Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Attend Startup Weekend! |

In their own words, Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more. It is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking, unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in Toronto, New York, Hamburg, Houston, West Lafayette, Bangalore, DC and more.

Not enough? Need more reasons to join? Here are the TOP 10 reasons why you should attend Startup Weekend:

1. Opportunities:  The primary reason why Startups are such a touch nut to crack, especially in India, is the lack of opportunities. Startup Weekend provides an unprecedented level of networking, team building, learning, and life changes for its attendees and their communities. Sometimes a company emerges, sometimes one doesn’t, but every time people leave with more experience, insight, knowledge, friends, and resources than they came with.
2. Implement theoretical knowledge: Startup Weekends are all about learning through the act of creating.  Don’t just listen to theory, build your own strategy and test it as you go. It gives people a chance to experience what a high-octane startup experience is like without risking their day jobs.
3. Easy to find co-founders or Partners: We all know it’s not just about the idea – it’s about the team. Startup Weekend is hands down the best way to find someone you can actually launch a startup with. It’s easier to find a co-founder for a business when there are so many entrepreneurs, designers, and developers working over the weekend to launch an idea. There’s a tremendous amount of camaraderie that develops, even between competing teams.
4. Building ever lasting relationships: This isn’t just a happy-hour. Startup Weekend attracts your community’s best makers and do-ers. By spending a weekend working to build scalable companies that solve real-world problems, you will build long-lasting relationships and possibly walk away with a job or even an investor.
5. Risk free environment to work in: Startup Weekend gives people with ideas a risk free opportunity to test out these ideas and potentially build a prototype in just one weekend, while also being able to present the idea and the minimum viable product (MVP) to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
6. Experience the mini-version of the startup life: build a real product out of an idea & sell it to real customers, meet potential team members (may be launch a real startup with them!), work with some awesome mentors, learn a hell lot of stuff, join over 30,000 Startup Weekend alumni, all on a mission to change the world and most importantly – have a good time.
7. Actual business launches: Over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months.  Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend.
8. Meet the who’s who of the industry: Local tech and startup leaders participate in Startup Weekends as mentors and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in your community.
9. Monetary savings: Startup Weekends cost between $75 and $99 (less for students).  Your ticket covers seven meals, snack, access to exclusive resources from our global sponsors, a book from O’Reilly Media and all the coffee you can drink.
10. Amazing prizes: One team will be invited to send two people to Agra with Geeks on a Plane to be a part of “Geeks at the Taj”. You will be given an opportunity to pitch your idea and spend time traveling with the Geeks to and from one of the wonders of the world. Another absolutely amazing prize will be automatic acceptance into The Morpheus’ next batch starting 2nd of January 2012 and continuing till 3rd of May 2012. TM is a seed accelerator, which focuses on working with super early stage startups; provide 5 L of funding & 4 months of intensive support as a limited co-founder.

So what are you all waiting for? Come and experience the startup life for yourself. As a popular saying goes “all it needs, is one good idea” and you never know what you might end up achieving. Being Startup Weekend Delhi and Startup Weekend Gurgaon media partners we’ll try keeping you abreast with any new updates as well as provide you with full coverage of the events.

For more information about SW Delhi, you can check their Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter.

Student of Information and Technology at IIIT-Allahabad. A programmer by chance and a blogger by heart. Staunch Roger Federer fan and loves reading novels. Wishes to make it BIG in life which acording to him is too short to do everything that he wants to. Read his personal musings on jack & spades Follow his tweets on @nishant0garg

Aakash Tablet: Product Review, Specs, Pics, Price and Insights From theMaker Himself |

There has been much fanfare and buzz surrounding the launch of Aakash Tablet. Luckily we at Hungry N Foolish managed to get our hands on the device. Here is our review:

Hardware:

First glance: Impressive. The device we have is black in colour on all sides. Actually, black is the only colour the device is going to be maufactured in. There are absolutely no buttons anywhere on the front side except for a thin elongated one at the left end. This single button is used for multiple purposes such as sleep mode deactivation and navigating back to desktop. If you hold it up for a few seconds it’ll display options of switching to: previous folder, recent places you visited or the desktop.

The overall look is aesthetically clean and pleasing to the eye. The back side which as of now is covered with stickers of Aakash and Datawind maufacturers, has a speaker output and a tiny reset button hole. The screen is protected by a dual layer of plastic, possibly for reducing the gloss.

There are two Standard USB ports, a feature that we are yet to experience in an iPad. A microSD card slot is available on the top edge. A microphone and a 3.5mm stereo Earphone jack are provided on the two sides of the lower edge of the device and the power button and charger slot occupy the left side. Overall, build-wise the device feels solid and durable. As the trainers from IIT Rajasthan elaborated, it can withstand slight mishandlings and quite a few falls!

