Category Archives: Review

Experience with Amazon E-commerce Service

08 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in E-commerce, Review

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I say Amazon is the God of e-commerce on the planet. Whatever you need, you can find it there. The best part is, if you like to take the hassle, they can ship your item anywhere. My recent experience with them is amazing. I honestly appreciate their actions and this is why I want to share my experience with everyone.

On 11 May 2015 I ordered a Sony NWZE385 16GB MP3 player. It is always a hassle to import something in Bangladesh and go through the Bangladeshi Customs Regulations, this is why mostly I ship my needs to my friend’s address in Singapore and later somehow I manage to collect it from him. So the MP3 player got delivered on 27 May 2015 to my friend’s address in Singapore. Last week a friend was coming and he brought it to me all the way from Singapore. After receiving the device, I found they have sent me Sony NWZE383 4GB MP3 player instead of the one I wanted by mistake.

 

To proceed forward, I must mention that the return window also got expired so there should not be any chance I can return the item. But instead of trusting the rules, I sent the following mail to them on 1 July 2015 –

I have ordered Sony NWZE385 16 GB and you have sent me Sony NWZE380 4 GB. What kind of business is that? 

And this is the response they gave me –

Hello,
I’m sorry about the problem with the “Sony NWZE385 16 GB Walkman MP3 Video Player (Black)” that you had purchased. Please let us know whether you’d like a replacement for this item or whether you’d prefer a refund.

If you’d like a replacement for the shipment, please verify that the shipping address below is correct when you contact us again. Here’s the address we have for your original order:

Here’s the address we have:

address removed

Please visit the following link to provide the information we requested: link removed.

Once we receive this information we can take further action. I’m sorry if this additional step might cause you any inconvenience. I hope you’ll understand that this will help us in assisting you more precisely.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,
Sanjay

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Anti-Virus for Windows 10

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in Microsoft, Software Review

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Many of us are already using Windows 10 Technical Preview. No matter how unfinished the product is or how lousy the performance is, we need protection from virus and related threats.

As I am using Windows 10 Technical Preview for quite sometime, many of my friends have been asking me about anti-virus solution for Windows 10. Here some of the common answers for my friends and readers:

  • Are we able to install Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 10 Technical Preview?
    No, we only can install Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows 7 and Windows Vista (there was a version available for Windows XP, but unfortunately that is discontinued). For Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical Preview we already have Windows Defender pre-installed by Microsoft, which is great Anti Malware protection and is a replacement for Microsoft Security Essentials. We don’t need to do anything, just open start and search for Windows Defender and make sure it is enabled and up-to-dated through Windows Update.
  • What Anti-Virus should we install for Windows 10 Technical Preview?
    In my opinion, we do not need to install any Anti-Virus program as of now, because we already have Windows Defender. It protects us against Virus, Worm, Trojan, Spyware, Adware and other malicious programs same as what Microsoft Security Essentials is doing in Windows Vista and Windows 7. But if you do not trust Microsoft and want to have some exclusive anti-virus protection, here is the list of anti-viruses I have tried myself and worked successfully:

  • Are we able to install other Anti-Virus software?
    Many have reported about compatibility issues with current Anti-Virus programs in Windows 10 Technical Preview. But the above list is created based on my personal experience and I hope this will also be useful for you. I also believe after the final release of Windows 10, Anti-Virus companies will make their applications more compatible and useful with the operating system.

Please leave a comment if you have any question in this regards.

How I Listen to International Music Legally

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in ICT World, Software Review, Tutorials

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Well, I respect intellectual properties and I try my level best not to use anything illegally. I stopped using pirated software years ago and since almost a year I do not listen to pirated western and Bangladeshi music. Well now the question is how. The answer is simple. For Bangladeshi music, I buy original CDs, as they are super cheap.  For western I am depended on Spotify. Well may be Taylor Swift is not on Spotify but I can live without her music. 😉

Spotify’s slogan is “Music for Everyone” but unfortunately it is not. You have to live in one of those countries where Spotify operates and unfortunately they do not operate in my country Bangladesh!

Spotify has two types of subscription, Free and Premium. Free is ad supported music streaming service with some restrictions and premium gives you freedom to listen to your favourite music wherever and however you like, even when you not connected to the internet. But unfortunately everything is limited to the countries they operate. Now if you have money and want to become a paid premium subscriber, you cannot just do that. So how I am doing it!!

Well, I did some research and decided to avail the service using VPN. With VPN (virtual private network) you can have secure and new network footprint. Almost all Internet connections of Bangladesh are routed through Singapore, so getting both Spotify and VPN service from Singapore would be the perfect blend. I have subscribed to Express VPN because they have 3-4 servers in Singapore and I can access their service from almost all the devices I own. I have a long term agreement with them, I have paid for a year and getting the service for 20 months. So it a good deal for me.

I have subscribed to Spotify Premium with Singapore Dollars 9.99 per month and I have the freedom to listen to whatever I would like to. I do agree that this is not 100% legit way to avail the service, but at least I am not cheating the artists.

I do encourage everyone to avoid using illegal/pirated materials.

Android Wear – The Ultimate Junk

16 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Android, Google, ICT World, My Gadgets, Review

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Well, Apple is overpriced but how you will disagree that they has the ultimate design innovation talent! Sometimes it feels like all the consumer innovations are only coming from them. Recent days Google pretends many things but their only intention is the sell ads to the consumer.

