October 10, 2007
George W. Bush pushes for telecom immunity
President Bush said Wednesday that he will not sign a new eavesdropping bill if it does not grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that helped conduct electronic surveillance without court orders.
A proposed bill unveiled by Democrats on Tuesday does not include such a provision.
... Bush wants legislation that extends and strengthens a temporary bill passed in August. Democrats want a bill that rolls back some of the new powers it granted the government to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.
[via Cellular News]
Mouse trap sends SMS
Spotted on Engadget:mobile, the Rodent Activated Detection And Riddance unit, a mouse trap that sends an SMS when it catches it's prey.
October 8, 2007
How Safaricom gives voice to Africa
An interesting article from the FT, on flashing in Kenya, something related to cell phones and that has nothing to do with indecent exposure.
"To flash is to call a mobile and hang up before the call is answered, a cost-free way of letting the owner know you want to be called back. People do it because they are low on pre-paid credit, or because they think the other person has a better reason to pay for the conversation.
t is a habit borne of poverty in an African country where gross national income per capita is $530 a year and 46 per cent of its 36m people live on less than a dollar a day.
But flashing, which congests the network, bothers Mr Joseph so much that, for no charge, customers can now send a standardised text message that reads: “Please call me. Thank you.”
“It gets people off our network to allow other people to make calls that will mean revenue for us,” says the chief executive."
Related article: - Africa is in the grip of a mobile phone revolution
Samsung to Unveil Dual SIM Phone in Europe
Samsung Electronics announced on Sunday that it will introduce the D880 DuoS mobile phone, which includes two SIM card slots. Digital Chosunilbo reports.
"With the DuoS slider, users can install two different numbers in one phone.
... Some 60 percent of Russian mobile users have more than two phones, partly because users want to separate their private life from their work life and also because different providers offer different options."
Google Phone subsidized by Ads?
For more than two years, a large group of engineers at Google has been working in secret on a mobile phone project. As word about their efforts has trickled out, expectations in the tech world for what has been called the Google phone, or GPhone, have risen, the way they do for Apple loyalists ahead of a speech by Steven P. Jobs. The New York Times reports.
"... Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens.
Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts later this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year."
Read full article.
New iPhone TV ads
New iPhone TV commercials which started yesterday can be viewed here. Elegant, but so serious.
[via TUAW]
Legality of unlocking an iPhone
“When people unlock phones, Apple loses revenue it was hoping for, but also gains customers who would have never bought an iPhone in the first place. That’s life.” Great article on legality of unlocking your iPhones on
Slate.
Unlocking works, is doable, and improves the iPhone. But while unlocking can be fun, it's still a vaguely scary process, a little like installing your own car brakes.... The famous Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, makes it illegal to break digital locks to get at copyrighted works ... It's true that the library's rule doesn't say anything about people who help you unlock your phone or "traffic" in software to do so. But its logic tracks recent case law suggesting that unlocking for compatibility, as opposed to copyright infringement, is no crime.
October 7, 2007
Smart sheets let gadgets talk without plugging them in
Takao Someya, Tsuyoshi Sekitani and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Japan, have developed a flexible, plastic electronic sheet that can be embedded in tables, walls and floors. Plastic transistors and copper wires that snake through the sheets allow gadgets placed on them to form spontaneous connections and swap data.
The sheets could free users from having to plug gadgets into each other.
How would it work?
You arrive home from work, drop your mobile phone, MP3 player and camera on the kitchen table and pour yourself a well-earned drink. Immediately, the music on your MP3 player begins blaring from your hi-fi, photos start downloading to your PC and texts and emails start flashing up on your TV screen.
What's going on? The phone, MP3 player and camera are sending information to the table, which passes it to the walls, which in turn route it to the hi-fi, television and PC.
[via New Scientist]
Abused women in fear of threatening SMS
According to stuff.co.nz, text message bullying is not just confined to kids, but to abused women, for whom it's a growing problem.