256 MB of RAM is provided, which might sound pretty less initially but since the Tablet is aimed for educational purposes only, it might just have enough on it to cope up with the functionalities. The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a 512 MB RAM. A 2 GB internal flash storage and up to 32GB external storage is supported. Aakash runs on a Conexant 366 Mhz Processor with a Graphics accelerator and an HD Video processor.

Screen:

The major point of debate surrounding the launch and probably even in the coming months would be its screen – which is TFT resistive unlike other higher end tablets which have a capacitive touch screen. So, the feather like movements in a capacitive screen that the smartphone and tablet users have got accustomed to, won’t be possible with Aakash.

Its 7 x 3.5 inch wide display while offering a resolution of 800×480, looks somewhat dull as compared to tablets currently available in the market which have a more glossy look and feel.

We talked to Mr Tuli about it, and he explained how it was one of his prime areas of concern while developing the Tablet:

The price for a resistive screen when imported in the quantity that the government required came about $4 each. Whereas, the same would have gone upto $22 if capacitive ones were used instead.

However, he assured that the Datawind team is working on creating economical capacitive touch screens which when manufactured in large quantities would almost cost the same as the resistive ones.

Software:

The Operating System is Android 2.2 Froyo OS. Not much to be said here. We all know what Android is and it’s usage. What would be interesting to see would be how upgradation to a newer version of the OS would be implemented by the makers with time.

The Basic functionalities and Apps:

WiFi connectivity is supported by the tablet. The Bluetooth application has been listed but is currently not working on the device. Perhaps we will see it functioning in the public release. There is no accelerometer, a camera app is provided but again it is useless since the tablet doesn’t come with an in-built camera.

Mr Tuli mentioned that Aakash tablet might include a possible SIM card inclusion in the future:

Further development process includes the possible inclusion of sim card for 3G services and enhancing its capability to work as a mobile telephonic device too. The GPRS connectivity is yet to be achieved as well and is high on the priority list.

The built in apps, which are shipped with the device, are quite basic. There is an Advanced Task Manager with Applications, Services and Systems tabs and options of killing or ending them. For an avid reader like me, an app like Aldiko Premium is a must. It has a cool interface with customizable wooden touch shelves, depicting your recently read books. This app will also come in handy for the students, as it will enable them to read quite comfortably on the tab.

The Android Office should be the primary app as far as educational services of the tablet are concerned. Its loaded with spread-sheets, text, presentations and Database features and a file explorer for browsing saved files. There is also an APG encryption app. Some basic apps like a web browser, calculator, calendar, clock, converter, quick search, contacts are there. There is a Facebook and an E-mail app for internet users. There are two apps for picture viewing namely gallery and Quickpic, the latter being Mr Tuli’s personal choice.

The FDroid app shows the installed Android apps, the list of available apps that can be downloaded and updates of newer versions for current apps. Three gaming apps namely Mini Golf, ZumZum and Open Sudoko complete the Tablet. The Speech Recorder has been included for use once the 3G sim services have been included for voice calling.

The OS supports multiple desktops. Videos can be played directly from the pen drive plugged into the USB slot. There is a touch and hold feature which shifts the app onto the desktop, or wherever intentioned. There are developmental tools and a packet Manager provided by Datawind itself. The internet browsing experience is quite satisfying indeed. The browser is quick and responsive and the onscreen keyboard seems pretty well integrated and easy to use.

Performance and Battery Life:

Since the device has limited RAM available, running multiple apps simultaneously will not prove to be a good idea. The device has not yet hung up while running 6 simultaneous apps that I had a test run with. But I would suggest that users keep minimal apps running, to improve the functioning of the device.

As far as battery life is considered, the battery backup is 180 minutes or 3 hours as listed on the pack. How much of it will it be able to retain with constant use is yet to be seen though.

Our Take

We would come up with more analysis of the Aakash tablet as soon as we are able to test it more. Meanwhile, we’d like to say just one thing: A lot of pre-launch and post-launch talk has been about how the tablet is Chinese-made and how it is a no-use piece. Our take:

We feel that coming up with such an initiative is in itself something big. You shouldn’t expect an iPad killer from a $50 tablet. The tablet has the potential to provide a low-cost platform for accessing the internet, which if used in the right manner will go a long way in creating awareness amongst the youth of the country. It is poised to provide a useful source of information to students of India, where sometimes basic infrastructure like libraries are lacking.

It is being said that the the tablet is being built in Datawind’s unit in Secunderabad, India. The price of Rs 2200 for a tablet is still extemely less, and I hope that the tablet will be bought by many across the country. The government and the team behind Aakash should be lauded for such an initiative. After using it, all I can say is that the device can have a wide reach, and probably see more rural penetration than any other device due to its low cost.

Could it be India’s answer to provide education to students (urban and rural) using the internet at a low price? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.