Tag Archive for 'Australia'

Blackberry Playbook Review

Where recently Vodaphone Australia  took out a new scheme under which they gave away a Blackberry Bold 9780 and a Blackberry Playbook for a very very cheap price of $49 for two years.

Now my reviews. TO be very fair i do not need a tablet, I did not need a tablet. My work involves me typing a lot of stuff and some good processing power. This tablet comes very close to replacing my laptop. I can practically watch online movies, download videos, copy them to the playbook and play them. I am very impressed.

Vodaphone gives me 1.5gb of browsing data. I hardly use mobile internet on the go. Probably to locate a address some time.

 

I would recommend this tablet to people who are looking for one. It is pretty good. It has games too….”Need for speed” Playbook version. And I hear in a few days blackberry will bring out an app which will be able to run all the android apps on it.

I am pretty satisfied with my Blackberry Playbook. Its fast responsive and its QNX operating system never hangs. Now being a Blackberry addict I love email. The Playbook unfortunately does not have any native email client. You will have to bridge it with your Blackberry phone via bluetooth.

 

What this essentially means is that, you will connect your blackberry phone and the playbook via bluetooth and then you will be able to access your email and internet on playbook. This is a little bit of a down side but hey…. its not that bad. Where ever my Playbook goes my my Bold 9780 goes so it kind of makes sense.

It has 16 gb of memory which is pretty much 4 seasons of the big bang theory and one Alice in wonderland.

2 cameras, One front and one side facing. There is not no Skype client for BB but there is one for Android. When the Android player is out you will be able to skype with it….I am hoping. (Waiting for Firefox)

Pinch and zoom, nice  tab browsing, can play flash, megavideo, rapid video etc, Native PDF reader etc.

(yes you can watch the big bang theory in megavideo on this player9

Its light and small enough to fit in your bag but big enough to have your entire attention when watching a movie or reading a book.

Wifi, book reader and what not. To top it off it is very cheap too, I come to hear that the price of the playbook will be dropped to $250.I am not to sure about that but I would definatly recommend the playbook to any one of you.

Battery life is pretty good. It goes 5 days with moderate using for me

 

Its the best of Android and QNX.

If you are on a long drive, you can use this tablet as your GPS, Just bridge it with your Bold 9780 and you are good to go with a GPS, Fill it up with games and give it to your kids in the car or put a nice movie for them to watch or a book perhaps for your wify to read. Many possibilites. And with the android player coming up very soon all the apps available in in android will be available to you.

The Android App Player is in beta testing. Link 1

If you have any questions please shoot away

 

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Blackberry continued

Continued from Blackberry my precious

Finding a carrier for blackberry in Australia.

The main functions of a blackberry are the unlimited free email service and the internet browsing experience.

Now both of these are dependent on carrier and the plan you are in.

After a lot of beating around the bush in Australia, I found out that there is a plan on three which allows  business people who  come into Australia for short periods of time to take a postpaid blackberry plan with all the goodies included. Sorry no prepaid here

  1. Free unlimited blackberry email
  2. Free unlimited blackberry internet
  3. and $350 worth of calling

this cap is called the business cap

http://www.three.com.au/pricing?mod=MobilePlans&planType=New%20Caps&planName=$35%20Cap

Click here and check the “sim only” plan with $35 plan.

You get free unlimited blackberry internet along  with $350 of calling value. Its as good as it gets I guess.

Blackberry and an Iphone

Many people tell me that an Apple Ipod is way way better than a Blackberry.

How can you even compare them….Blackberry is for business people who have to be  email all the time and replying to emails.

The Blackberry physical keyboard is the best there is …typing on it is like typing on a real keyboard and the Pushmail service makes it being on a messenger.

Now iphone is nothing like that.

Of course you have a Pushmail service in Iphone, they are a paid service they cost some where from $150 a year

http://www.apple.com/mobileme/pricing/

and they are not that good. At that price you can buy a new apple hardware product every 3rd year.

There is one thing that i will give to apple which is the app store. it has million and billions of apps.

Though  Blackberry does not have so many apps in its store but you will find an app for pretty much anything you want.

And did you know that anything before iphone 4 does not have multi tasking  ( no music and web browsing at the same time)…I mean what the hell, my 4 year old Moto razer had multi tasking!!!! it also had video calling,,,I ve never used video calling  in it though…it is a redundant feature…. would you not use Google talk to video call for free rather than use an expensive video call.

Google for Blackberry

You will find  google has a host of apps which you will love

http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/

There is a Twitter app, Facebook app and a Foursquare app.

If you get a Blackberry I am pretty sure you will love it.

But do keep in mind that a Blackberry is meant to be used in a 3G environment and not a GPRS environment.

