Book Smart- Books price comparison for India market

Released pre beta version of books prices comparison app on Android app store. Got few good suggestions also from users and hope to update the app with some of them by today (that would be very fast). Doing service launch gives you lot many learning about the market, UI, user etc. than working in isolation to build so called best product/service. We have many more scheduled release on the same line for books and other categories on multiple platform. It also give a very good and relevant feedback to the team, excitement of releasing an app and in the end fun + satisfaction.

OJAS party

Sunny day today but it was a good fun at OJAS portfolio companies party at Confident groups resort on Bangalore outskirts (Bannerghatta road). Though Mango is not in the their portfolio now but Rajesh and Pavan are kind enough to invite us for the get together. Good to know the growing and diverse portfolio at Ojas (video algos, banner ads, campus connect etc. domain)

Zynga growing in Bangalore

Interesting to see that companies like Zynga who have built popular games on social platforms like Cityville, Farmville etc. They plan to open a complete game studio and they would be focussing on creative conceptualization from this studio, it's good for the overall SW product industry here and it shows that we are growing in value chain.

AppData, a US based entity that tracks the traffic on social networking platforms says 92.9 million active users spend a considerable time playing Zynga’s latest game, Cityville. Farmville still remains to be a considerable favorite with over 49.6 million active users owning virtual farmlands.

Tablet PC/Pad's

After seeing iPAD2 demo video, i'm more than convinced that everyone else is fighting for number 3 and beyond slots.

No. 1: iPAD2,

N0.2: iPAD1

Haven't seen any tablet PC yet which is better than iPAD1 (not in terms of useless specs but what matters to the end user). Few killer features for me are user experience, battery life, instant on speed (no lag), and access to so many apps...

Angry Birds Maker Rovio Raises $42 Million

Wow...Currently, Angry Birds is played by 40 million monthly active users. The company has 50 employees and raising $42 Million.

more at http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/10/angry-birds-maker-rovio-raises-42-million-from-accel-atomico-and-felicis/

Reasons to get stuck on Qt: a baker’s dozen

Nokia is giving so many reasons to developers to stick to QT but they themselves are not sticking to it, why ask developer?

below are the 13 reasons on official nokia blog site.

http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/03/10/reasons-to-get-stuck-on-qt-a-bakers-dozen/?sf1168252=1

new ventures in MNC ecosystems round table

Interesting discussion at the Round Table Discussion on How do new ventures in MNC ecosystems proactively overcome interfirm asymmetries? at IIMB.

Panelists:
1. Mr Sunil Maheshwari, Co-founder, Mango Technologies
2. Mr Srini Rajam, Chairman and CEO, Ittiam Systems
3. Mr Sanjay Shah, MD, Invensys Skelta
4. Mr T.K. Srikanth, VP, Sasken
Anchors: Prof Shameen Prashantham, University of Glasgow and Prof K Kumar, IIMB

Since this is an event which is eventually geared towards publication, there were small invited audience of other faculty, observers and students.

Great learning for myself from other's experience.