METALLICA IN INDIA YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!

After years and years of waiting...METALLICA  ARE FINALLY COMING TO INDIA.
This is such a big, lifetime opportunity for all of us.

Never did I think that I would get the chance to see Metallica. I remember being depressed one day thinking that I may not get to see Metallica in my life time while a couple of friends of mine went for their live show in America.
 The show details are as follows

28th October 2011 Budd F1 race track in India (near Delhi/Noida)
30th October 2011 at the Bangalore  Palace ground in Bangalore.

I have already booked my plane tickets and bought my entry tickets

So what are you waiting for?
Book your show tickets here , your

train tickets here, your plane tickets here and your stay here

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Molife Fit to use case for Samsung Galaxy SII reviewed

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II I9100 Android mobile phone from Letsbuy.com and as part of the offer, I got a Molife Fit to use hard case for the phone. The phone contains a two part mobile case, a body that covers the back and sides of the phone, which has openings for the camera at the back and openings on the top and bottom for the phone's mic, headphones jack and charger jack.
The second cover is a slide-on cover which can be used to cover the phone, such that the screen is protected as well and a belt-hook is present for you to holster the phone onto your belt, or the phone can be turned around before sliding in, to expose the phone's screen and then the belt hook can be set to make the phone rest against it, inclined, to watch videos (if this does not make sense, have a look at the images below, apologies for the low quality images, I am still working on my photography).

Quite frankly, initially I was really apprehensive that I would ever use such a mobile cover since I had belt hooks and I hate holster mobiles in such a way. But, after I lost the leather pouch that came with my phone (Sob! ;( ), it was not difficult to convince myself to use the hard cover.

The belt hook section is not detachable from the cover, which if it could be removed, would make putting/removing the mobile from my pocket much easier.

Anyway, I hereby list the advantages of why this cover is awesome and one should buy one.

Pros:-
1. A hard cover will most definitely protect your phone much better that a leather pouch or no cover.
2. The Samsung Galaxy S II is SUPER light. I prefer the slightly "I can feel it in my hand" phone (most people prefer phones as light as possible,  I like the not too light and the not too heavy feel). The addition of the cover makes the overall weight and feel in my hand much more pleasing.
3. The cover's feature to stand the phone slightly inclined is really appealing. It also makes it easier to watch videos of keep it in front of me, below my monitor at work.
4. Makes you feel safer about your phone.
5. The protruding hook makes removing the phone from your jeans' front pocket, a bit difficult, which also means your pocket won't be picked that easily, which is good for such an expensive phone.
6. Since the phone's body will not have any scratches, it's resale value would be better after a few years.

Cons:-
1. Those who like lighter phones will not like the additional weight
2. The difficulty in removing the phone from your jeans' front pocket means you cannot answer calls that quickly if required.
3. Sometimes you have to hold both parts of the cover in different hands as sliding the phone in the second cover, covers the camera.

I think the pocket bulge can be over come over time. Maybe you could even use just the back cover in most cases and use the second cover as and when required.

My recommendation is to buy this cover. Especially more so if you are a bit careless, like me, with phones and drop/scratch them accidentally.

The MRP (maximum retail price) is Rs. 1200 including a screen guard. Buy it from Flipkart.com for Rs. 960 (Molife Fit to use case for Galaxy S2 I9100).

It retails on Letsbuy.com for Rs. 960 including shipping. I have had difficulty finding it on Molife's own website, oddly enough.

I recently came across another option for a cover without the belt hook.

Let me know if you like it and do end up buying it.

Inclined position, a bit of atop view this photo!

The left cover is the slide cover which has the belt hook.

Top cover on the left & back cover on the right.The left cover shows the belt hook.

Inclined position side view. This way you can keep it on your desk and watch videos, or for video calls.
The two rod like things keep the belt hook open for resting. You would otherwise insert you belt through the opening instead.

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Guitar related Apps for your Android.

If you are learning the Guitar like I am, I recently found some really nice Apps for Android devices. These apps can help you learn some things faster and more easily, especially the Gibson's learn and master Guitar.

1) Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar.
This is one very, very good application for Androids for learning the guitar. This one is for complete beginners. It starts from complete basics, from the parts of a Guitar to how to start playing and practicing. The application links to a series of You Tube instruction videos which are easy to follow and practice with.
There is even a guitar tuner in the app which works fairly accurately but background and other noise can interfere with it. To overcome this, the mic of your android device needs to be as close as possible to the guitar's sounding hole.
Also, the tuner allows you to tune the guitar to other than the Standard tuning (I don't know what you mean by non-standard tuning, since I am still learning :) ). The app also has a metronome and a pictorial reference of the many different guitar cords. The images show you the string numbers, fret numbers and even the fingers that should be used for pressing down on the frets to form the chord. Register on their site and you will receive one mail daily with tips on how to improve your skills and learn better. Till now, I have found a couple of tips extremely helpful and was immediately able to improve my barre chord playing, The second tip was on how to become faster at playing, eventually. This app is a serious must have for any beginner, even more if you plan to learn on your own and without a teacher. For more advanced levels, I recommend buying the entire DVD set and booklets.
The best part is the app is free!
Here is a review on You Tube about the DVD set.

2) Jambox
This application shows you chords of the guitar pictorially. Chords can be selected from a predefined list and variations of the same chord are show one after the other by clicking/touching the on-screen fretboard. However, unlike Gibson's learn and master guitar, it shows you the notes/frets that need to be played but does not guide you on the fingers that need to be used.

Shaking the device then plays the chord out loud on the speaker, which is a pretty neat idea and can be used for some amount of playing with your device.(read, pretend like you are strumming the guitar)
The applications also shows you many different scales. I have not reached that level of musical abilities yet so I shall say no more about it.

3) Guitar Chords Lite.
This app shows you guitar chords in tablature format rather than pictorially. The basic version is free and the paid version is Rs. 63.07. The paid version has the following extras :-
- 400 chords
- left hand /right hand mode
- 1460 variations
- 1460 midi songs
- scales
- reverse chord search

4) Guitar Tabs
This app is mind blowing. It contains many guitar tabs for reference,  with a large number of artists and many of their songs. It covers everything from Abba, Britney Spears (yuck) to AC/DC, Megadeth, Iron Maiden and most importantly METALLICA! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! I am completely in awe of the level of detail and the number of songs covered. Metallica coverage is the most important one for me, and this app will surely impress in that area.

It is too early for me at least to pick and try any Metallica songs, but just knowing that I have them at my fingertips, makes me very very happy :D.

So, if you are a beginner, then the above apps can come in handy to learn some things faster or more easily.

If you come across some nice, helpful guitar apps for android, do leave a comment about them.

In the mean time if you are looking for some guitar teaching books, have a look here.

Happy learning and KEEP ROCKING.

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Flipkart.com service review

I recently reviewed Letsbuy.com, and recently did some shopping on Flipkart.com. Having heard many good, rave reviews, I thought it is time that I experience their service.

I must say I am delighted so far with their service. I ordered two books, and 4 packs of Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 (3 PC 1 Year) from them.

One of the books I ordered was readily available so I placed an order immediately. I paid by credit card (although a cash on delivery facility is also available, and many of my friends have used that option). Delivery was made in exactly 3 business days, which made me happy.

As soon as I placed any order, I received a confirmation SMS (text message) on my mobile phone and also an email. In most cases, I received my credit card company's purchase confirmation SMS after Flipkart's SMS.

Nice.

The email confirmation sent acknowledges placement of order with quantity and price, order number, expected delivery date, and shipping address to which the consignment will be sent. The mail is plain text.

What could be added to this mail is the call center contact numbers. Flipkart.com has a 24 hours customer service helpline, which I think no other online shopping provider has, and I know Letsbuy.com does not have.(Letsbuy.com now have a 24 hour helpline).

The email could be enhanced with a few images and fancy work but I guess they want to make it as light weight as possible for fast download and delivery.

The second book I ordered was an international edition book (which I have been searching for years, by the way) which was not readily available. They imported the book and then shipped it to me. The order for it was placed on 12th of August.

They had estimated it to reach by around 25th of August. It reached on 22nd. In fact, on 19th August I placed another order, which was for the Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and both of these items reached on the the 22nd together. So, the main point is that they smartly detected and sent me the items together.

The FAQs on their site is also comprehensive and very useful. The most important thing for me, which  they mentioned on their site, was that all items are inclusive of octroi and that I do not have to pay any octroi extra (On Letsbuy.com I am having trouble even finding the FAQ. The FAQs page of Letsbuy.com is very difficult to find and not possible from the main page. I logged in, saw a scrolling faq widget and then from there found the FAQs).

Once your item is shipped, an email is sent to you with a tracking URL and you can track your package. This is all shown on the Flipkart's site and not the logistics company's site, which is really impressive. Also, this seems to imply that the logistics company is their own and not a third party, if this is so, that is really very impressive.

