How to use Samsung Pay in India using Galaxy devices

I had the opportunity to receive an update on my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 for the Samsung Pay app. Back then when Apple launched apple pay they marketed it as the next wave of payments and (as usual) just with yet another Apple ceritified payment terminal payment could be as easy as waving your iPhone across the counter when you were with a merchant.

However Samsung had to do something to counter this onslaught of Apple and they looked at this whole payment thing in a different light. What if they could replace card swipes across existing payment terminals with an app (and needless to say some hardware technology) ? They could then pull the carpet under Apple’s feet. And that is precisely what they finally did. Launched Samsung Pay. An innovation that did not need any change in existing hardware at any merchant. The only thing was that Samsung had to align with the banks for virtualizing their cards on the phone or equivalent devices such as the smartwatch and it was pretty much done.

This whole thing became so seamless that you could use it from day one. Its unfortunate that while the feature was already available since 2015 end in other countries it has made it to India only by 2017 which is really late and I hope Samsung learns from this. But then demonetization, alignments with banks, etc have impacted the launch a bit and they had to clearly plan it out. Alignment with banks in India is still a cumbersome process but something Samsung has finally completed. Not all banks participate with Samsung but many are about to sign up and you already have the major ones such as SBI, HDFC, Axis and ICICI on board. Standard Chartered and Citi are on the way too. Given these biggies control most of the banking market in India, pretty much many of these cards would then be covered under Samsung Pay.

So what really does it take to use the application? You need a supported version of a Samsung smartphone such as Samsung Galaxy S7, Note, etc or a smartwatch such as the S2 or S3 series. You need to install the application, add your credit or debit cards that are supported by the application. Adding a card involves authenticating the application to use your bank details by verifying an SMS sent to your registered mobile number. Its really that easy. And you are done. As for the smartwatch you can install Samsung pay application which is specifically tuned for the watch and add the same cards there as well.

Walk over to any merchant near your house, make a purchase and when you are about to pay, fire up the card by swiping up from home screen, choose your card, and you have options to pay using PIN or fingerprint. Once you input either of those an MST (magnetic secure transmisison) happens and your card data is provided to the card reader. Then on you still need to enter the 4 digit PIN for your card and your transaction is completed.

The same thing works from both the Samsung S3 frontier smartwatch as well as the smartphone and will be a big boon in how easily a payment can be made. Imagine taking out the right credit card from a bunch of cards in your wallet? Those days are over. And if you have a watch, even the days of using your smartphone to make that credit card payment will be over soon Smile

Take a look at the video and if you like it, and you appreciate Samsung’s innovations for its users, please do like, and share the post.

The floating stones at Dhanushkodi

All of us know the fact that in the Ramayana, Rama along with his monkey friends were able to set foot in lanka on a bridge built by the monkey kings. This journey was done from dhanushkodi from where Sri Lanka is just twenty kilometres away. Have you ever wondered how a bridge built using stones can remain afloat without being submerged in the water? This bridge is also called the Rama Setu bridge which is clearly visible on the Google Maps as seen below.

Well the answer lies in a small temple there in the form of porous floating stones which formed the basis of such a bridge construction and is there for us to see, touch and feel for ourselves. Whether you want to believe this or not is another question altogether but it doesn’t harm to check it out and understand isn’t it?

There are also various online forums where this topic is debated. You can find one such forum here.

Quora has some questions and answers on this phenomenon of floating stones. You can check out the information here.

Meanwhile I will leave you with a video of the floating stone at the temple which you can see if you go there. If you were at dhanushkodi and saw these stones then share your opinion on this blog on what you feel about them!

The New Innova Crysta is coming

Toyota is about to launch their new Innova Crysta in a short while in the Indian Market. If you see the used car prices for Innova, a car that has done anything between 70000 and 100000 kms still sells anywhere between 7-10 lakhs. This shows how the company has managed to keep the quality of the car top notch for many years now.
The new Innova also will sport a better engine and an automatic variant which maybe the most needed for city driving. The video shows the host of new features that the car will offer which makes it a compelling buy this year. Further, the new design and some smart additions in the car will make it ever more popular. The only strong contender to this until now was the Renault Lodgy, which has failed to create any dent in the market and now sells only to cab drivers across the country mostly due to its ill formed design that makes it lose sheen in front of potential owners.
One only hopes that the Innova is available with good bank loans for longer tenures to make it more enticing to customers. Legendary toyota service only means that the whole onwership experience gets much better all long starting with the new Crysta.
Expect this car to be a scorcher in terms of sales and as usual, it would still dominate the market for sometime to come. The trump card from Honda would be the Honda BR-V which is no less better in terms of design, and being a seven seater at a lesser price tag can pose some serious challenges to Innova in the near short term. But it is no doubt that when it comes to rock solid reliability, the Innova manages to be a top notch vehicle and will continue its winning streak for a long time.
The Duster 7 seater would hardly make any impact due to its delayed launch by which time the Crysta would have an even bigger fan following. Service costs and issues with Renault as compared to Toyota will only make the latter consolidate its position as the number one MUV maker in the Indian Market easily for another 5 years or more.
With every new Auto Expo, things only get better, and we need to wait and see which other manufacturer will checkmate Toyota. But given their presence in India for a long time now, and looking at how established they are, the Innova will continue to be the mainstream people mover both for taxi operators and families alike.
So let me know in the comments if you will be buying the new Innova and if so, what features attract you to do so!

Flipkart’s mobile app bar code scanner review

I got a chance to test out the flipkart mobile app bar code reader today. This feature works in a simple manner, choose bar code reader, and it uses your camera to read bar codes from objects that you are interested in.

As long as the barcode is a universal barcode as per what is used across the country, and further that item is available in flipkart, it uses the scan results to divert users directly to that product page where you can purchase the same product easily from the online store.

So if you are at your friend’s home and you see a product you are interested in, you can do a quick bar code scan check using flipkart mobile app to see if the same product is available at their store.

Check out the video below to know more.