There is big blooper in store for Indians this festive season. A time just reserved for shopping because of the long tradition of free gifts and special offers may just get a break thanks to the dwindling value of the rupee (and the cartoon you see above may just be a part of history).

People especially waiting for the Diwali season to buy expensive appliance and household goods are very disappointed to not find the usual razmatazz with the products. And it’s not just small brands alone. Big players like LG and Samsung are also willing to hold the flow of complimentary presents and discounts.

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Internet is the domain where something boggling is happening all the time. But the deal I am going to talk about has truly changed the face of blogging on the Blogosphere. It has given new hope and an entirely new direction to countless blogs that are there on the net.
Bankaholic has made it to the headlines, probably for the first time in its life by being sold for $15 million. Bankaholic blog has been sold to BankRate financial information website and service provider. Many people are questioning the Bankrate move by saying that Bankaholic was not even generating one-tenth of the revenue for which it has been sold.
But anayists say that Bankaholic indeed has a potential to give good business to BankRate financial information. If we recollect, five months back ArsTechnica, a site focussing on technology related news etc was sold for an estimated price of $25 million. And only three months back, the financial news blog PaidContent was taken over by Guardian. The deal was struck for more than $30 million. Unlike Bankaholic, the two sites were popular among networking site such as Digitt and Stumbleupon.

All said and done, this acquisition has given small fish the hope that they can also make a big deal if they have a faithful niche clientele. One just needs to imagine how can they offer a unique advantage to a potential buyer and work upon it with all the dedication and hardwork.

Via Profy

After facing intense rounds of filthy mudslinging at the hands of Bengal (or should I say Mamta Bannerjee?), Tata Motors finally gave in to the demands. It is ready to move out of the state and take its much-awaited small car ‘Nano’ to more welcome pastures. Now that one party (one that could have brought about a change in the state’s economy) has forfeited, the question remains to be seen is that will industrialisation in Bengal be able to recover? We are aware how religiously it is pursuing investors, so will the Tata pullout send across negative vibes?

The whole situation was made just so complicated (thank god, it did not end like Nandigram) with meaningless netagiri. Now, the 1000 acres land vacated by Tata is rendered useless even for farming. Any scope for jobs and development in the area is nothing but a haze.
Yes, petty politics led to this downward movement of Bengal’s developing future. And they were saying it was a fight between industrialisation and agriculture! A sad situation indeed, but I’m sure Bengal shall recover and hopefully will not kick out any possible means of prosperity.

One of best coolest cinema in this year’s Toronto Film Festival was rock documentary “It Might Get Loud” — some excellence time useless with Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White, playing together and chatting discretely about what electric guitar income to every of them. The film was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also made Al Gore Oscar victor “An Inconvenient Truth.” One of best coolest parts of film fest was that can be every one three guitarists appear together at opening show of film. Here is an audience-caught short of them taking a small number of questions and goofing around after show. Alas, no one has yet chosen up sharing rights, so I don’t know when film will be unconfined.

Davis Guggenheim has finished a film on a documentary that will be seem at narrative of exciting guitar from point of vision of three important rock musicians: the “Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White”.

Guggenheim, director-producer of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Deadwood,” directed and co-produced “It Might Get Loud,” which Thomas Tull finance and shaped. The small Film Co. will symbolize the pic in Cannes.

Led Zeppelin’s Page, U2’s Edge and White, leader of White Stripes and Raconteurs, were selected for their crash across three dissimilar generations from Page’s 1960s days as a sitting musician and an associate of Yard birds into Edge’s single sound urbanized in ’80s through White’s present work. Each explain and demonstrate that how he misused sound of electric guitar to outfit his own style.