I have also noticed that many items are cheaper on Flipkart.com as compared to any other online stores, and even some local shops that I have checked in Pune. Case in point, the Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 which was cheaper on Flipkart.com than Kaspersky's own website, Letsbuy.com and even compared to Data Care Corporation which is a local computer products chain and has a store in my office building.

Now for a couple of downers...

1)  The site has a 'notify me' option which I had subscribed to for my international edition book. I never got any updates about my book, and it's availability, but I just went ahead and ordered it anyway.

2) My friends in office usually order items to the office address and it seems that the guy who delivers the books to our office, is a very rude guy and has been rude on more than occasion.

I never needed to, or got the chance to call their call center, so I do not know how good they are over the phone.

Overall, very good service, definitely impressive. A point to note is that Flipkart.com does have head start because the founders are ex-Amazon.com employees, so other sites, watch out, beware, your work is cut out for you!

Here is a convenient bar below for you to experience the online shopping awesomeness.

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Basic Life survival skills with EyeHandy.com

It is very important that one learns to do things by oneself. Be it driving, changing your car tire, how to iron clothes etc. These basic life skills may be missing in some people, at very important stages of life.
It may sound absurd but I never knew how to iron a formal shirt at age 25!

I once found myself living alone in a foreign country, and was forced to learn to iron formal shirts, and even how to cook (cooking I was fortunate enough to learn from a friend, she taught me well).
Thanks to amazing technology and You Tube, I was able to learn how to do things myself by finding and watching, easy to follow instruction videos. There are some drawbacks, for e.g. I can't iron shirts without using an ironing board, because I did not  find the "How to iron your shirt on the floor" video, a skill which my wife is an expert at.

I came across an amazing new site for only DIY videos. There is SO MUCH to LEARN there.
I think I will pick up one new skill a day. You should visit.

Anyway, off to the site to learn how to re-string my acoustic guitar.

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Shocking true life marriage fraud

A shocking true life marriage fraud case.
A must read for all women who think that they will never be a victim. Parents also please take heed and be very careful about background checks for people from Shaadi.com and the like.

One more point against arranged marriages.

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Letsbuy.com - Shopping site service review.

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone from Letsbuy.com. This is my review of their service. (Samsung Galaxy S II is an amazing phone. Absolutely awesome. I love it. It is the best Android phone in the market at the moment with no competition. After seeing my phone, 3 others in my office, bought this phone!  A well known reviewer's review here, Part 1 and Part 2.)

A couple of things about online shopping in India.
Online shopping in India is still coming of age and has considerably improved in the last 5 years. Fears of astronomical delays or products not reaching are much reduced now days, however, not completely eliminated. Unlike in the west though, in India, online shopping still is slightly more expensive than going over to a shop. Sounds backwards right? That too is changing nowadays and Flipkart.com is an established website, changing the game.

1. One thing to remember  whenever purchasing anything online, that when the item is finally delivered to you, depending on the item and it's price, you may have to pay octroi over and above what you have already paid the dealer website.
In the case of mySamsung Galaxy S II, I had to pay Rs. 1407 as octroi.

2.  I have still not experienced 1-3 day deliveries, as I have in UK. In the UK, whenever I placed an order before 14:00 on BT Shop or Dabs.com, it was almost certain to reach the next day, or one day after that.


Right so onto my order. The offer that Letsbuy.com had was as follows:-
Samsung Galaxy S II + Samsung HM1000 bluetooth headset + Molife Fit to use hard case with screen guard + Samsung HDTV adapter, all for R. 32,830 (+ the octroi mentioned above). It sounded like a steal.

I initially called Letsbuy.com to confirm the offer, with it's freebies and that the price included taxes. I waited around 3 minutes on hold this first time that I called them. The sales person who answered the call was not exceptional and was not bad either. It at least seemed that the training was there, but could improve a bit.
He confirmed the details of the offer and answered all my doubts without ambiguity and also explained the process I had to follow (since it was a pre-booking offer with a slightly different process).

I placed a pre-launch booking order for the phone on the website by paying Rs. 1000.
I immediately got an mail confirmation for my order.

The company's work timings mentioned in the order confirmation email were wrong. I mentioned it to them in one of my later calls to them, and have yet to verify if that has been corrected (something you can look out for).

The next email I got from them was a little startling. It said that a shipment was dispatched to my address. I thought maybe they sent the phone directly and were expecting cash on delivery, which I was totally unprepared for.

I received one more mail from them to say that  I could now place my final order, and use the voucher which I would receive shortly. The email also detailed a delay in the HDTV adapter for the phone, and mentioned that it would reach by mid June.