Many of my friends know that I am an early adapter, so if I am fascinated about something, I get it despite of all challenges. When Android Wear came, I thought this is the most innovative step from Google and Android team. I bought a LG G watch R back in January, which is currently running Android Wear 5.0.2. I feel so sorry for the device and the operating system. Let me highlight some of the points one by one.

Not even a Remote Control for your phone: Say you want to play music on your phone and control that from your watch, what things you would like to do? Definitely you would not like to skip tracks and control volume, a $50 Samsung phone’s headphones can do that. You may like to look into the playlist and then play the tracks you like or manage your queue etc. Unfortunately this Android Wear cannot do beyond what that $50 Samsung phone’s headphones can do.

No Playlist: No matter what media player you are using on your phone, there is no option to browse through the playlist on your watch. So you cannot just tap on your song and play it, you have to trust on forward/next options. I found only Sony Walkman and Google Play Music are the only apps that the phone supports. If your watch has internal memory (Sony, LG and Huawei does) you can download your selected playlists on your watch and play them directly on a Bluetooth device. But on the same case you are not allowed to browse the playlist and directly play the track you want to!

No Contacts, Calling: I was expecting I would be able to call someone right from my phone. The feature is there but only if you are connected to Google Now cloud services and if they can understand your pronunciation. You may want to call home, they will call mom. That is what happened with me.

Well, calling became so challenging because there is no contact list you can see from your watch. Say, I am wearing the watch and my phone is connected to my car’s speakers (AUX), if there is an incoming call, I can see who is calling and I can take/reject the call right from the watch. Now if I want to call someone it will be super challenging. You cannot browse the contact list and just tap to call someone. I have no clue why Google did not think about this simple feature but this is what it is.

Cannot Rearrange Apps: Say you like and use Google Keep a lot and want to access the app easily from the app menu. You are not lucky, you cannot re-arrange the apps, have to access them as they are.

Notification Without any Clue: If you want to keep things private on the phone, they gets private on the watch as well. For example you have chosen to keep your message notifications private on the phone (phone will show incoming notification but will not show summary etc.) then the messages will not appear on the watch as well.

Disappointing Google Now: You know there is nothing called Google Now, right? The information you see on Google now are already backdated, e.g. game results. The weather Google Now shows are few hours old. So Google Now is not Now, it is may be Google’s now not ours. It is not watch Google Now, for every platform it sux big time.

So that is my honest opinion about Google’s latest innovation! At this point we can only hope things will get better in coming days else Apple will dominate this market too.

The Best Bangladeshi Soft Drinks Ever!

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by in Bangladesh, Food Review

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It is not new that people goes for successful and well established brand names, but I am a person who loves to explore alternate options. Soft Drinks are also not exceptional here. People Likes to have world class brands like Coca Clola, Pepsi, Mirinda etc.

My case is a bit different, Mojo and Clemon (by Akij Food and Beverage) are one of my favourite soft drinks. They have this unique taste and do not taste like any other soft drinks on the market. I mean they did not try to replicate any other brand’s taste but tried to establish their own brand and taste instead. These are awesome if served chilled. But Due to less demand and poor distribution network, those drinks are not widely available on the market.

PRAN Soft DrinksI went to Dhaka International Trade Fair few days back and found one exclusive stall is displaying some exceptional looking confectionery food items and new beverages. The salesgirl told us that the stall belongs to Pran Foods Ltd. We bought couple of confectionery items and 3 bottles of different soft drinks for a taste-drive. The confectionery items were crap, so don’t want to to write anything more about them and that is not what I am up to today. Lets talk about the soft drinks.

We bought Pran Maxx Cola, Tango Orange and FireFly. When we bought them, I made sure they are chilled because soft drinks do not taste good if the temperature is not right.

I started with Maxx Cola. Why started with that, because it is cola and it is Maxx with an extra X, so you can understand there is something eXtra! 🙂 Jokes apart. With the first sip I took some time to think what I am going to have. Then I took another and then another after. It was so amazing, I had this feeling that this is the next generation soft drink of Bangladesh! This drink is going to rock the cola thirsty people. It is not Coca Cola, it is not Pepsi, it’s better. It is smooth, it is sweet and moreover it is perfect.

After that I tried Tango Orange. When I was a kid, there use to be 2 orange soft drinks available, one was Orange Squash and the other one was Orange Topsy (or something like that), both of them had similar taste. When I sipped Tango Orange, suddenly I felt like it has the same taste I use to love in my childhood. I really loved it then and I love it now. It’s also a perfect orange flavoured soft drink.

Upcoming PRAN Soft Drinks

Finally, FireFly. If I summarise my experience, I can write in a simple sentence, “This is a drink which may kill Mountain Dew in Bangladesh.” I’m not a Mountain Dew fan, but I had Mountain Dew couple of times. If I am not wrong, this one tastes better.

Let me clarify couple of things here. Pran is assembling and marketing Coca Cola’s beverages (Coca Cola, Sprite, Fanta) across Bangladesh for couple of years now. They had their own brands before like Pran Up, but I did not like them. They are either too sweet or water-ish. I think this is their second attempt to make things right.

One of my contacts inside Pran told me they are going to bring 3 more ‘quality’ soft drinks, Cheer Up, Maxx Zero and Pran Lemon. Not sure about Pran Lemon but I have this feelings that they would also taste great.

Its very common in Bangladesh that companies are launching good quality products and later they do not bother any more to maintain the quality level. Though I do not expect this from Pran. If Pran does right marketing and maintain the quality and proper distribution channel, there is no way any world class brands can stop them from taking over the market.

They are definitely the best in my point of view and I invite you to have a taste-drive as well.