Come August 22 and the Indian mobile phone market will never be the same again. The much-hyped Apple i-phone will finally arrive! We all were eagerly waiting for it. After all, it’s an Apple product. So much is the hype that other mobile phone companies are already running for cover. New mobiles are being launched by Nokia, HTC, Samsung et al with the pseudo-name ‘i-phone killer’. Meetings are being called, strategies are being discussed and even the smallest glitch in the I-phone is being magnified to humongous proportions.� �

Apple Inc. has a huge reputation in the consumer electronics market. Its products have aesthetic designs and are objects of desire to most of us. Apple added a new dimension to the portable media players with the launch of i-pod. It created a new industry for i-pod accessories. But are the products of Apple Inc. over-hyped? If you ask me, my answer would be a YES!�

Without going into the features of the phone, here are a bunch of reasons why we need to look over all the gaga for the i-phone. Firstly at 31,000 INR for 8GB model it is overpriced. Apple is known for post-launch price changes. When launched in US, the price was slashed by $200 just two months after the release. Secondly, downloads from Apple’s I-tunes music stores will not be available on the I-phone. Thirdly, as 3-G network is not available in India, many features of the phone will not work. Fourthly, it’s the iTunes monopoly. When I bought my i-pod 2 years back, I did not have a personal computer. Getting music/videos used to be a tedious task. And last but not the least, once you buy an i-phone, it needs to be activated. As a lot of sales are expected on the date of launch, I bet the i-Tunes servers would be overloaded. So you might have to wait for a day or two before you can actually start using the phone. �

So there is no need to make a beeline to the electronic stores for the i-phone on August 22nd unless you really need to flaunt it!
Via rediff

Coloring is in and those� of you, who thought that one can color only one’s hair and moustaches and perhaps bleach one’s skin hair need a reality check! Many would chide themselves for even thinking about getting a colorful palette for their pubic growth. But as they say ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, collective conscious needs (read aspirations) led Nanci Jarecki to create dyes that bid greys down there bye-byes! Her Betty™ is raking in mullah for coloring the “…….” And “……” of both females and males some as aged as 80 yrs old! (Adventurous people,� I say : D ).� If you aren’t happy with the shade Mother Nature gifted you then gift yourself a new one by choosing any from the range at Betty - Blonde, Brown, Aurburn and Black for the regulars and Malibu, Fun and Starburst as exoticas!

Just in case you thought, I m talking about some weirdo punky-kinky store (the internet is full of such online buying options) kindly note that, bettybeauty.com is� registered and quite a trusted company when it comes to customer satisfaction. Advertising Age did a feature on it and the concerned article in it describes the coming-into-beings and becoming-a-success of Betty. The company’s products are safe and tested by skin specialists. For the ordinary netizen the figure of over 100,000 happy customers and the company website’s beating out traffic numbers from competitors like Proctor and Gamble’s Clairol.com is a proof enough, of the site’s sanctity and product’s ingenuity! And besides buying it online, you can also get Betty at 300 retail salons in case you are tempted to try out that hot pink shade

Having said all that, I was just wondering if Betty (or other similar product) is ever launched in a country like ours what a national furore it would create (bigger than what Rakhi Sawant-Mikka� episode did!). While on one hand, VHP will declare it against Hindu sentiments, the Maulvis will issue a fatwā against all those who will dare to become its customers!
(Here, I would like to apologize to all those who might find my criticism offensive). With a neat intent all I wanted to say was, in case you want to fulfill your desire to color your pubic hair Betty dyes are a safe bet.

Via: colourlovers

Perhaps the thrill of watching a naked man/woman is so much that advertisers believe it can sell any idea or cause (whatsoever). The presence of nudity in advertisements is an old tradition (something which you cannot blame upon the loose morals of modern age man!). But, the frequent use of it now-a-days can certainly be ascribed to an enhanced appetite of the current generation, for sex and nude images.
Nudity in ads can be called as ‘white porn’ (and why not? When there exists black humor then why not white porn?) I’m saying so because irrespective of the fact that whether the product to be sold or idea to be popularized needs nudity or not, the latter is being served at your face. Needless to say such full frontal nude male / female ads merely generate hype. They may initially boost the sale of a product but they don’t change a consumer’s behavior towards a product / idea.

Now take these 2 print adverts for example. One is by PETA featuring Alecia Silverstone done in the super-clichéd manner. Common PETA, is nudity a proof of vegetarianism or vice versa? Where is the rationale in this that, just because I am a vegetarian (or supposedly one for this ad) I must strip down to nothing! Such kind of advertising still made a mark back in late 90’s. Not any more. It’s outrightly boring and stale!