I then called them up to ask them about the delivery and also that I had not received the voucher in a follow up email. He gave me the voucher number over the phone.

The shipment delivery later turned out to be the voucher I was supposed to use to book and place my final order. Not sure why they couldn't just email it and physically posted a printout.

Anyway, to cut the story short, I placed my final order and received my Samsung a week later. I think there is room for improvement here to make deliveries in 3 working days. I have seen Flipkart.com deliver books in 3 days, not sure about electronics. The delivery carrier was Aramex. Maybe Bluedart would have been faster!?!

My last call was for the delayed HDTV adapter on the 20th of June. The customer service executive informed me that I need not worry about it, it was not forgotten and would definitely be delivered, and the delay was from the manufacturer. He also let me know I would not require to follow up.

A week later I received the HDTV adapter.

Over all the service at Letsbuy.com was good. They could give some serious competition to Flipkart.

But for now, Flipkart is still ahead in the game.

A few annoyances about Letsbuy.com
1. The Letsbuy.com website does seem to be randomly inaccessible. No reason or understanding as to why.

2. The working hours mentioned in the order confirmation email does not match with the website timings and I ended up calling them before 10 a.m.  (They now have a 24 hour helpline).

3. It happened on two occasions that I called Letsbuy.com helpline, and I was on hold for a full 5 minutes and then was automatically disconnected. It was exactly 5:12 on the phone time, both times.

[Update]

4. They never bothered to ask/inform me about the octroi over and above the payment that I was going to make. Someone recently told me that Letsbuy.com has mentioned in their FAQ that the Octroi would not be paid or is refunded. I contacted Letsbuy.com recently about the Octroi on my order. They asked me to mail them a scanned copy of my octroi bill and they phoned me to verify and they sent me a cheque for the amount as refund. It would have been better to know this in the first place instead of waiting 5 months to find out.

5. The FAQs page of Letsbuy.com is very difficult to find and not possible from the main page. I logged in, saw a scrolling faq widget and then from there found the FAQs.

My Flipkart.com review here

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Reebok V/S Nike

Are you into branded shoes and can't decide whether you should keep your loyalty with Reebok or Nike? Let me help you a bit with that and share my experience.

I have been using Reebok's for about 15 years now and I am a total fan. I have also owned 5 pairs of Nike's in between and have the following points for why you should choose Reebok over Nike.

1. Price.
Nike and Reebok are not very far off from each other in price, and are in fact very comparable now days, but I still do find Nike to be a tad more expensive than Reebok. The difference is about Rs.500 - Rs. 1000, so no biggie.
Earlier, Nike used to be much more expensive by about Rs. 500 -Rs.2500.
I remember when I used to find a decent pair of Reeboks for Rs. 2690 while the Nikes would start at Rs. 3100.

(On a side note, Nike and Reebok are still quite expensive brands in themselves, but that is for another discussion).

2. Longevity
I have found that over a long period of time (say about 2-3 years), the Reeboks outlast the Nikes. Initially I thought maybe this had to do with a one off issue with my shoes, but later learned that it was a general issue. A friend of mine even corroborated this when I spoke to him and he too agreed that Reeboks last longer than Nike.
This not only applies to the shoes I bought in India but also to two pairs that I from the U.K.

3. Size
This one is the biggest clincher for me. My feet are US size 11.5. The only reason it is 11.5 and not 11, is because my big toe gets crushed against the top of the shoe, while the rest of the shoe fits my foot quite nicely and comfortably. If the toe is not crushed, I can pass of with a size 11 too!
I have found that within the range of shoes on display in an outlet, there generally are more number of shoes available in a size 11/11.5 in a Reebok store than at the Nike store.

4. Styling
I find the styling  of Reebok shoes to be better, more attractive to look at than Nike.

5. Variety
When it comes to variety of shoes, Reebok beats Nike hands down.


Other brands which I have checked out are PUMA and Adidas. I do like the Adidas pair of shoes but they are quite on the expensive side, however, they NEVER have my size. NEVER!

PUMA also NEVER has my size. Puma is also the most expensive of the lot.

Well, Reebok has a 40% off sale running at the moment so run on over to your nearest store.
Almost everything is 40% off!!
[Update : Sale is over now, but you can still go to the link and check out their online offers].

I got a pair of Rs. 10,000 shoes for Rs. 6,000 (spending more than Rs. 3000 on a pair of shoes is madness in itself, but some things can be easily ignored/forgotten/overlooked).
The shoe's inner sole cushioning is what bowled me over and I had to have this pair...and they had a size 12 which fit me perfectly!


Happy running!!

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