The most awaited smartphone of the year is out.And as we gear up for its launch in India on Saturday, 27th April. Here’s a sneak-peak into what you can expect of the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Screen
With a full HD 1,920 X 1,080 resolution, Super AMOLED display, 441 ppi high pixel density, everything looks sharp and more pleasing to the eyes. The screen can be operated by moving the finger even lightly on the surface. The S4 allows a user to operate some functions on the phone without even touching it. Gorilla Glass 3 is used to make the screen glass.
Design
This device is roughly as wide as S3 having dimensions at 136.6X69.8X7.9mm which makes it 5 mm longer and 1 mm thinner than its predecessor. The thin screen bezel imparts a wonderful look to the phone. It feels like the screen is pouring off the edge. With a thin air gap between the screen and the tough digitizer, the user feels that they are actually touching the screen instead of the glass on the top.
Performance
The phone is powered by an Exynos octo-core processor. With this processor, everything works extremely fast, opening and closing down of apps, browsing web pages, and games work in the blink of an eye. The battery is bigger than most smartphones available today as it has 2,600 mAh. It is efficient to provide power which suffices for all day long.
The 13 megapixel camera works well in low light with Backside Illumination (BSI) sensor along with a flash. The front 2 megapixel camera helps one to do video calling easily and S4 also provides the feature where the images from the front and rear camera can be superimposed.
The flagship smartphone from the kitty of South-Korean conglomerate, Samsung will be released in India on 27th April, 2013. This exclusive launch event organized by Reliance Digital, will be held in Shangrila Hotel in Mumbai. Bollywood heart-throb Ranveer Singh of Band Baajaa Baraat and Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl fame will unveil the device..Apart from being an actor;Ranveer Singh himself is a techno-geek who loves to use the latest devices and is updated about most technology advancements.
My Chevrolet Beat LT has touched a running
distance of 31,500 Km. and no better time than this to put my thoughts around
how enjoyable the overall ownership experience has being over the past 2 years and 8 months.
Choosing Chevrolet Beat petrol over Ford Figo
was not an easy decision when I planned to upgrade from Maruti Alto VXI. I also had Swift and Ritz on this list
however multiple instances of bad experience in getting my Alto serviced with
Kothari Wheels had steered me away from Maruti already.
At the time when I purchased Beat,
Pashankar Auto sales was the only dealer for Chevrolet in Pune, Shreyans Talera
motors had closed down their dealership with the company during that period so
I was lucky to get the car without much waiting period.
Okay leaving behind these retro thoughts
and getting down to how my car is performing!
Ride quality: Ride quality has improved
significantly post car running crossed 15,000 Km. after the first oil change
was done; I avoid revving car engine beyond 2000 RPM unless I have to overtake
on road for a short distance in city on 2nd gear. I had a habit of
racing my Alto on 2nd gear which was one of the changes I had to
adapt while driving Beat; service center staff had done an ECU remap to the
engine for improving 2nd gear handling performance.
Beat’s suspension handles body roll well
with minor bumps or bad patches if you are driving at normal speed, slowing
down on very bad road increases body roll for the passengers seated in the
front section.
I noticed this low power feel on 2nd
gear helped in heavy traffic conditions and prevented the car from knocking or
stalling when moving slowly, it allows you enough time to decide if it’s right
to move into 3rd gear which in turn reduces the frequent gear
changing issue. Gear shifting while in traffic is not difficult however it
still feels stiff sometimes.
I never had to do wheel balancing with Beat
even once in past 2.5 years, compared to 3-4 instances of wheel balancing I had
with Alto. Service staff at Pashankar Auto and Singh Motors both advised me
never to go for unnecessary wheel balancing unless you find your car shifting
in one direction, no hassles with suspension or ground clearance until now.