"Breaches of protection orders by text messaging and the internet are a growing problem for people trying to escape abusive relationships, social groups say.
Rachel Harrison, communications manager of internet safety watchdog NetSafe in New Zealand, said breaches of protection orders were one of the most "persistent" cases they referred to police.
... Christchurch Women's Refuge manager Annette Gillespie said the use of internet and cellphones to abuse women was a growing problem and making it more difficult for women to escape and avoid harassment from abusers.
"Technological advances have had a sinister downside for many women who have been, or are in, abusive relationships," Gillespie said.
"It is an extremely invasive way of getting to women they may not be able to physically access. It is a form of psychological abuse that can be used to create a great degree of fear and terror.
... Reports of this type of abuse were also increasingly common in other countries, Gillespie said. "
Indian Court Jails Three Men for Driving While Using a Mobile Phone
A court in Mumbai, India has jailed three men for driving while using a mobile phone, reports Cellular News.
"This is believed to be the first time that an Indian court has imposed a jail sentence on people for breaking local regulations about using a mobile phone without a hands-free kit while driving."
US says no to in-flight mobile use
Aviation authorities in the United States have ruled out the use of mobile phones on planes for the "foreseeable future", reports The Telegraph.
Les Dorr, of the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), told Telegraph Travel this week that proposals to lift the ban on in-flight mobiles had caused such an outcry they had been dropped.
... Within Europe, airlines planning to allow mobile use include Ryanair, Tap Air Portugal and Air France. Farther afield, Emirates, AirAsia and Kingfisher airlines intend to do likewise."
October 5, 2007
Passengers evacuate plane after finding ownerless cellphone
An Alaska Airlines flight from San Jose was evacuated upon landing after a passenger found an unclaimed cell phone tucked in his seat.
[via Engadget:mobile]
Italian Luggage Company Offers Fashion Phone
Alcatel has partnered with Italian handbags and accessories label, Mandarina Duck (famous for their luggage), to produce a new mobile phone model, which will come in three colours.
At Carphone Warehouse exclusively as of November.
[via TechDigest.tv]
Mayor’s Office Hopes “Every New Yorker” Will Recycle Phones With Nokia
Nokia is launching a recycling campaign with a goal to collect 100,000 unwanted mobile devices between now and America Recycles Day 2007, November 15th. The Environmental Leader reports.
"The program is launching today at Nokia’s flagship store in Manhattan, where Nokia and WWF will highlight contributions that businesses can make to address environmental issues and promote environmental awareness.
Nokia says consumers can recycle phones by dropping phones off in stores, getting a postage-paid green mailer at the Nokia flagship store, calling a new nation-wide toll free number, or downloading postage-paid return labels online.
Mayor Bloomberg’s office is supporting the program and has challenged New Yorkers to take part in recycling their unwanted mobile phones."
Mobile Phone Jewelry Stickers
Spotted on Japan Network, jewelry stickers with simulated precious stones to decorate your mobile phone.
The “mobile jewels” are rather large simulated jewelry pieces that hang loose, or dangle, and they come in a variety of shapes including ribbon hearts and flowers."
Apple cancelling iPhone launch?
According to tech.co.uk, "Apple could be forced to delay France launch because of a French law that requires mobile phones to be sold both with and without a contract.
... By forcing Apple to sell the iPhone contract-free, the French law would substantially cut Apple's profits, which could force it to postpone or even cancel the launch."
DoCoMo flirts with e-paper for phones
DoCoMo showed off prototypes of a phone with an e-paper keypad that changes icons depending on which application is being used, at the CEATEC exhibition in Chiba, Japan, this week. Infoworld.
"The prototype phone, which has been in development for about one year, has a keypad that switches the display on each key from numbers to Japanese phonetic characters, called hiragana and katakana, depending on what application is being used.
For example, when a user opens the e-mail client, the keypad switches from numbers to the phonetic characters, making them easier for users to see", said Shuichi Aoki, an assistant manager in DoCoMo's Product Department who helped developed the phone.
