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America is poised for an explosion in tablet use.

You can’t travel by plane, train or bus in this country without seeing a tablet in someone’s hands.

Go to a park, and there’s a bunch of teenagers lolling on the ground with a tablet in their hand.

A lot of the tablets in consumers hands currently are Apple iPads since none of the other tablet vendors (Motorola, Blackberry, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Acer etc) are selling much.

But Amazon’s recent launch of the $199 Kindle Fire means that a lot of Americans who couldn’t afford or were unwilling to pay $499 for an iPad will now be buying a tablet.

A new study by market researcher eMarketer projects that by the end of 2011, 33.7 million Americans will use a tablet device monthly, a rise of 158.6% over 2010, the year the iPad was launched.

90m Americans Will be Using Tablets by 2014

eMarketer expects tablet growth to slow to double digits beginning in 2012, but the number of users will climb to nearly 90 million, or 35.6% of all Internet users, by 2014.

This means one out of three online users will be using a tablet by 2014.

Wow, one out of three online users using a tablet certainly sounds impressive. Wonder what that’ll do to TV watching.

Mind you, we’re not talking of tablet unit sales here but usage. Since most of our readers are schmucks, let’s explain – This means a single tablet may be used by more than one individual. Or what eMarketer calls device-sharing.

The researcher expects that as tablet adoption continues, less growth will come from sharing and more from replacing older devices with new ones. Eventually, tablets may become more like smartphones, which typically have a single user and less sharing.

61m Americans will be Using iPads by 2014

iPad Leads

Apple’s iPad tablet, which has ruled the tablet market since 2010, will continue to do so throughout the forecast period, though its share will be chipped away by competitors.

American iPad users will more than double between 2011 and 2014, from 28 million to 60.8 million.

By 2014, iPad users will still account for 68% of the overall US tablet audience.

Changing Audience

Of course, the tablet audience is changing.

Women now account for slightly less than half of tablet users, but the disparity in tablet usage between sexes will continue to shrink.

eMarketer estimates that this year 31.5% of tablet users are in the 18-34 age group, while 55.5% are 35 or older.

By 2014, 18-34-year-olds will account for 34.8% of tablet users, while those ages 35 and up will comprise 49.3% of the total.

Usage of tablets will also rise faster among Whites than those of other races, growing from 60.6% of total users this year to 65.8% by 2014.

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Let’s lecture the Egyptians and the Syrians and the Libyans on how to treat protesters.

After all, good advice is always meant for others, right?

Here at home, America’s policemen have run amok on non-violent student protesters pepper-spraying them, beating them with truncheons, arresting them and harassing them endlessly at the behest of their political masters who are beholden to the corporate crooks, bank crooks and Wall Street crooks.

The below video is of University of California Davis students needlessly pepper-sprayed by the police on Friday.

Police have been pepper-spraying protesters at other locations too.

Here’s a disturbing video of Seattle Police unleashing their pepper-spray at protesters on November 15:

And if you think your advanced age prevents you from being pepper-sprayed by the police, look at the below picture of 84-year-old Dorli Rainey, who was attacked by the Seattle Police on November 15:

84-year-old Protester Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed by Seattle Police84-year-old Dorli Rainey after a Pepper Spray
(Picture courtesy:  New York Times)

Two months back, Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City were screaming in agony after being pepper-sprayed by the police.

See the agonized cries of the two girls in the below video:

Related Posts:
Occupy Wall Street – All Big Revolutions Start Small

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Even if we were not sloshed tonight, we wouldn’t have liked When Harry Tries to Marry.

Not one bit.

Truth be said some movies are best watched in a soused state.

Otherwise, it can be too hazardous to one’s sanity.

This evening, we poured ourselves a large one, and then another large one and another large one…and sat down to watch When Harry Tries to Marry (DVD available at Netflix).

Thank God for all those large ones!

How was the movie, you ask?

Yeeks, utter garbage!

Just goes to prove that Indians be they in India or America can’t make watchable movies.

When Harry Tries to Marry is trash on many fronts.

First, it tries to piggyback on the name of the famous Meg Ryan-Billy Crystal movie When Harry Met Sally.

That’s just the kind of cheap shit Indians readily embrace.

Second, its subject matter is, yawn, an  NRI romance that’s poorly written and sophomoric.

The writing is so unimaginative and terrible and dooms the movie to failure even if there were a stellar cast, which we obviously don’t have here.

This is our third or fourth or fifth romance involving Indians in America (some of the other Indian-American romances Bride and Prejudice, Other End of the Line, Indian Fish in American Waters, Mistress of Spices…) that we’ve seen and now we’re tired of this genre.

Geez, don’t Indian-American directors and writers have any other theme to work on.

Third, while the acting of some of the lead characters was not hopeless it was no big deal either. Pedestrian stuff.

Directed by Nayan Padrai based on a screenplay by Padrai and Ralph Stein, the movie centers around the distaste of a young NYC desi Harish Shankar aka Harry (Rahul Rai) for love marriage and his preference for a traditional arranged Indian marriage.

Hey, divorce rates are far lower in Indian arranged marriages.

Plus there’s the disturbing reminder of Harish’s parents’ love marriage collapsing in acrimonious fights and ultimately in a divorce.

So, our young architecture student Harry calls up Deepak uncle in India to find a bride for him.

Anon, an ‘unhatched egg’ in the form of a shapely young architecture student Nita Shah (Freishia Bomanbehram) is found for Harry.

Before long, the youngsters are cooing on video chats, exchanging e-mails and gifts.