Highway driving has being the most pleasant
experience with Beat; I have taken my car to few long road trips beyond Pune,
have observed minimal drag with heavy luggage and full passenger load while
driving through ghats with A/C on else it
runs smoothly. One has to be mindful while taking turns on highway as small
tyres on Petrol Beat are not very stable at high speed. Good NVH has still being
maintained in the cabin and I can comfortably touch a speed of 140-150 Km/h
while on highway without feeling the engine being cranked hard or any other
kind of car body vibration in the front section.
Interior/Exteriors: Plastic quality used by GM for Beat’s
interior proves its superior quality because I have not seen it getting dull in
any area of the car namely around door exits, the main car dashboard, storage
areas provided or the doors, I had opted for a 3M package at the time of
purchase which gave me car under body coating to prevent rusting with 5 year
warranty and 3 free body coating services.
I do not have a covered parking for my car
and there were times in last 2 years when car washing was almost halted for few
months in our society due to water problems in Pune, otherwise alternate day
car wash with cleaning of the interiors every 15-20 days has helped me maintain
the car in good condition. Beat gives
you a big car feel and not a typical hatchback look common to i10, Wagon R,
Spark etc. even though it falls under the same segment.
Fuel Economy: During the initial 2 years I
got fuel economy between 12-14 Km while driving in the city and 17-18 Km on
highways, this has now improved to 15 km/l average in the city and 18-19 km/l on
highway during past 6 months. I noticed increasing tyre pressure to 34 PSI has
helped me to improve fuel economy and also the engine does not feel sore while
revving above 3500 RPM after the car crossed 25,000 Km. mark. This is
definitely not a racing machine even with its bold looks and a sporty
tachometer so never drove Beat that way, it performs very well as a city car
and comfortable during long highway drives for my family of 3.
After Sales Service:
Beyond the initial hiccups with Pashankar
Auto after buying Beat, I have being impressed by their service a lot and
happened to try Singh Motors which is close to the vicinity I stay in Pune, as
dealers both of them have met my expectations and exceeded some. I have being regularly reminded about my car
servicing by both dealers, used to get calls asking about the performance of
the car, being informed and invited to service camps.
There was an instance when my petrol tank
latch had got damaged and I had requested Singh motor’s to order it for me,
when I took the car for this latch replacement they informed me replacement was
not required as the latch was stuck inside and they fitted it again, this latch
costed just Rs 125, they could have replaced it without even informing me.
it’s
not just this but even with Pashankar auto a service engineer informed me about
front viper wear out problem during one of the servicing visit, I asked him to
get it replaced on which he suggested to do it after summer season as the
rubber tends to wear out again a little under high temperature in summer ,
these are instances which instil confidence in you regarding the dealer and
this was not the case with Kothari Wheels (Maruti). They just blindly used to
do everything I ever asked for during servicing and put it on the bill and sometimes
even suggest additional expenses which raised doubt in my mind if it was
actually required?
Chevrolet dealers in
Pune do not have a clean record though overall, as I have read various threads across forums of
Chevrolet car owners not always happy with the way they have experienced after
sales service with these vendors, however I have being fortunate enough that my
experience with Chevrolet after sales service has grown stronger commanding a
respect for the overall brand. I wish Chevrolet soon has one stable winner on
hands to strengthen their position in Indian car market, as a brand it would
stand to gain better loyalty and good second sale value for their vehicles.
Some Pro’s about the car:
Still stands out in terms of design in the
hatchback car category, easy to maneuver in the city, only Hyundai EON has
brought in fresh design in the small car segment.
It easily touches 60 km/h mark while
driving in the city under 10 seconds and races to 100 km/h between 14-15
seconds.
Rear seat legroom is very good and it’s not
exactly “claustrophobic “sitting behind as this word appeared in most Chevy
Beat reviews.
Have incurred low maintenance and running
cost compared to Alto LXI, A plastic front bumper replacement costed me more in
Alto as compared to a fiber material bumper replacement in Beat.
Under seat storage tray besides the driver
seat which was stopped along with rear parcel tray in LT model, comes handy.