The technology will make using cell phones easier for users, particularly older people who may not be accustomed to using the devices, he said. "
Picture and related article in Tech-On
Bacteria Powered Cellphone Charger
A bacteria-powered cellphone charger could keep people in developing countries talking, even when they live far from the grid.
Cellphones are increasingly vital to everyday life, and the economy of many developing countries. But in some areas electricity to charge them can be hard to come by.
To tackle the problem, a team of students from MIT has designed a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that runs on plant waste.
Their prototype won the $5,000 first prize in a contest called MADMEC
[New Scientist via Gizmodo]
Car park meters can call for help
A town is introducing "intelligent" car-park ticket machines which can automatically text for help if anyone attempts to break into or damage them. [via The Guardian]
The 150 pay-and-display ticket machines equipped with Sim cards will also automatically request a service if they malfunction and, if full, will call for their money boxes to be emptied.
The £3,000 solar-powered wireless machines will come into operation in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on Monday.
Their cries for help will be sent via text and picked up at a 24-hour control centre in Bristol and a new parking information centre in Eastbourne. Staff could then alert police."
Cellphones linked to brain tumours (again)
Using a cellphone for more than a decade can double the risk of some types of brain tumours, Swedish researchers said Tuesday. The Vancouver Sun reports.
"Dr. Lennart Hardell and scientists at the University Hospital in Orebro, Sweden said their analysis of previous studies shows "a consistent pattern of increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma."
Acoustic neuromas are benign growths on the nerve linking the ear to the brain, while gliomas are malignant, difficult-to-treat tumours of the brain and nervous system. The researchers also found that the greatest risk of developing a tumour is on the side of the head where the phone was held.
Hardell and his team identified 18 studies of brain tumour risk among long-term cellphone users, 11 of which provided data for 10 years or longer."
China makes half of all mobile phones
More than half of all mobile phones sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2007 were made in China, according to new research by Taiwan-based Market Intelligence Center reports vnunet.
"China's mobile phone industry is driven by the country's vast electronics manufacturing sector and huge home market for mobile phones, the analysts claim.
Shipments rose 23.1 per cent year on year in the second quarter to exceed 132 million units, and are predicted to exceed 147 million units in the third quarter and approach 166 million units in the fourth quarter.
GSM phones dominate the local industry's output as China's government has still not licensed any 3G networks."
Marketers hail the mobile phone as advertising's promised land
Advertising on mobile phones is a tiny business. Last year spending on mobile ads was $871m worldwide according to
Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm, compared with $24 billion spent on internet advertising and $450 billion spent on all advertising. [via The Economist ]
"But marketing wizards are beginning to talk about it with the sort of hyperbole they normally reserve for products they are paid to sell. It is destined, some say, to supplant not only internet advertising, the latest fad, but also television, radio, print and billboards, the four traditional pillars of the business.
At the moment, most mobile advertising takes the form of text messages. But telecoms firms are also beginning to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads, through mobiles that are nifty enough to permit such things.
Informa forecasts that annual expenditure will reach $11.4 billion by 2011. Other analysts predict the market will be as big as $20 billion by then."
October 4, 2007
Dillbert: Newspapers will die out within two upgrades of a cell phone
"Dilbert" creator Scott Adams predicts that newspapers will die out within two upgrades of a cell phone. News Tracker reports.
"The iPhone, and its inevitable copycats, (let's call them iClones) are newspaper killers," he writes in the Dilbert Blog. "When you have a web browser in your pocket, a printed newspaper is redundant."
He admits that 10 years ago, he predicted newspapers would die out in five years. So maybe newspapers will last for at least four upgrades of a cell phone.
What would save newspapers? He imagines "your cell phone equipped with a built-in scroll of 'digital paper' that pulls out to the side, like a sideways Venetian blind, for reading web pages and documents."
In a nutshell, the top five reasons newspapers will survive according to the Dilbert commenters are:
1. Coupons
2. Toilets
3. Boomers
4. Subways
5. Pet waste
The Cigarette Box Cell Phone Jammer
Spotted on The Red Ferret, the Cigarette Box Cell Phone Jammer- discreet, sneaky and ever so James Bond.