Further, since there has been an overuse of naked female form (thanks to the indefatigable male gaze!) now, its time for the full frontal male nudity to sell stuff like cologne or perfume. The idea behind making this YSL ad might be to titillate the uber-rich and high class ladies and (gay) men but I’m pretty sure a lady won’t buy a cologne or aftershave for her man because its advert featured a hot male model showing off his balls!! What kind of illusionary world these advertisers live in? It’s hard to figure it out at times (sigh).
Though,� I’m not staunchly against nude ads…after all, some of them are done tastefully but I don’t find it stimulating enough when it is used for things like perfumes, lipsticks and such. As far as PETA folks are concerned, I think it’s high time they change their “I would rather go naked than wear fur” and come up with some other interesting idea because the truth is not many people give upon fur just because sexy models appear nude!

Via: commercial-archive

It’s raining music for ears which are always wired into an iPod or a walkman phone! Yesterday, the much awaited Walkman Series of Sony Ericsson was announced. The series includes 3 mobile phones W902, W302 and W595. The phones can play wide variety of music files and come with other multimedia functions as well- camera, internet access and connectivity options. These will be on shelves in the last lag of this year. The company’s previous model (W800) is already a hit among music fans.

Here are the features of each phone one-by-one:

Sony Ericsson W302:-
•� 2 Megapixel camera with 2.5x zoom.
•� 3D games, Java and Video viewing.
•� Bluetooth connectivity, USB support and Memory Stick Micro.
•� 20MB of internal memory.
•� Available in Midnight Black and Sparkling White.

SE W902 phone:-
•� 5 Megapixel auto focus camera with up to 16x digital zoom.
•� Includes cool stuff like Picture blogging, Video blogging, Video recording & Photo feeds.
•� Shake control and SensMe features +nt.
•� Allows access to Google Maps and enables Geo tagging of photos as well!
•� Available in Volcanic Black, Wine Red and Earth Green.

SE W595 (slider style) phone:-
•� 3.2 Megapixel camera.
•� Bluetooth stereo.
•� FM radio.
•� Shake control and SensMe.
•� 40MB of internal memory (supports for Memory Stick Micro also +nt.)
•� Available in Active Blue, Lava Black, Cosmopolitan White & Jungle Grey

All the three models are too tempting but their price will be a defining factor as well (which is yet to be announced!).

Via: techshout

Does your mummy serve you Hellogs every morning on the breakfast table? Ask juniors and most of them would admit it with a child’s version of irksome smile on their faces!I personally like breakfast cereals a lot (but not those sugary-sticky kinds please!). My reason behind doing this post on these crazy posters is to share with you all, the excitement with which their creators would have made them. These days (thanks to internet, a lot of people can express their creative-arty outputs with all the softwares available at a mouse’s click).

I like these three posters – spoofs on breakfast cereal ads by brands like Kellogg’s .They are likable� for their content and funny graphics…Gruesome Grimy Goo Goo Mucks and bone crunchers! It seems the creators bear shades of Calvin (Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes) in them.

� While moms might not like the ideas expressed in them but these sure tickle your funny bone every time you see them.� After all, these cereal killers are not to be afraid of! (grin)…

Via: ffffound

The rapidly changing technology in the world of digital cameras has facilitated the emergence of good quality pictures and snaps by even amateur photographers. However, its always nice to know a ting or two and specially features about a digi cam if you are about to purchase a better version of it.

Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX3 digital camera is about to make its debut in world markets coming august. The model seems to be good best among the Lumix DMC-LX range and stands good chance of giving other contemporary models a stiff competition in terms of performance and price.

Features:
•� 10.1 MegaPixel (though fabulous pictures can be clicked at somewhere between 3-7 Mega Pixel as well).
•� LCD 3″screen - new and improved with a 460,000-dot high resolution.
•� 24 mm lens.
•� Image processing Venus Engine IV, ISO 3200.
•� CCD Sensor 1/1.63″.
•� Technology red-eye correction.
•� ISO intelligent face detection (until 15).
•� Video recording up to 1280 x 720 to 24 FPS.
•� Features a Film mode with six color types and three types of monochrome selections.
•� Fast autofocus.
•� AF Tracking- automatically tracks the image subject and locks it into focus, thus, making it easier for anyone to capture sharp. Result: well-focused, crisp and sharp photos!

Price: About $ 500.

So, what do you think of it? Sure, it could be a great gift option too!

Via: gadgetarena