25 most recent entries:
Nokia to Pull out of Japanese Handset Market (Nov 27 2008 12:20 GMT)
For global economic reasons, Nokia is pulling out of Japan. PC World reports. Nokia said on Thursday that it will stop developing handsets for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile, effectively ending a push that began five years ago when Nokia re-entered the Japanese market with the launch of 3G services here.
Obama wants to hang on to his BlackBerry (Nov 27 2008 07:40 GMT)
US president-elect Barack Obama is trying to work out how he can hang on to his beloved BlackBerry once he moves into to the Oval Office next year. The Sydney Morning Herald reports. In an interview with Barbara Walters, Obama also said he was trying to keep his BlackBerry or find another way to "break through the isolation and the bubble that exists around the president". ... He said he was working with the Secret Service, lawyers and White House staff to find a solution.
Twitter kills Canadian SMS updates. Can the U.S. be far behind? (Nov 27 2008 06:56 GMT)
Twitter is ending outbound SMS updates in Canada. In their own words: Unexpected changes in our billing have forced us into a difficult situation with our Canadian SMS service. We can’t afford to support this service given our current arrangement with our providers (where costs have been doubling for the past several months.) As a result, effective today we are no longer delivering outbound SMS over our Canadian shortcode (21212).
Kaite Couric on Text Message Romance (Nov 27 2008 06:50 GMT)
Watch CBS Videos Online Katie Couric on text messaging romance for CBS News. A new study by AT&T found those fingers are also doing the flirting and the romancing. Sixty-eight percent of the people surveyed said they have sent love notes. The most popular message was "thinking of you." Twenty-eight percent say they send them two or three times a day.
txtForward SMS To Email (Nov 26 2008 15:58 GMT)
txtForward, software for the Blackberry and Windows Mobiles will automatically forward incoming text messages to an email address. A new version of Electric Pocket's txtForward software tool enables users of Windows Mobile smartphones to automatically forward their text messages to any email address they specify. A BlackBerry version of txtForward was released this past Summer. 160characters.org
Indians See Mobile Phones as a Necessity in Economic Crisis (Nov 26 2008 15:50 GMT)
India's mobile services market continues to be buoyant, despite the global economic slowdown that has hit the Indian economy. PC World reports. Indian users see mobile communications as a necessity, and that is the reason why sales of connections to new subscribers are not slowing down despite the economic crisis, said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, on Wednesday.
iPhone Nano (Nov 26 2008 15:44 GMT)
Spotted by Techradar, an iPhone Nano in China.
NY MTA launches cell phone transit delay alert service (Nov 26 2008 15:36 GMT)
An ambitious free e-mail and text-messaging system that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York launched yesterday will allow riders to stay informed about transit delays with "near-real-time" alerts on cell phones and handheld devices, MTA officials said.Newsday reports. The new system has the capacity to send out 1 million text messages every five minutes, giving updates about delays on commuter-rail and subway lines and traffic congestion on the MTA's bridges and in the agency's tunnels. Riders can visit the MTA's Web site at mta.info and sign up for the system, which allows them to tailor alerts to their specific commutes and choose the times during the day when they receive the messages.
Trying to Keep Cell Phones Out of Prison (Nov 26 2008 14:52 GMT)
A thorough article from TIME on inmates and cell phones around the world. Most of what is written has been posted over the years in this blog, but this is a great round-up in one place. Cell-phone access can mean chaos. Brazilian officials say cell phones are used to organize and plan widespread riots that are endemic to their crowded prisons; Canadian prosecutors said a notorious drug kingpin continued business behind bars using his cell phone;
Brits prefer to listen to music on mobile phones (Nov 26 2008 09:08 GMT)
Mobile phones are more popular than CD players when it comes to listening to music, says the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). PC Advisor reports. According to the ERA in the past two years, 44 million mobile phones that feature MP3 capability have been sold, compared to just 8 million CD players in the same period. The ERA also highlighted that between September 2007 and September 2008, 32.1 million MP3 devices were sold in the UK, 75 percent of which were mobile phones.
Scientists use mobile phones to eavesdrop on koala conversations (Nov 26 2008 09:00 GMT)
According to the Mail Online, scientists are using mobile phones to eavesdrop on koalas in an attempt to translate what they are saying to each other. The researchers placed mobiles in the trees of a koala territory to record the marsupials' distinctive bellows. They hope studying the animals' mysterious communications will reveal ways to help keep up population numbers, under threat from destruction of traditional habitats. The mobiles, charged by solar power and car batteries, are programmed to record for two minutes every half hour on St Bees Island off north-east Australia, then transmit the recordings to a computer at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Read more.
Vatican Warns That Mobile Phones Threaten the Soul (Nov 26 2008 08:57 GMT)
The Vatican has warned that mobile phones are bad for your soul. Cellular News reports. The Pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi warned in a weekly address that modern life is not leaving time for people to cultivate their spiritual dimension. Without a spiritual life "you will lose your soul" he said on the weekly Vatican TV program, Octavia Dies. ...