Some cons with the car:
170 Ltr boot is enough for small trips,
60:40 rear seat adjustments also helps in stuffing additional luggage in case
there are no rear seat passengers accompanying on the drive, sometimes this
boot space falls low when you have more than 3 big luggage items to carry,
fitting in smaller bags is still possible above the large ones maybe additional
2-3 and that’s it.
Small boot section also posed a challenge
for me while going for slightly larger speaker replacement in the rear section,
I got stock one's replaced with Illusion speakers which costed me around 9K.
Hydraulic steering feels little outdated in
an era where most hatchback cars have moved to electronic power steering.
Lack of good thigh support on the front
seat for driver and co-passenger could have made long road trips less
stressful.
Storage cups below the main dashboard could
have being slightly wider.
Adjustment to wide ‘A’ pillar does require
some time for the driver to adapt and tends to obstruct peripheral view in high
traffic conditions/rainy season.
Sharing some bill screenshots of 2nd
major servicing done after 30,000 Km running with majority oil changes done,
belt replacements, filter changes etc.
***Aug 22 2015 - Update***
I have crossed 55,000 Km on the odometer between last month and now, also decided to bid my Chevrolet Beat a final adieu as it is time for moving up the chain to another upgrade.It has been a positive experience overall, as a product I rate this car as an efficient city hatchback, however I had no plans to retain this car beyond five years.
During my usage between 30,000 km - 55,000 km I observed that the engine had got more refined and it was able to rev freely without grunting out over 3000 RPM band, I feel Chevrolet could not capitalize on the success of this car to strengthen their brand value in the market, even as I took a risk of looking away from then popular Maruti-Hyundai duo in 2010 and ICOTY award winner Ford Figo (2011) I am parting ways with my Beat and Chevrolet Brand on a positive note.
This time I am shifting from a petrol vehicle to a oil burner purely due to increased distance of commute to my work place, changing times and with many feature rich cars launched this year resisting the upgrade temptation was just too difficult.
If you thought Social Media and technology is to blame for
this stuff, think again and go back to times when all this stuff did not exist
to really understand why we feel the need to share our whereabouts, you would
start acknowledging this behavior as just one part of the human psyche we live
with anyways.
Location based services are emerging as a potential driving
force to support commercial prospects of social media tools, e-commerce and
sales in general for a small businessman to large firms. People create a
pattern of their consumption habits and interests while using such services
making it easier for offering customized sales offers, deals and discounts
which in turn benefits consumers actively using such services to an extent,
however a lot of us view this kind of “Big Data” study by social networking
firms as an invasion of our privacy and even as a consumer no one really likes
to get tracked as a potential sales prospect on the move.
If you would have happened to visit popular tourist places
across any part in India, you may find carvings of people’s names on
structures, walls, any other object at tourist attraction premises, memories of
smitten lovers that may not interest you but all they can do is spoil the
beauty of the overall place.
if you go back further in time during ancient period when
human civilization was busy drawing animal figures in caves, inscription found
on clay tablets,painting stories on
pyramid walls in Egypt and many other monuments in the past which symbolize
presence of a ruler, civilization and their influence during that period, People
had places named after them and so on, however I can assure you that the
significance of me checking in a washroom of a 5 star hotel would just vanish
in a fart, no one’s going to narrate my poop chronicle any time in the future.
Everyone on planet earth with a population of more than
seven billion is busy trying to leave a mark of their footsteps to places they
have visited, and social medial platforms are a medium of creating that digital
footprint for the world to see, so there’s a set of people who use location
based check in services for any damn reason, believe me I had a colleague in
office who used his Smartphone to check in at home and office everydayto track how much time he was spending at
both places, I was actually baffled with his logic to do such weird stuff but
then these kind of people feel the need to get their presence validated by
their friends, family etc as social media has definitely groomed the celebrity
complex in all of us, still no one is going to give us a chance to feature our
hand or foot print at Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame.