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Bucket List Part 1

I am making a itinerary for my world tour.
Think of it as a “Bucket list”  of places I want to go before I get married.(O ….. I am getting married sooner than you think)

So here is the “Bucket list”

1.Cambodia.
I want to go to the temples in Cambodia, they are still unexplored relatively

I’d like to have a “Indiana Jones” moment of my own
I’d like to have a “Indiana Jones” moment of my own. Who knows I might find some  hidden treasure of Raja Raja.
Its not just that,I plan to cover all the major Hindu pilgrimage in India. And although Cambodia does not jump on the radar but ….I want to cut it off for just in case.

1 Indian Rupee = 94.53477 Cambodian Riel

And the hotels are pretty cheap too
I mean $8 USD for one night….I mean come on…It doesn’t get any cheaper than this. And this  hotel is a bit posh with fancy amenities like WiFi and wireless printing. I can live without WiFi and wireless printing.

To be continued………..

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Racism in Australia ??? Nah

Racist Australia Let us first begin by defining racism

Remember Gandhi being thrown out of a train from a first class compartment inspite of having a first class ticket…That is racism

What not is  racism?

Being mugged for walking in a bad neighborhood.

I mean yes people are getting mugged in Australia but they are everyone not just Indian’s I mean everyone is getting mugged there. Victoria is a bad neighborhood, it is not that they are specifically targeting Indian or they are going like “O he is an Indian lets mug him’

what do you expect when you are walking in Bihar at the middle of the night?

I am sure that you are not expecting some one come and give you a bunch of flowers .

Exactly this is what is happening in Victoria.

Indian students come back from jobs late at night and well they are walking back and there is some drunk chap who is drunk and is looking for free cigg or money and well mugs you.

I am not supporting the guy who is mugging but this is not racism If you want examples of racism then it would be you not getting a job on the basis of your color. This does not happen in Australia.

Indians are present is all the posts in Australia, from petrol pump attendant to a highly paid executive in good MNC. And more over Indians are regarded as highly educated and good English speakers. (Huh!)The only racial abuse I heard in the past 6 month was once at YMCA of Perth and that was “Thank you come, again” (Appu from Simpsons) .I guess the guy was trying to make a conversation with me ..he was smiling  … but I didn’t really get it at the first instance (not so smart huh)

Times are tough in Australia, the mining industry, the main stay, is shutting down in Australia people have lost jobs and they are coming back to towns to get some jobs, they cannot find jobs and well there is tension, tension is everywhere, even in India, but let’s not give colorist names to them.

Bad economy shows an increase in crime .Simple plain economics

Well I am happy that the government of India cares about me…well it never cared about me when I was in India…now that I am out of India.

But really the bottom line is that Victoria is a bad suburb and it is more of a crime rate issue rather than a racial abuse. And also personally I think that the Australia govt was slow on acting to this.

I mean you hit a foreigner in India and the GOI  (Govt of India w)will hit you back like a jumbo jet. (Graham stain killings, scarlet O hare murder, the last I read about a foreigner loosing his dog in Delhi during dial and the Delhi police did everything in their might to get it back, anyone read this?)

But yes the Australia govt seems to have taken the street violence lightly and is now paying for it.

India is about to issue a travel advisory on Australia.

BCCI to not play cricket with Australia.

I mean yes…India is pissed at Australia for not selling uranium to them under Chinese pressure…and if this is the way GOI is going to go about it then so be it.

Singh is king!!

Let me know your views I live in Perth not Victoria, so this is a third mans opinion

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Student Guide to Australia

So I am in Perth and I am penning down the thoughts that I think and precautions that one must take

So if you are worried about finding a part time job in aussie.

Go to seek.com.au get yourself registered and start applying from now it’s self. Normaly it takes a month Or two before you hear any response from companies

Some hotshot Companies to apply for

Hungry jacks
Mc Donald’s
Subway
KFC
Coles
Big W
Dicksmith
BP
Caltex

Also apply for a Tax filing number as soon as you reach Aussie, You can apply it earlier if you have you Visa ready and a place to live

So you do not have a place to live…start hunting for houses at studentconnect.com.au, this website is For international students and well, this is how I found my accommodation

Now I grew up in a hostel for around 10 years now and I wanted to avoid all the “We will make a group And stay together stuff”It just raises fights in a group,jealousy and well hatred, I had made up my mind that I want a separate room for me and food made, I have an eating disorder, so I chose a home stay, ya the rent is a bit steep but it is fun I have my own room, a Kitchen which is stocked, a bathroom, a washing machine and a family. Choose home stay you might like it

If you do not have a place to stay as soon as you land, make sure that you look for rooms online…you
Can look for room at YMCA hostels, they are cheap and worth it.

If you are like me and choosing a home stay, get down at the airport and go to a hotel unpack your luggage there,call up, meet the family, Make sure everything seems ok and your room is nice and comfortable and then move in the house.

