Roopit – Easiest way of buy and sell!

It is so hard to find and sell used products online. I know there are tons of websites which allow listing of such things. But, they ask you too many questions, you have to go through complex registration process & most importantly your phone number is exposed to public and spam bots. Roopit is different from those. I loved the way they put it on their FAQ:

How do I Login/Register?

You don’t. There is no Username or password. Nope. And, We don’t need your e-mail, your mother’s maiden name or your childhood favorite hero. But, we do need your mobile number. Roopit identifies you with your mobile. If you are selling, You post with your mobile number. If you are buying, You receive the contact details of the seller as an SMS on your mobile.

You can track a product via SMS which you are looking to buy. Simple! Just send what you are looking for to 9916766748. For ex: “Maruti 800″.

Visit Roopit and start buying/selling!!

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If you are fan of Tech Bangalore Facebook page, you already know this write up is coming. I shared some pictures of Infibeam Pi over there few days back. Now it’s time to talk what I liked & disliked about it.

First impressions were really great, I liked it right away after un-boxing. It’s very light & feels perfect to keep it in hand & read. E Ink based black & white display gives exactly the same feeling of reading on paper. Wasting no time, I loaded few PDF files I had which I was planning to read onto Pi. Slowly, I got totally used to it. Hats off to it’s form factor, I could carry around it anywhere in the house and read.

Unlike it’s competitor Amazon Kindle, Pi has keys on side panel, which I found a little uncomfortable. Right panel has two keys to increase & decrease font size. Left panel has four keys which performs multiple operations based on what screen you are on. Screen size is same as Amazon Kindle, I compared them side by side. Though the screen gives ‘reading on paper’ feeling, flickering while navigating between pages is a little disturbing.

Device comes with internal memory of 512MB & an SD card slot expandable up to 4GB. That’s more than enough to fit in all your books. Other than ebooks, Pi also allows you to put in some music & pictures. Having pictures on Pi seems pointless to me since it has B/W display. But, music makes a lot of sense, since you can listen to your favorite tune as you read books. Reader menu which appears when you are reading a book helps in navigating through the book & also bookmark pages.

Overall, it’s an amazing gadget to have in your bag, especially if you travel often. It’s long lasting battery helps you kill time all through your journey. Infibeam Pi is priced at Rs.9999 & can be bought at ?http://www.infibeam.com/Pi.

If you have missed out on pictures of Infibeam Pi posted on Facebook page, here is the link.

As mashable reported few days back, Facebook is testing an upgrade to “Photos” application by adding “Related Photos”. Based on the photo user is looking at Facebook populates other similar photo next to it. If you are a Lifeblob user, this isn’t new to you. Lifeblob had this feature from a quite a long time by now.

With this supposed innovation, facebook will now start showing other photos of people who are face-tagged in a photo next to it. The application feature addition is designed to drive users to explore additional photos that may be of interest based on the photo they’re currently viewing, thereby further personalizing the experience (and increasing page views).

Just to set the record straight, we have had this feature ( and a lot more ) at http://www.lifeblob.com for over a year now and facebook has blatantly copied it. Every time you upload a photo on lifeblob, a recommendation engine not only looks at the face tags, but also the other information associated with your photo to show you photos that are closely related around it.So when you upload your graduation day photos, we discover other photos of your graduation day and show it next to your photo. What facebook has done is picked up this idea and launched a simple version of it that only uses face tags. Bravo!!

–Pranav Bhasin, Founder, Lifeblob

You can check the detailed post about this feature by clicking the above link. This is not the first time Facebook copied something, it copied ideas from Friendfeed (later acquired) & Twitter few months back. Do spread the word by sharing this & also by joining this Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facebook-STOP-copying-from-Indian-Startups/128733897152335 which Pranav has created (Yep! an FB Page!)

24HoursLoot is an online store which lists a T-Shirt at discounted price everyday & discount applies only for 24 hours. 24HoursLoot is creative enough to come up with some nice design everyday. T-Shirts with catchy captions, music band logos, geeky slogans are the few of the listed designs so far. Though normally T-Shirt designs are standard, sometimes they allow user to customize it. Like, T-shirt with twitter design allows user to add his/her username, a T-shirt with QR code printed on it for the text you provide…etc. Sometimes they also list products other than T-shirts.