Airport and Railway terminal check-ins are also very
popular, which also go into the footfall analysis passed on to companies and
advertisers, Los Angeles airport was crowned most popular airport in terms of
check-ins in 2011. If you happen to land at a airport in some foreign country
and try looking for a popular joint at the airport to have food, these location
based services come to your rescue by showing you most popular joints at the
venue where you can head to directly rather than roaming all across or asking
random people, airport staff etc for suggestion.
If you go by numbers, having 100 friends on your list even
if 10 people check-in to a place, this check-in is viewed by 1000 people, so
you can imagine the kind of cascading effect location based services play in
building indirect branding for a local business, if check in services were just
going to be a fad why do you think services like TripAdvisor, Zomato, FoodPanda
etc. continue mushrooming and sometimes we discover less known joints with
quality food and leisure outlets due to member recommendation on such
applications, reading through blog reviews and more.
I personally feel this type of services can be used in
balanced way, according to one’s preference for privacy which varies for all of
us. Be alert of pre-defined settings on your gadgets which probably could be
revealing a lot more about you and your habits from what you actually want to
reveal and when you sign up on many sites these days which have Facebook or Twitter
sign in enables make sure to keep a watch if they are posting on your behalf to
your wall, you can edit posting preferences to be visible only to you or your
friends if you do not want to make it public, You recommendation is not just a
blip on the map today, there’s more to it and next time you think what’s the
need for this whole check in game, remember the historical image of Neil
Armstrong’s footprint on the moon from Apollo mission and you may understand.
My road trips to the coastal belt of Maharashtra have started connecting on the map with dots starting downwards from Mumbai with Beaches like Kihim - Alibaug - Akshi - Kashid - Murud (Near Janjira Fort) - Diveagar - Srivardhan – Harihareshwar, two more which got added on recent trip are Murud and Palande beach.
I was planning to visit Bhandardara during long weekend and public holidays of Holi - Good Friday, unfortunately I missed out on the booking schedule for the resort planned and I stumbled on to Nisarga Sahavas resort on Trip Advisor while searching for alternative destination & hotels. This change of plan worked for us and we really had a good time exploring the coastal town of Dapoli and nearby beaches.
We followed (1) Tamhini Ghat – Mangaon route, alternative route available is via (2) Mahabaleshwar – Wai – Bhor - Varandha – Khed also would help you reach Dapoli, the second one is slightly extended one but good to drive.
Started from Pune on 28th Mar in the afternoon at 2:30 pm towards Chandni Chowk road heading towards Pirangut - Mulshi, encountered traffic in the city and managed to drive through Tamhini ghat by around 4:30 pm and took a break for evening tea and breakfast at Orchard Resort (Gold Valley) right after the Tamhini Ghat ends. It was already 5:00 pm and we were yet to touch Mangaon. Few bad patches of road in the ghats did slow us down. A small stretch of almost 4-5 Km road ahead of Orchard resort towards MIDC area is very good to drive, Moving forward from Nizampur we reached Mangaon.
From Mangaon keep driving straight on a patch of 10 km Mumbai - Goa road which is in very good condition, and then you can take a turn right near Lonere Bus Stand going towards the first village ahead which is Goregaon - Purar - Mhasala - Ambet - Mhapral - Kumbharli - Chinchali - Shenale - Dhutroli OR you can continue ahead of Lonere instead of taking a turn right towards Goregaon village and once you reach Mahad you can take a turn towards Latwan village road which also connects to Dapoli
While on SH 70, we luckily took a diversion at SH 100 instead of following Mandangad Route shown on Google Navigation as it was already dark and we double checked with a local before taking this route. This is a narrow 2 lane road, however in very good condition to drive, seems to be recently constructed.
On SH 100 go straight driving past Kumbale Village - Palgad and a right turn connecting SH 96 at Kumbharvadi - Pisai - Kherdi and then Dapoli, from here at Ambedkar Chowk take a right and again a left at short distance from Kalaskar Chowk towards SH 96 and at Jalgaon Village take a right turn inside a dusty road up to 3 Km which would lead you straight to Nisarga Sahavas Resort. We reached at 8:30 pm and were literally exhausted. Currently this resort has 7 rooms in total, we booked an A/C Bamboo Cottage which is very hygienic and clean, though surrounded by dense tree cover all around, no mosquitoes or any other bugs troubled us during the stay.
