Back again !

Hello! I am back. Sorry, I was very busy for the last one month and I also went on a vacation to Singapore and Malaysia. These are some amazing countries of Asia with so much to offer.

All right, back to the business but first something about Apple iPhone 3G. I have Google desktop on my work computer and I get regular news from the Google. Lately, I have been getting lot of criticism about the device. Some said that its updation sucks, some said that the third party application installation was a headache etc. I think that by following the third party application development, apple is slowly migrating toward the path that Microsoft once took with windows. I don't like it personally. I always rated apple to be better and innovative than Microsoft. Nevertheless, my advice is to be careful while purchasing the device.

Okay, you have more things to see on this blog now. There is a CNN feed and a small poll on the right bottom corner of your screen. The CNN feed will keep you updated with the latest from the tech world. There is also a skype widget that connects you to me any time . So nice isn't it ?

I assume that all of you have atleast one GSM phone with you. Yes, the mobile phone with sim card inside. GSM (Global Service For Mobile Communication) is the second generation mobile technology i.e. 2G. It was evolved as a voice telephony service which also supported very low rate data application (9.6 Kbps or 1.2KBps) like sms and fax. This data rate is much much slower than what your readng this blog with in your computer(I am sure!) . With this speed, you can download a typical mp3 song in, lets say, 83 minutes!!! Scary isn't it ?

Well, in theory, the GSM was only designed to support the small data intensive application like SMS and fax. But as the penetration of mobile phone increased, the demand of data rates also increased. Specially, after the advent of internet and its popularity forced people to migrate from the simple sms services to heavy applications like emails and mms. This simply put more burden on the poor GSM. Something new was bound to come. So came the 2.5 G which is nothing but the addition of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) to the existing GSM. GPRS increased the speed from 9.6 Kbps to 114 Kbps, similar to IS -95 or CDMA 1x RTT. But this wasn't sufficient as more and more data intensive application poured in. Engineers felt themselves under tremendous pressure to increase the data rates even further. So , after 2.5 G, came an intermediate evolution which is known as 2.75 G. In GSM terminology it is called the EDGE (Enhance Data for GSM Evolution). Data rates were shot up to over 300 Kbps. This was something. If you are a frequent user of mobile internet in the EDGE network, you will notice a small E symbol along with the signal bars. Thats EDGE for you !!

But the real breakthrough came with the evolution of 3G or the third generation technology which has changed the face of mobile internet. Reports have claimed the data rates in excess of 2 Mbps. 3G can be attributed to many technologies like UMTS, LTE, HSDPA, HSUPA, wifi and wimax. With this speed you can have a live video conferencing, watch a live streaming like you tube. You can also send pictures, play game, check email and what not. I am yet to experience 3 network in India. But I guess its coming soon. So, in summary
Generation Technology Data rates
2 GSM 9.6 Kbps
2.5 GPRS 144 Kbps
2.75 EDGE 325 Kbps
3 UMTS, LTE 2 Mbps
WIMAX, HSDPA, HSUPA

If you want to see the real difference between a 2G and a 3g network than I would suggest you to go to Apple website (http://www.apple.com)/and see the Steve Jobbs keynote on IPhone 3G where he showed a little demo on the downloading speed with the two networks.