New design will be open to public every mid-night 12 & will be be available for next 24 hours. Website provides options to subscribe to new loots via Email & SMS to make sure you won’t miss any loot. Head over to 24hoursloot.com & start looting!

Proto.in, India?s popular Start Up event is coming back again with 5th edition. Proto.in 5th edition is announced to happen in Bangalore in Jan 09. Though clear dates & venue are not mentioned yet. Nomination for the even is open till December 15th, so go ahead & nominate yourself.

Links: Proto.in , Proto.in Blog

Update: Nomination seem to be still open, register yourself.

Kickstart.in is organizing a full day conference for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs on Sunday, the 15th of June ?08 at IIM Bangeluru.

KickStart is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at promoting entrepreneurship. Driven by the popularity and success of Barcamps and Mobile Mondays in Bangeluru where some of the founding members of KickStart have been involved with, KickStart has been founded to support entrepreneurs and promote entrepreneurship.

A lot of entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs want to learn from others who have been there and done that. This conference is called ?Special Startup Saturday?, after ?Startup Saturday?, a monthly event for entrepreneurs held on the second Saturday of every month.

Special Startup Saturday has been designed with an array of talks and workshops on specific topics which entrepreneurs want to learn about. A number of seasoned entrepreneurs and experts on entrepreneurship have come forward to address these issues. The conference also features an interactive session on writing a business plan.

A list of talks and schedule for the event follows:
Session 1 – Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
Session 2 – Idea Validation
Session 3 – Business Plan – Basics
Session 4 – Technology and IPR
Session 5 – Product Management and Marketing
Session 6 – Legal aspects of setting up your own company
Session 7 – Selling + How to talk to a VC
Session 8 – Panel Discussion

For further details, please contact-

1. Amit Singh, Kickstart.in – +91 98863 14456 email : amit@kickstart.in
2. Tarun Bansal, Kickstart.in +91 93410 41776 email : tarun.tarunbansal@gmail.com
3. Anand Prakash Jangid +91 98454 67835 email : anandjangid@gmail.com
4. Kunalkant Sen + 91 92410 09423 email : kunalkantsen@gmail.com
5. Rajeev Kumar +91 98861 94776 email : raja.rajeevkumar@gmail.com

There is no Registration Fee. The schedule, agenda and registration details can be found at www.startupsaturday.in

So many cool products are built in Bangalore and gets rolled out in global markets. Surely you want to meet management of those startups, see their product and learn about new technologies they use.

The SmartTechie is organizing Startup City on Saturday May 24, 2008 at Nimhans Convention Center in Bangalore. This is a technology showcase event wherein cool startups demo the products they are building. There will be over 60 startup companies.

- Watch live product demonstrations
- Get a peek into cutting edge technologies
- Lay hands on the best-of-breed solutions
- Meet young, energetic, passionate geeks
- Experience the culture of innovation
- Learn new technologies

Some of the companies at the Startupcity include:
MetricStream, Sloka Telecom, Sonic Wall, mobisy, Pramati, Yodlee, Netmagic Solutions, SOA Matrix, NetWeb Technologies,Druvaa, Soliton, Axiom DA.
Many more companies will be there.

FEATURING
Visionary Keynotes
In-depth Panel Discussions
Happy Hours
Bird-of-a-Feather Gathering

Some of the speakers include:
Ajit Balakrishnan, founder & CEO, Rediff.com
Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India
Paul Murphy, Director of Innovation, Microsoft India
Suresh Vedula, Head – Business Mobility, Nokia India
Rajendra Mishra, Change India Movement
Ashish Gupta, Managing Director, Helion Ventures

There will be exciting sessions on:
From Concept to Success:: Milestones for startups
Where VCs Are Investing? When and How to Raise Money?
Consumers and Business Marketing in High Technology
Startup Essentials
The Social Media Revolution: What’s Ahead

CEO CONCLAVE
Alongside the Startup City exhibition and seminars, we are holding a close-door CEO roundtable, which will be attended by CEOs and Managing Directors of over 150 startups. The roundtable will facilitate an informal discussion amongst the senior management about the best practices of managing a startup in India, what works, what doesn’t work, potential pitfalls and other challenges.

Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Nokia, Amazon & Yahoo! are sponsoring this event.

REGISTER FREE:
http://www.thesmarttechie.com/startupcity

Startups are always a nice place to work in. If you are working in a startup or want to join a startup or launch your own startup, this is an event you shouldn’t be missing.