Open this cigarette box and push the black button seen in the picture and the jammer jams all cell phones signal within range of 60 feet (no one can make or receive any phone calls within range of 60 ft. from the jammer).
Japan’s phone wars raise deflation fears
According to the FT, a price war aimed at Japan’s 100m mobile phone users could have a significant impact on the core consumer price index, potentially prolonging the country’s brush with deflation, economists warned on Wednesday.
"Any impact will depend on how new optional fee structures, the first of which are likely to be announced on Thursday, are treated by government statisticians."
Smoke Signals
Smoke Signals, is a project mixing primitive (smoke signals) and contemporary communication technologies (text messaging). Its' first performance was in June of 2006, and a second event was performed in Bristol, September 15.
Minimaforms creates two ephemeral speaking cloud structures as part of OFFLOAD festival in Bristol, UK.
The clouds are instruments of communication that enable conversation through their ability to hybridize the ancient visual communication practice of smoke signaling with contemporary cell phone (sms) messaging.
Participants engage in a collective act of writing space through the use of light as a virtual writing machine onto ephemeral plumes of smoke.
The first smoke signal floated across the heart of Bristol's cultural quarter and waterside located outside of the watershed media center. The second took place in a disused cathedral called at the peak of Bristol in Park Place.
"The event closed with avant garde architects - Minimaforms' breathtaking Smoke Signals - a huge projection of real-time audience generated text messages onto plumes of smoke, whilst a simultaneous smoke signals floats over Bristol Waterfront. In addition to this you will experience this with a rare performance of Steve Reich's Pendulum Music."
Nokia and Renault team up in Navigation Drive
Nokia said it will co-brand a set of Renault Twingo cars which will go on sale later this month, packed with Nokia's navigation system and handsfree equipment.
"Navigation is a new and fast growing industry and we are also looking for new ways to operate there. Co-operation of Nokia and a car industry is a natural step," Nokia's spokeswoman Eija-Riitta Huovinen said on Wednesday.
[via I4U]
October 3, 2007
Lips phone and cellphone chair rest
A lips phone spotted on Gadget Brando. File under silly. [via Gizmodo who found a chair cell phone rest on the same Brando gadget site and which is equally as silly]
Fitness Phone fights fat and bad breath
Reuters reports that NTT DoCoMo has come out with a "Fitness Phone" that "can measure your pulse or the amount of steps you've taken in a day, dispenses heath advice after you've punched in statistics such as gender, age and weight.
And you can also exhale into the phone and it will tell you whether its time to reach for the breath mints."
Their target audience? According to Kentaro Endo, spokesman for NTT DoCoMo. "Our primary target groups would be fat-fighting middle-aged businessmen and young women on diets."
Other mobile breath analyzers:
-- LG’s Cellphone Prevents Drunk Dialing
-- DoCoMo Cell Phone Can Test Whether Drivers Have Been Drinking
-- Siemens working on breathalyzer cellphone (2004)
-- German Mobile Phone to Detect Bad Breath
Other diet phone schemes:
-- Personal Dietician by cell phone
-- Mobile technology Joins The Battle Against The Bulge
-- Use your mobile to lose weight with "Beauty Walker"
-- 3 launch Atkins calorie counter for mobile phones
-- Atkins to count carbs on cell phones
appleiphonelawsuit.com solicits class action case
The Law Office of M. Van Smith and Damian R. Fernandez in California has opened a website to solicit clients who are interested in suing Apple over its iPhone, according to Information Week via The Inquirer.
From their website www.appleiphonelawsuit.com
If you are a California resident and are interested in joining to file an iPhone class action lawsuit against Apple Inc., you should contact the Law Office of Damian R. Fernandez immediately if any one of the following categories applies to you:
1. You own an iPhone and you want to transfer to a wireless carrier other than AT&T.; You fall into this category even if you did not unlock your iPhone or have your iPhone disabled by an iPhone update.
