like time shift — allows you to watch what you want to watch and when you want to watch, and even have live TV chat.

E-COMMERCE ON IPTV

Not only does IPTV cater to the households but it is also has uses for the corporate community. Remote surveillance is possible with IPTV, which allows for TVCommerce. With options such as online home shopping, online banking and travel assistance, IPTV seems to be a good bet for businesses alike. IPTV may be used to deliver TV content over corporate LAN’s and business networks. The customised content delivery enabled by IPTV means reduced opportunities for theft of content.

DRAWBACKS OF IPTV

Despite the advantages that IPTV presents, it does not come without its problems. Low broadband penetration means that it will take a while for IPTV to have a mass reach. India has just 18.17 lakh broadband connections, because broadband prices are high. Tariff ranges from Rs 900 to Rs 3,300 for home users while it varies between Rs 700 to Rs 9,000 for business users. That amount only covers data transfers of 250 kbps to 2 mbps, and you have to pay by the megabyte if you run over the download limit. Bandwith is also a constraint for IPTV providers.
But with all this said, if this does work, it’s all about being able to get your preferred content when you want it. That could be really attractive to the urban, travelling set. For if you have a long weekend coming up? You can get all the episodes of your favourite soap for a marathon viewing session. Imagine the joys — and the agony.