Nisarga Sahavas initially started as a nursery plantation 35 years ago and spread over 10 acre promoting Agri Tourism. After keeping our luggage in the room we headed straight towards dining area which has a nicely constructed walkway to a tent based structure. I had a chance to look at various awards and accolades Amrute family has won in Ratnagiri for promoting Agri Tourism and supporting tribal population in the nearby area with work related opportunities from their farm based occupation.
Starry sky looked very clear from the verandah of our room, for a difference no television works best when you are away from the hustle bustle of city to be close with the nature. An angry crow banging on to the window outside woke us up in the morning (No alarm needed), this crow is a regular visitor here and keeps fighting with his image he sees on the reflective glass on window pane outside, a thought came to my mind a lot of us keep doing that in our lives even without a reflection.
Having tea in morning and evening on the verandah leaves you with a feeling of bliss, strong breeze blowing across and hearing birds chirping all around, it really could not get better than this. Room service is prompt. You can order breakfast in your room as well.
There are some activities at the resort to try like Burma Rope, Obstacle task, Archery, Rifle Shooting, Net climbing etc. paying extra charges. They also organize bird trail visit, Tribal dance show, Bullock cart ride and Barbeque on request. Nisarga Sahavas has lot of plantation variety in their backyard with ample Cashew, Chickoo, Jackfruit, Mango and various other trees. We spotted an entire herd of Gray Langur’s moving through trees behind our cottage; luckily I was able to take good pictures of them as they played close to the activity area which had lot of interesting stuff for them.
Mr. Ashish Amrute who currently overlooks the management of this resort with his staff won us over with their warm hospitality. Our kid found company to keep himself engaged with his son Advait. The food is really awesome and being home made it tastes more sumptuous. When you are in Konkan you cannot miss having Solkadi, Apart from Rice, Daal and Chapati we had variety in food like Moong Usal, Valachi Usal, Kothimbir Wadi, Ukadiche Modak and a special gravy dish made out of kaju seed which is plucked while cashew is raw.
We decided to pay visit at Kadyavarche Ganpati temple next day which is 30
Km away from the resort, driving down a pleasant ghat ahead of Dapoli, touching
road leading to Palande beach which fulfilled one of my dreams to drive along a
coastal road adjoining the sea, the entire view was magnificent
which enhanced further the moment we started an uphill climb to a
newly constructed bypass road leading to the temple, Shady and long coconut
trees, short and narrow lanes winding through small villages, the picturesque
view all along was very refreshing.
While returning from the temple we halted at Palande beach which has few
spots where you can take your vehicle on to the beach directly. It was past
noon and the sand had really heated up so we did not have any chance to
relax on the rock bed nearby or the beach, spent some time in the water and
moved ahead on way to Dapoli. We saw some ad boards on SH 96 road retailing
cashews at factory price; travelling 7 Km ahead from our road to resort just
before the ghat begins for Umbarli village there is a cashew processing factory
by the name Samartha Cashew. You can buy flavored cashews like Chocolate,
Litchi, Chili Masala, Schezwan, Black Pepper etc. from them and also avail a free
tour of their facility with a staff member who explains the entire cashew
processing system.
Next day we left for Murud beach which was also very clean and well
maintained. Hopped on to a boat for Dolphin show and spotted two of them
slightly away from the shore line, my kid was really excited watching dolphins
on his first boat journey in the sea, back on the beach you can drive ATV bike,
go paragliding, ride banana boats, high speed water bikes, camel ride and many
others to choose from. We left from the beach by afternoon and headed back to
resort as my kid was down with little fever that day and wanted to go back to
the resort. We decided to skip tour of Suvarnadurg fort and Amrute’s nursery walk around in
the evening to relax and let our kid rest before leaving for Pune next morning.