2. Your iPhone was disabled, malfunctioned, or you had third-party applications erased after you downloaded iPhone update 1.1.1.
3. You contacted Apple to repair your iPhone and Apple refused to honor your warranty because you did any one the following: (1) unlocked your iPhone, or (2) installed a third party application.
4. You incurred a cancellation fee from your previous wireless carrier when you transferred to AT&T;’s wireless service.
5. You incurred roaming charges while travelling abroad with your iPhone.
6. You purchased a third-party warranty at extra cost for your iPhone because of Apple’s released statement that it will not honor warranties on unlocked iPhones.
You do not have to be in all of these categories, just one or more than one.
The Post A Phone Concept
Spotted on Core77, via dezeen, the Post A Phone. A 4mm thick landline telephone, made from recycled cardboard or plastic, incorporated within an A5 envelope.
Invented by Priestman Goode, one of the UK’s leading design consultants The Post A Phone is meant "to supply a simple and cheap landline phone, made from recyclable materials that can be sent in the post."
'In a time when mobile phones are seen as throwaway fashion items, this design provides a low tech alternative with simple, no fuss delivery. Fancy details and function are not what this phone is about but there is a desirability in its simplicity and I hope that this is a phone you would want to keep for some time."
Many South Koreans Own More Than 4 Mobile Phones
Around 47,000 South Koreans own more than four mobile phones each, according to a new government report.
"0.1 percent of the country's population have a total of 647,000 mobile phones by three separate mobile carriers - an average of 14 handsets per person.
Most multiple ownerships are legitimate business use, but the report claims that a sizeable percentage are used by criminals who provided fake ID's when buying the handsets.
According to an earlier report from the Office of the Prime Minister, 60,743 cases of fake registrations were reported to the police in the year to August.
... Meanwhile, the report also showed that foreigners are barred from owning more than two phones while Korean nationals are free from such a limitation. However, SK Telecom will permit selected "superior" customers such as US military officers, diplomats or corporate employees to have two phones where necessary.
[via Cellular News]
October 2, 2007
Other Headlines From Textually Blogs
Latest headlines from around the Web:
WatchingTVOnline.net
-- TV Guide wants to help you find TV shows online
-- Blognation reviews Joost, TIOTI and TestCardTV
-- Ultra-thin TV to hit the market
Ringtonia.com
Picturephoning.com
Spyker Mobile Phones
Spotted on Mobile Magazine, three new mobile phones from Dutch automobile maker Spyker.
"Spyker, as you may already know, is an automobile manufacturer based out the Netherlands and they build their cars by hand."
State-of-the-Art High Definition Billboard in Times Square
ClearChannel Outdoor 's Spectacolor Division unveiled a digital billboard in Times Square this week. [Press release]
The new Spectacolor HD billboard is the first to run multiple advertiser spots in conjunction with streaming news, weather and live HD broadcasts, which are
provided exclusively by CNN.
In addition to streaming news, the billboard will also provide viewers with a dedicated audio channel received via mobile phones by dialing a toll free number.
Advertisers will have access to a standard feature set that includes Bluetooth downloads, interactive content via short code (SPECHD) and Times Square's first free public WiFi Hot Spot."
Interactive content displayed on Spectacolor HD will allow people to communicate directly with a brand and each other through a web-based interface that turns people's mobile phones into remote controls." [via MediaBuyerPlanner]
Bible you can read in the dark
Following South Africa's lead last year, a company in Wales is announcing the launch of a service that allows people to download the entire Bible direct to their mobile phones. The Telegraph reports
"Marketed as "faith on the move", it also allows the subscribers to express their devotion via an array of Christian ringtones.
The service, Ecumen , offers daily prayers sent straight to your handset and, should you so desire, the entire "Bible you can read in the dark" can be downloaded for just £6. "
Related:
-- Entire Bible now available on S.African mobile phones (September 2006)
NTT DoCoMo aims to make phone swiping obsolete
NTTDoCoMo, unveiled a concept phone that lets users make electronic payments while it stays in their pocket. Reuters reports.