Harry even gets a ‘cuddly’ Teddy Bear with a recorded message from Nita on his birthday.

Even as this lovey-dovey stuff between Harry and Nita is going on, there’s Harry’s classmate and friend Theresa (Stefanie Estes) in the background.

What’s up between Harry and Theresa? No, you don’t want to find out because the movie’s just not worth it.

Before long, we’re subjected to the trial of the American group landing in India for the wedding.

Avoid This Nonsense

We’re still rubbing our eyes, in despair, over how this junk got made and got funded.

Was somebody high on weed or Crack Cocaine?

We saw some doctor prefixes in the list of producers. So, did someone have money to burn?

Pray, how else can this mediocre shit see the light of the day?

Granted the movie has some funny lines but they’re too few and far between.

By the way, among the many irritatingly unfunny scenes Harry’s erection scene was the worst.

Freishia Bomanbehram, who plays the Indian girl Nita, can’t act to save her life.

Overall, we found this movie utterly boring and cursed ourselves for renting it.

SearchIndia.com strongly recommends that if you stumble upon the When Harry Tries to Marry DVD, fling it on the highway so that it’s crushed to pieces.

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We’ve never been great fans of Benetton clothes or for that matter their ‘United Colors of Benetton’ ads.

Until today, that is.

Hey, who can resist the great (un)smooching, Photoshopped pictures below from Benetton’s new “Unhate” ad campaign. ;)

Pope Benedict - Benetton AdA Kiss is Just a Kiss….And When Two Lovers Woo

Where else can you see the Nazi Pope Benedict XVI locking lips with Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb (imam of the Al Azhar mosque in Egypt) or Obama crushing Hugo Chavez’ lips.

Nazi Pope Benedict’s minions are not amused with the Photoshopped (un)smooching ad and have threatened Benetton with legal action compelling it to withdrew the ads. What a shame!

Of course, Benetton had already milked a lot of publicity from the images by then. ;)

Here’s what the Nazi Pope’s Press secretary Father Federico Lombardi said:

We cannot but express a resolute protest at the entirely unacceptable use of a manipulated image of the Holy Father, used as part of a publicity campaign which has commercial ends.

It is a serious lack of respect for the pope, an affront to the feelings of the faithful and an evident demonstration of how, in the field of advertising, the most elemental rules of respect for others can be broken in order to attract attention by provocation.

The secretariat of state has authorised its lawyers to initiate actions, in Italy and elsewhere, to prevent the circulation, via the mass media and in other ways, of a photomontage used in a Benetton advertising campaign in which the Holy Father appears in a way considered to be harmful, not only to the dignity of the pope and the Catholic church, but also to the sensibility of believers.
Source: Guardian

Now, now, Benedict, show some humor, will ya?

By the way, Benedict was a member of the student wing of Nazi party, Hitler Youth during his younger days and later served in the Nazi anti-aircraft corps and infantry. No kidding.

Nazi Pope Benedict is also the same idiot who once said that condoms aggravate AIDS.

By the way, what’s our President and the Leader of the Free World doing below?

Is it bye-bye Michelle, coochie-coochie Chavez? ;)

Obama - Chavez - Banetton AdCiao Michelle, Uh, Cumming Chavez

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For the second holiday season in a row, American kids 6-12 are lusting for the iPad more than any other product, according to a Nielsen survey.

For the 2011 holiday season, the iPad has increased its appeal with this age-group.

Nearly half (44%) want an iPad this year compared to 31% last year.

The second and third most wanted products were also Apple devices, iPod Touch (30%) and iPhone (27%).

Only 25% of the kids looked forward to a non-iPad tablet, computer or Nintendo 3DS gaming device.

Barring the iPad, all other tablets are faring miserably in the market with few takers.

After a pathetic reception from consumers, HP jettisoned its tablet business and disposed off the remaining inventory in a fire-sale for $99.

Despite a steep starting price of $499, the Apple iPads are selling briskly.

Take a deko at the Nielsen figures below:

U.S. Kids Want the iPad for Holiday Season 2011

What About Older Kids

For kids in the 13+ age group too, the iPad is the most desired product.

The Nielsen study shows 24% of kids in this age group drooling over the iPad this holiday season compared to 18% last year.

Computers and e-readers were salivated over by 18% while both non-iPad tablets and TVs found favor with 17% of the kids 13+.

U.S. Kids Want the iPad for Holiday Season 2011

We’ve played around with most of the major tablets and none of them come anywhere near the iPad in ease of use, finesse and quality.

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U.S. venture capital firm Accel Partners has closed a $155 million fund, Accel India III, that will make seed and early stage investments in Indian startups.

This is Accel’s third India fund.

Accel, which has previously invested in 34 Indian companies, said the latest fund had attracted top tier institutional investors from North America, Europe and Asia.

The fund intends to focus on Internet services, digital media, SaaS and enterprise technologies, mobile, healthcare and education and other high-growth sectors.

Accel executives say that while traditional venture capital and growth equity have been increasingly drawn to India over the past several years, seed and early stage markets were still under-served.

Accel Partners’ Indian investments include Internet startups such as Flipkart, Myntra, Letsbuy, HealthcareMagic, Babyoye and Exclusively.in.

With offices in Bangalore and Delhi, Accel Partners has eleven investment professionals based in India, led by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Shekhar Kirani, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash.

Despite all the investments supposedly flowing into Indian startups lately, we’ve yet to see even a single Indian company make waves on the international landscape, either in the consumer space or in the business segment.

Related Stories:
Sameer Gandhi Bolts to Accel Partners

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