I did not expect a wonderful resort like Nisarga Sahavas to be present
amidst a forest in a village area. Hats off to Mr. Ashish Amrute and their
staff for maintaining such a lovely place, I wish they continue upkeep of this resort
the way they are doing currently and improve it further in terms of overall
infrastructure of the premise. Mr. Amrute quotes on promotional material for
Nisarga Sahavas as “Hospitality is a way of Life" and it proves to be true
which is really great and something that a guest would always cherish post
their visit.I am willing to skip any beach facing resort for Nisarga Sahavas to stay and
visit tourist attractions nearby which I have missed during my current trip.
After having breakfast next morning, Little Advait gave a parting gift to my
son which was a sketchbook of flowers and visiting birds at Dapoli, We hardly
got a feeling of leaving a resort but surely departing from a home away from
home. Starting at 11 am, we took the route towards Mandangad fort on our return
which is not very good but motorable and safe to drive during daytime, it also has
lot of small ghats with great view all along. I surely have honed my ghat
driving skill on this trip.
My Chevrolet Beat (Petrol) pulled with ease across all the ghats as I had
never taken it for a frequent uphill drive before anywhere, hardly had to switch
off A/C while driving up across ghats, unless the climb was very steep. It
handled rough roads well and did not cause much body roll, except for slowing
down on specific patches in Tamhini ghat which are really bad and demand
cautious driving.
It was Rangpanchami on Easter Sunday and lot of villages were celebrating
Holi again. Few miscreants at2-3
villages on the route to Mandangad were trying to stop cars passing by to
collect paltry cash in the name of Rangpanchami celebrations, however we
sneaked past them without stopping just to get my car soaked in few colors of
Holi it had remained safe from during the actual day when color play happens.
Passing from Mangaon and Nizampur we took a lunch break at Orchard Resort
again which was very crowded with visitors returning to Pune from their long
weekend trips, from here we went driving slowly across Tamhini ghat up to
Mulshi taking pictures on the way and reached home by 6 pm closing on to our
memorable vacation. March was just the right time to take this trip as view of
mountains and farms across the way were beautiful, with foothills still
surrounded by green cover before it vanishes completely after the summer sets
in, even Mulshi river has enough water right now to provide a great landscape
view.
Dapoli serves as a multipurpose destination to places around which are
easily accessible and if you like clean and less crowded beaches, places of
religious interest and prefer to have safe travel with family, Dapoli would
definitely not disappoint you and I surely recommend visitors to stay at
Nisarga Sahavas for a unique lodging experience you would treasure in your
travel memoirs.
Montage clip of the trip below and Image gallery link on Flickr
Vodafone amazed me with their swift resolution service recently, best part is they send you an SMS about this gaffe, here's an insight into my recent ordeal with their so called customer service.
I used to encounter poor connectivity problem at my residence from 1.5 years, not very frequent so I could live with it, off late in the past 6 to 7 months I noticed network issues going from bad to worse. Initially the problem was only in one bedroom of the house, now the situation has reached to a point where I move around in the house searching for a random spot where I can hear the opposite person calling clearly and be glued to that spot until the call get's over.
I started missing calls also a lot of times even with full network on 2G mode on the phone, calling person would hear a message about my phone being switched off, calls started going blank while in progress, voice scrambling issues etc. I cannot even think of using 3G service on my phone unless I am sitting right in some sweet spot corner of the house where Vodafone network feels happy to reach my phone.
Unfortunately I have total 4 Vodafone connections between me and my wife, 2 personal numbers and 2 blackberry connections issued by our companies. So their service issues have impacted my dependency on their useless network with regards to my availability on phone while I am home, Same issues that I face when I dial into conference calls from home.