"Using mobile phones to pay for goods electronically is common in Japan, the world's biggest market of third-generation (3G) mobile users, where phones are swiped at ticket gates or vending machines to pay for train fares or drinks.
DoComo's prototype cellphone, unveiled on Tuesday, would allow you to do all that without taking it out of your pocket.
The phone, which uses a sensor made by start-up Kaiser Technology Co., sends electric signals through the human body to transmit data, enabling electronic payments or data transfer at the touch of a finger.
Doors to secure areas would open as your phone transmits your ID code through your feet, or you can get in a car and have the car instantly adjust the seat and steering wheel to the perfect angle, said DoCoMo spokesman Takushi Koinumaru.
But it will take several years before the new touch-sensitive handsets are ready, reliable and safe for Japan's nearly 9 trillion yen ($77.81 billion) mobile market, if ever.
"We don't know yet if we can commercialize this technology," Koinumaru said. "We need to conduct more research. Then we need to see if there actually is a market for this."
Phonecalls and texts to be logged
Information about all landline and mobile phone calls made in the UK must be logged and stored for a year under new laws. The BBC reports.
"Data about calls made and received will also be available to 652 public bodies, including the police and councils.
The Home Office said the content of calls and texts would not be read and insisted the move was vital to tackle serious crime and terrorism.
But critics said it was another example of Britain's "surveillance society".
More than 1,600 mobile phones seized from prisoners
According to The Belfast Telegraph, more than 1,600 mobile phones have reportedly been seized from prisoners across Ireland over the past year.
"Reports this morning say more than 550 have been taken from inmates at Mountjoy Prison alone."
Inmates smulgging in cell phone stories are common, but this part of the article is more unusual: The crackdown was mounted following the controversy sparked when one inmate rang the Irish radio Joe Duffy show from his cell in Portlaoise earlier this year."
Yahoo in 15-Nation Deal for Search on Cellphones
Under the deal, Yahoo will feature its search engine on mobile portals run by Telefónica of Spain in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. The New York Times reports.
"Under the agreement, Yahoo will operate searches and sell advertising linked to them for Telefónica mobile services in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America.
... Google, meanwhile, has a search agreement with Vodafone, among others."
October 1, 2007
Nokia unlocks anti-Apple campaign
This Nokia poster above was photographed in New York city over the weekend. Larger image on Engadget.
Nokia has goaded Apple before. Recently when the company lowered the price of the iPhone, Nokia took out an ad baiting the early adopters who paid full price: "Sorry, early adopters".
[via Engadget]
Serenata: Bang & Olufsen New Music Phone
Spotted on Tech.co.uk, a Bang & Olufsen's music phone, called Serenata.
"The phone can store up to 1,000 MP3 tracks in its 4GB, plus 25MB of memory, and can handle AAC and WMA audio tracks too. The phone's high resolution also enables it to display album artwork, B&O; says.
As with any Bang & Olufsen product, style is the watchword here. Inhouse designer David Lewis said his inspiration came from the smooth pebbles he used to see on seaside walks as a child. The result is a smooth, horseshoe-shaped phone with a clickwheel at the top. This is paired with a 'sensi-touch' 2.4-inch colour screen below."
SMS Alert Used In NY College Following Gunman Arrest
Students at John's University in New York were warned about a man walking onto the campus with a loaded rifle 16 minutes after he had done so.
"Without the university’s effective planning and its community’s cooperation, this situation could have concluded quite differently,” said New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.
The first alert was sent after the gunman was apprehended, so it’s unlikely the outcome would have been very different. However, it does demonstrate the usefulness of SMS as a mass communication tool, and the main benefit would have been to keep people informed and prevent rumors running riot in the campus.
The number of students enrolled in the alert program more than tripled from 2100 to 6,500, out of 20,000 students, following the incident."
[via MocoNews]
