Hey Now!! If you have an iPhone and are a fan of Howard Stern then you like me, would want to listen to Howard Stern on the iPhone. For quite a while that was rather difficult to do because Sirius did not have an iPhone app and when they did introduce it, they did not offer the Howard Stern Channels on the iPhone app. Now (as of Jan 2010), you have two options to get Howard Stern on your iPhone.
iPhone Pocket Tunes Radio Application
iPhone Skydock for XM Radio
Pocket Tunes Radio iPhone Application
Pocket Tunes Radio is an application available in the App Store ($6.99) that streams a large number of online stations. The application can also stream the content from the online Sirius feed which includes the Stern channels. In order to make this work, you will need to buy this application (one time 6.99 cost) and also have the online streaming ($2.99/month) and you are all set. The pro's of this method of listening to Stern are that you can virtually get access to the channels anywhere you are as long as you have Wifi or good data speeds. Also, the price is only 2.99/month or lower if you have annual subscriptions etc. The downside is that if you are in the car, you may get spotty signal and also crackling sound on your stereo.
iPhone Skydock for XM Radio
The iPhone Skydock is a new adapter that can be attached to a car (uses the standard charger output) and converts your iPhone into a Satellite radio. Unlike the Rocket Tunes option, the signal comes from the satellites so you are guaranteed of a better reception and signal. The problem with this is that the product comes from XM (not Sirius) so you have to subscribe to XM (for full price) and then get the Best of Sirius package. The total cost will work out to around $17/month. Also the Skydock works only in the car and costs about $120.
The Skydock communicates with your stereo over FM and in crowded markets such as NY, LA or Dallas, its tough to find a good frequency as well. The Skydock also plays your iPod as well. The Skydock does have an auxillary out so if your car stereo supports that you are in luck.
These are the two ways you can get Stern on your iPhone. Given my listening pattern (I spend about 40 mins in the car everyday) and also listen at work, I prefer option 1. I also have a Skydock that I uses mainly as an FM transmitter and have not activated my radio as yet. Maybe if Stern renews, I may consider doing that.
There are rumors that they will introduce new products at the CES and new options may show u or maybe Stern will allow them to broadcast on the Sirius application. Until then, seems like this is what we can do.
With the Twitter craze hitting the world for the last few months, I thought I would dig in to see what the Bollywood stars are tweeting about and who the popular Bollywood Twits (is that what they are called in Twiterminology ;-)). To begin with all of Bollywood is not yet on Twitter though it has its fair share of celebrities on it. After some digging around and following their tweets, here is my opinion of the popular Bollywood stars on Twitter as of Aug 2009.
Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) - By far the most popular Bollywood celebrity on Twitter (no surprises there), Priyanka has about 38K followers and growing rapidly. She is a frequent tweeter, posting multiple tweets during the day. She keeps a good mix of personal opinions and about her ongoing projects and appearances. When she finds time, she does respond to her fans. I like how she manages herself on Twitter. Quite the role model I would say. Hum bhi Priyanka ke Bhakt hai.
Karan Johar (@kjohar25) - With about 11K followers, Karan Johar would come a distant second. Karan too is a regular poster and also keeps a good mix about his personal opinion and his work. You can see that he is tweeting himself. He just kicked off a project with SRK and Kajol.
Aamir Khan (@Aamir_khan) - For some reason, he does not have a great following on Twitter. Given his personal situation with the wife having a miscarriage, he is not very active on Twitter.
Riteishd (@Riteishd) - New to Twitter, Riteish (at school I was taught, i before an e, except after c..never mind) is getting a good following. Riteish too provides a regular update and replies to his fans. Generally funny too.
Genelia D'Souza - Probably the worst from the Bollywood list, she barely has any posts and anything that I have seen seems like it was to promote her appearance and not done by her.
Others who are regular are Lara Dutta, Dino Morea, Uday Chopra, Ram Gopal Varma, Ayesha Takia.
Notably missing from the Twiiter world are the Bachchan's (Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya), the King (SRK).
Everyone has probably heard of IT and Call Center operations being outsourced to India, but did you know that a large number of manhole covers in the United States actually get manufactured in India. A few weeks ago, I was walking in Los Angeles and saw a drain cover manufactured in India.
Apparently over 600,000 manhole covers in the city of New York are manufactured in India, specially from West Bengal. This practice is not new but has been in existence for over 4 decades. Also, it looks like India is the world leader in manhole cover manufacturing, a little known fact. So the next time you walk over a drain cover in the US, it may have come from India.
I have been a fairly early adopter of VOIP offerings in the marketplace
having signed up with Vonage back in 2002. Most of my experience with
them has been good with the occaisional echo problems. I recently moved
to a new location and was very surprised with the International calling
plan that Time Warner cable offered me if I signed up for their Digital
phone service. I was spending over $50 making calls to India and with
Reliance, I would get about 500 minutes of talk time. Time Warner was
offering 3000, yes THREE THOUSAND minutes of calling time to India for
only $20. Of course I had to pay a higher cost for the unlimited long
distance calling ($40/month) but overall it works out cheaper.
This was not a promotional offer or anything of that nature. So far the experience has been very good. I get through to Indian on the very first try. I have not head issues with echo or packet loss. There are no separate rates for land lines vs cell phones. At this point, I have nothing to complain. The cable modem/VOIP adapter has a built inbattery backup whichis great should you lose power or want to move things around.
Cancelling my service with Vonage was another challenge. They threw all kinds of freebies at my, 1 month free, 2 months free, 3 months free, 1 year unlimited at 14.95 a month.