I decided to pursue my network problem actively with their customer care so towards end of Feb'13 I tried calling their customer care helpline 111 as I intended to speak about 3G plans as well, I heard out all options on the IVR surprised to find out there was no option to reach directly to a customer care executive as I wanted to downgrade my 3G plan, their IVR kept playing recorded message for sending SMS keywords to subscribe to various plans, you cannot reach a customer care directly even by pressing 0 or 9 which is the case with most other customer service helplines
I then wrote to their corporate customer care id corpcare.mah@vodafone.com on 23rd February 2013 and received response on 26th February 2013 in the form of a email template seeking info points related to network issues, It was my fault I did not document their pathetic customer service's foul play in year 2012 when they had registered my complaint on a general service feedback call, a network engineer had called me sometime during July-August last year promising to visit my residence to check the network issue but that visit never happened and I did not pull them up for this issue.
When I replied to email dated 26th Feb, I also mentioned absence of option to speak to a customer service representative directly on IVR in my email which was not even acknowledged, I was given options to downgrade 3G plans with plan info and an advisory to note impact of mid-cycle changes to the 3G plan charging on the bill. Which goes to show absent minded reps who keep replying to customers with a set of email templates and do not actually note what he/she has written in the email.
Any ways keeping the focus on network issue here, my email exchange with corporate care email Id continued in the month of Mar'13, I was not expecting my issues to get resolved overnight however I noticed they raise complaint tickets and close them at their will without calling the customer or sending an email on what resolution was provided on that complaint number?, best part is that they enrage you further by sending an SMS that your XYZ complaint number has being closed as per your feedback.
My wife also got calls from customer care confirming that her network issue is being lodged and later even she got SMS confirmation of complaint closure as per her feedback. How can I confirm closure if no one has even bothered to call back or ask if there was any improvement in the network service.
Screenshots below prove how complaints have being closed without any solution or call back - 1289151004, 1304980408 and 1304981172 are the complaint numbers.
On 1st March customer care emailed with complaint number confirmation 1289151004 and expected turn around time quoted in email was 4th March, whereas SMS states 9th March 2013, got SMS confirmation on 14th March that my complaint has being resolved as per my feedback, checked with my wife to be sure if anyone had spoken to her, she confirmed not receiving any call asking about the network issue.
I sent an email to corporate customer care email id again on 14th March 2013, no response so again on 16th March I raised this issue of complaint closure without calling customer to confirm on Vodafone's twitter ID @VodafoneIN on which some guy called me in the evening and stated he is again forwarding my complaint to concerned team for resolution and I would get a response "very soon"
The "Very Soon" moment arrived on 22nd March 2013, with an email with same template for gathering network issue related information again which I had replied on 27th Feb 2013, that goes to show what kind of intelligent customer care Vodafone has in India, why does a customer require to provide same information he has provided on a previous complaint, you should be able to track that down from my previous complaint number.
On 26th March I get another email with new complaint numbers now - 1304980408, 1304981172 this time they are prompt enough to close the complaint on the same date from the second screenshot above they raised and closed my issue on the same date as per my feedback again, wonderful. My wife also gets a confirmation on her number the same day.
Until now their network team is still investigating my issue and from 27th Feb 2013 to this date I received only one call about my issue only when I raised this issue on their twitter ID which was again a pacifier call to raise another complaint number with no response on what happened to my previous complaint and what prompted them to close it without my confirmation. 26th March email states that my issue would be attended by 5th April 2013, but I have given up on my patience and no longer want to play running around the tree game.
What anger's me the most is they have also started spamming my number with an SMS to login to My Vodafone service online to keep my account active, I did login once to check if everything was all right but the messages have not stopped coming in, with the ongoing network issue it feels so irritating that your service provider is spamming you with misleading messages for keeping an online service active which is not my priority right now.
I am going to raise this issue now with their nodal officer's email Id, let's see if they can still wake up from their deep slumber.
**Update as on 12 April 2013**
I received a call from some new relationship manager assigned on my account by the name Varsha Valsarajan on 1st April 2013 at 1:30 pm from this number 020-71774820, asking feedback on Vodafone service, so irritating this is when you already have a follow up going on to a complaint no one is ready to entertain or return a feedback call.