Never send money in advance if you get in touch via internet. Go there, see the room, move your stuff
And then pay.

If you are living like students together thing, and if there are more the 4 people living in one room the room rent should not be more than $65.

It is a good idea to get the room in your name as later on if you have a fight and want to shove one of
The guys out of the room you are legally entitled to do so and you can even seek the help of the cops

Bring clothes…los of clothes, jeans, shoes, shirts, t shirts, chappel, towels, undies, ganjis,Sockes carry more clothes,you will not regret it.

If you smoke, you can bring 200 cigs, Buy them at the Indian duty free shop back in India. A carton (200 Cigs) of Marlboro costs Rs.900 there and a pack of 20 cigs cost $10.75 here. Quit smoking even better. You are only allowed to bring 200 ciggs to aussie.

Please do carry some american currency with you some notes and some american coines,coines will be useful to make calls home from you break journey point,you know calling machines.

All the Airports are wifi enabled,So you might want to keep your laptop handy,I had a 3 hour break at Kaula lampur ,i took out my lappy and was writing email to my kinsmen,though perth airport is not…strange huh.

You cannot carry any liquids in your hand luggage, so if you are planning to get some alcohol to aussie Then buy it at the local theka and put it in you luggage. You can bring 2.25 lts of alcohol

You will like aussie, Perth in particular; people are always smiling and polite.

Always stand in a line, if you can’t see one then look for one, if you can’t find one then move on

Try to avoid Malaysian airlines, the airhostess are shit, the food is shit, the plane is a shit and seems  More like a bus then a plane, Try to take Singapore airlines.

Do not get living things into aussie, the customs are very strict and have the state of art thing to
Detect it and ofcourse they slap you a fine too.

Deodrants… get a few of them. A pack of 3 or a pack of 6.Put it in you luggage not hand luggage.

You can work 20 hours a week. There is a minimum wage of $15 an hour so that should cover your living
Expenses

Do not work more than 20 hours as if you are caught then you are deported…no questions asked, Why take  The risk. They track you by you TFN.I have personally seen a friend of mine being deported. Scared the  Shit out me. (Its recession too)

Buy an adaptor try to get it from the duty free shops, very costly here (I brought it for $18 )

Get your Indian driving license here…its is valid for two years, it’s very hard to get a Aussie driving  License.

Pens, pencils, rubber, scale, staplers, clips, & lot of A4 sheets

Scan you visa, passport, medical prescription 10, 12 & degree mark sheet and keep them in your email, so  Even if your entire luggage is lost, you can open your email, download all the important stuff and print  Them out.

Keep travelers cheques in handy ….you can avoid carrying  cash and use travelers cheques,they can be used anywhere ,if they are stolen just call the help line and they will be blocked and your money will be given back to you and  you can  Open a bank account in australia  with traveler’s cheques

Indian students here prefer 3 mobile connections because maximum number of Indian students have it. That Is the simple plain reason. 3 to 3 calling if free .

Get a water bottle ( you know the sporty ones)

Get an iPod… you may have to travel log distance every day the ipod will keep you company

Get your laptop.

Do not get pirated dvds here ,if caught then trouble for you…copy everything you want on the computer HDD.

Winter clothes…don’t feel shy…you do not want to be shivering with cold would you. ts gets cold here

Get your cell phone if you want to; just make sure that it is 3g enabled

If you don’t have on then don’t freak out as you can get one here for free, all you need to do is sign
A 24 month bond where then let you use their cell phone and after the 24 months the cell phone is
Yours. You can chose from a wide variety of cell phones.

Get a pen drive (its costly here)

The farther you live to the university the cheaper for you

Keep your passport with you when travelling in a plane.

If you feel that you have exceeded the 40kg limit or whatever of you baggage allowance on plane don’t
Worry they do not check the allowance I have friends who have brought 65kgs of baggage.They normally will not ask question and if they do then tell them some “cock and bull story” that you are a student and you do not have money and this is the first time you are travelling in a plane and…. you get the point,But once they hear that you are a student they will let you go.

Ebay.com.au … always keep an eye out here for the stuff you want, you may get lucky.

Look out at the university notice boards for jobs.

keep a soft copy of the books that you think that you will need,Mostly all the reading material is provided by the university and the library but still.

Wear casual clothes here unlike in india where you had to wear formal clothes.

If some couple are makeing out in the park do not stare at them,it makes them feel awakward and then they start abusing you and stuff.

There is very less racism in aussie.

Behave

Try to speak in english with your friends  here,it will make the aussie a bit more comfortable and open.if you speak you native language the aussie will feel less invited to talk to you.

If you have actually read this then do leave a comment

I had a hard time preparing for the trip as i had no one to guide me .i looked up the internet for any proper guides but could not really find one so i wrote one when i came here.

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