I watch a lot of Hindi movies on DVDs and I am forced to see the commercials, trailors etc before I can watch the movie. These companies include Eros Entertainment, DEI, WEG, SPARK among others. Most of the DVDs have been programmed so that its not even possible to use the next or fast-forward button. As a consumer who has paid full-price for the DVD, it should be against the law to force us to watch these commercials. If you look at some of the channels on cable like HBO and Showtime, they do not show any commercials. Even the Hollywood DVDs only force us to see the FBI warning.
Does anyone out there know if there are specific laws against forcing us to watch these ads?
I am personally intrigued by logos and as you can see, a large part of my site is dedicated to discovering the design and history of logos. To me, logos were always a visual thing and I guess I never paid attention to the concept of sound logos (though sound branding seems more appropriate).
Looking back, my first recollection of a sound logo was the little piece of music that accompanied the Intel Logo. Whenever you see any commerical for a computer, it would always be accompanied by the Intel logo and a little sound theme at the end.
Starting November 1st, 2007, Mercedes-Benz will be introducing a new sound logo that will accompany its commercials. The Mercedes-Benz sound logo is based on an original recording of an English boys choir from the 1990s. Sound engineers extracted a choir boy’s solo vocal from the recording and adapted it for use in the sound logo. The logo was developed in cooperation with Jung von Matt, Mercedes-Benz’ lead agency.
Benz Sound Logo - You can listen to the Benz sound logo at the end of the commerical on YouTube.
Intel Sound Logo - You can listen to the Intel sound logo here on YouTube.
Sound branding is also called audio branding, sonic branding, acoustic branding or sonic mnemonics.
Winning a "World Championship" title in the United States Professional sports leagues is pretty tough. The leagues are extremely competitive and its hard for clubs to get repeats or even three-peats, but some of the clubs actually do. The Bulls, Patriots, Lakers and the Yankees are some of the clubs that come to mind in the recent 10 years.
Its very rare to have two teams from the same city hold the title of World Champions at the same time. At this time, the NFL title is with the Indianapolis Colts, the NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs and the MLB title with the St Louis Cardinals. Three very different locations and none of them even major US cities.
This is possibly the first time, I can see three teams from the same city holding the title of "World Champions" at the start of summer. That city would be Boston.
1. The Boston Red Sox are in the World Series once again playing the Colorado Rockies and stand a great chance of winning the MLB tilte of World Champions.
2. The New England Patriots are clearly the hottest team in the NFL. They are one two unbeaten teams (the Colts being the other team). They are currently scoring at an average of over 40 points/game (which is very tough in the NFL). Some are even predicting that this is the Greatest Offense of all time. The combination of Brady and Moss is just lethal. They do stand a great chance of winning the title if they can maintain this pace and remain healthy.
3. The Boston Celtics have a rich history of winning NBA titles, but the team has not done very well in the past two decades. In the off-season, the Celtics made some blockbuster deals getting Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and James Posey. The Celtics have the least chance of the three teams but two out of three ain't bad.
Most peope are fascinated by Brand Name products? Have you ever wondered how some of these brand logsos came about. Well, I did have those questions and in my quest for this information, I have found some interesting information on the orgins of various brand logos. Did you know how much the Nike Swoosh cost to develop? Is there something in the Fedex Logo, look closely. There are over 100 brand name logo origins on this site.
I hope you find this section of the website interesting. You can start by clicking the links below
As you have probably figured out already, I do have an interest in logos and their history. I have learnt so much about these companies that I thought I would share of interesting trivia about these logos.
Did you know that the Nike Logo was designed for about $35 only. Its ironic that the price of the shoes is more than cost of the logo.
Have you seen the arrow in the Fedex Logo? This is not a trick question. If you do not see the arrow in the logo on your left, click on the link to figure out how you can see the arrow.
The 4 rings in the Audi logo have nothing to do with the Olympics. They represent the union of 4 car manufacturing companies that came together to form Audi.
The Indian Consulates and government organizations in general are a pain to deal with. The processes are too slow and one never knows what is going on till the finished product comes out of the process. I was pleasantly surprised with my experience with the SFO Indian Consulate over the past year. I had a baby boy last year and we wanted to visit India with him so I had to apply for a PIO (Persons of India Origin) card for him. I sent the forms and all the paperwork and the PIO card arrived in less thatn 2 weeks. The original timeline was much longer.
A couple of weeks ago, I had applied for a new passport for my wife and I decided to check ths status of the application. I had two options
Via Phone - Call between 2 and 4 everyday or
Via Email -
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
I decided to send an email expecting a response in 3-4 days but was surprised to get a response in about 10 minutes. I thought it must be an auto-response. When I opened the email, all the details were listed. Kudos to the consulate for improving their services. I had a bad time when I went there personally a few years ago. Hopefully that aspect has also changed. Two Thumbs up for the SFO Indian Consulate. !!
If you have anything to share, please leave a comment.
The 79th Annual Academy Awards were held here in Los Angeles last night. The "Oscars" are one of the biggest events anywhere in the world and when it happens in your town, there is a certain added excitement. I guess most of my excitement disappeared when I heard that Ellen Degeneres was the host. Is it just me or are there others that don't find her so funny. Bring back Chris Rock anyday.
I guess some of the interest came back when I saw that Deepa Mehta's water was on of the films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. Unfortunately it did not win the award and I was a tad disappointed. Its probably a bit ironic that India being the largest movie churner has never won an Academy Award. I guess Rajanikanth flinging a cigarette in the air, lighting in the air with a gun and dropping it in his mouth or Govinda gyrating his hips (Main to raste pe jaa rahaa tha) is not award winning material. What does the academy know, right?