She again promised a call back and it's being 12 days then, I can take that assurance only as a April Fool's prank, she mentioned checking into the systems that my area has a problem because of which I am facing network issue, she enlightened me with a fact I am aware of since last 1 year.
The new Windows phone is in market. Made by HTC, Windows Phone 8X
provides a tough competition to its predecessor, Nokia Windows’ phone in terms
of design and call quality. The square-cornered design, faster processor and LTE
speeds, makes this HTC Windows Phone 8X a good pick in the Windows OS segment.
It has a built-in integrated Microsoft Office 2013, NFC sharing and possesses Windows
OS’s edgy interface.
Display and Design
This phone looks good with its tailored mechanism. Available in four
colors-black, red, yellow and blue, this HTC phone fits in hands and pockets of
various sizes. It is sleek and slim in design, the texture at the back and the side
is fluffy. 8X is 5.2 inches in length
and 2.6 inches in width. With 4.6 ounce weight and 0.4 inch thickness, it is on
the heavier side when compared to other smartphones of Android, iOS or
Blackberry categories.
A uni-body body surface on the back and the sides makes the battery
immobile. The 4.3 inch Super LCD Display 2 has full HD resolution of 1280 X
720-pixels i.e. 341ppi. Below the screen
are three buttons which navigate through Back, Home and Bing search.
Camera
Possessing a camera of 8 megapixels in the rear and 2 megapixels in
the front, this Windows phone misses the mark in capturing great photos. The
rear camera captures good pictures in broad day-light. It is illuminated with a
LED flash and clicks sharp and accurate photos. There are settings to set
exposure, saturation, contrast and sharpness. The HD video capturing is good at 30 fps. With
an internal storage of 16 GB and 7GB of free Microsoft Skydrive storage, there
is no external storage memory available.
OS
8X carries many new features owing to the powerful OS it is built
on. Though Microsoft OS’s doesn’t have much room for changes, but HTC has
managed to add a store on its name. Photo editor, wallet, NFC, camera app,
gaming, kids’ corner, maps, voice-to-text, voice commands, Microsoft’s new
music store and Internet Explorer 10 are some of the apps in 8X.
Overall, HTC
Windows Phone 8X is a good combination owing to its design and features.
This review is penned by experts at Reliance Digital.
Jelly Bean update for the first Galaxy Note is now available to download via Samsung KIES, did not check the exact download size of the firmware, the entire download process took close to an hour and no back up was required during this upgrade process. All call logs, SMS and other essential data was intact after the upgrade completed.
Observed initial lag while using the phone right after the firmware was installed, normalised in some time. Galaxy Note gets Jelly Bean version 4.1.2 with Nature UX and it does feel smooth to operate, Icons look slightly up sized and crisp. Camera seems to have improved on center focus capture mode which gives a tilt shift effect while capturing pictures. Animated collapse view visible while accessing apps grouped into folder, S Memo is now merged into S Note app.
Notable features that make an appearance are:
Google Now
Multi view and side panel
Page buddy
Customizing notification panel
Smart rotation
Samsung cloud sync service
Features like Direct Call, Smart Stay and Pop-up Play
Updated Music Player with Sound Alive
This upgrade has limited features from the premium suite available on GS3 and Note II. You do not get features like video and other content preview with S-Pen hovering over, pop up note for S-Pen, Burst mode for camera etc.
Interesting part is that Group Play and AllShare play also arrive on Galaxy Note which were announced during Galaxy S4 launch, Galaxy Grand is also due to get both of these soon in India. More screenshots from the upgrade below, share your feedback on any performance improvements, battery life as you upgrade your Galaxy Note via KIES as OTA upgrade currently does not seem to be available.
By the way, Galaxy Note along with some older crop of Galaxy series phones like S2 are due to get their last upgrade up to Jelly Bean version 4.2.2, so hopes for a Key Lime Pie update (Android 5.0) look very bleak as per a recent news published on sam mobile website, Nevertheless finally Jellybean made it to the original note after almost like 9 months Google released this OS code for Android manufacturers.