In-Flight Wi-Fi Aboard the Virgin Party Plane (Nov 26 2008 08:41 GMT)
On a flight from San Francisco to San Francisco that seemed loosely based on the Snoop Dogg film Soul Plane, Virgin America demoed its Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi service this past weekend amid a cabin full of Web celebrities and PCWorld reporter Tim Moynihan. The Gogo wireless service, which Virgin America says will be deployed on all 25 planes in its fleet by mid-2009, uses a system developed by Aircell. A receiver on the underbelly of the plane connects to a network of cellular towers across the United States to establish an EV-DO Revision A broadband link. In the cabin, passengers connect to this cellular broadband network on any Wi-Fi-enabled device. Watch the PC World video of the giddy passengers.
Apple made to drop iPhone advert (Nov 26 2008 08:30 GMT)
According to the BBC, an Apple iPhone advert has been banned by the the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone's speed. The advert boasted the new 3G model was "really fast" and showed it loading internet pages in under a second. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints by 17 people who said the TV advert had misled them as to its speed. Apple UK said it was comparing the 3G model with its 2G predecessor and its claims were "relative not absolute". Read full article.
Europe Nears Price Cap on Mobile Text Messaging (Nov 26 2008 08:06 GMT)
European Union telecommunications ministers are set to endorse on Thursday proposed price limits on cross-border text messaging and mobile Web surfing, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The International Herald Tribune. [via The New York Times]
TiVo Mobile (Nov 25 2008 14:35 GMT)
Today, TiVo and mobile application development agency, Mobui, have announced the launch of TiVo Mobile!. This is a free mobile Web site that gives TiVo subscribers the power to schedule recordings directly to their TiVo box using their mobile phone. It also gives TiVo subscribers and non-subscribers alike the ability to browse, search, and discover television shows, regardless of the mobile phone type, carrier, or mobile browser they use. This is the first time that TiVo is offering a mobile DVR programming service subscription free and available for any phone with a mobile browser - including the iPhone and G1. For more information, including a link to TiVo's press release and an image of TiVo Mobile on an iPhone, please visit:
Cell Phone Gun Appears On FOX News (Nov 25 2008 14:30 GMT)
As reported on Fox News, an talian police officer recently seized a cell phone gun, which "can hold four bullets and is powerful enough to kill somebody." [via TecheBlog]
iPhone 2.2 Slows 3G, Drains More Juice (Nov 25 2008 09:27 GMT)
Softpedia reports that users are complaining that iPhone 2.2 slows 3G and drains battery power.
Sonim Unveils the World’s Rugged All-Weather GSM Mobile Phone (Nov 25 2008 09:20 GMT)
Makers of the World’s “toughest” phone introduce an even more rugged – and now completely waterproof -- phone for people who work and play in demanding environments. Sonim Technologies, makers of the award-winning Sonim XP1 today announces the latest addition to their Xtreme Performance Series, the Xtreme Performance 3 or sonim.XP3, the world’s only rugged “all weather” GSM mobile phone. [via IT Backbones]
Cell jammers still illegal, but may come to state prisons (Nov 25 2008 09:15 GMT)
Although rumors persist of their use in restaurants and movie theaters, the use of cell phone jamming equipment remains illegal in the US. Right now, the only permissible use is by federal law enforcement officials, but that may change if state prison officials in South Carolina and a manufacturer of jamming equipment have their way. Both would like to see state law enforcement get permission to use the jammers, which may push the technology a bit closer to the mainstream. [via ars technica]
Apple sued over tech that helps iPhone surf Web (Nov 25 2008 09:10 GMT)
According to stuff, Apple Inc is the target of a lawsuit that claims a technology the iPhone uses to surf the Web infringes on a patent filed by Los Angeles real estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and two co-inventors. The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the US District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Gottfurcht, is based in Los Angeles with an office in Tyler, and has just one employee. The suit alleges that the technology the iPhone uses to navigate and display some websites designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent obtained last month by Gottfurcht and his co-inventors and assigned to EMG. Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that the Cupertino, California-based company does not discuss pending litigation.
Text Messaging Embroidery (Nov 25 2008 08:55 GMT)
The artist took 19 text messages (from separate conversations) about love and romantic relationships and embroidered them, complete with message icons and battery and reception meters. View complete gallery here. [via Switched] Other related projects on Text Messaging Embroidery
iPhone Developer May Be Bribing Reviewers (Nov 24 2008 17:10 GMT)
An iPhone developer appears to have paid people to give its application glowing reviews in an effort to boost sales. Wired Blog reports. ... It's no surprise to see developers taking aim at the App Store, which has been a gold mine for coders thanks to the enormous population of iPhone users downloading applications. In September, independent developer Steve Demeter announced earning $250,000 in just two months with his iPhone game Trism.
President 2.0 (Nov 22 2008 18:27 GMT)
Much has been written this week about President-elect Barack Obama having to give up his Blackberry once he's president. He doesn't have to, but Newsweek explains why he should. Statutes say that any official correspondence from the president becomes property of the office, not the man in it. The rules were drafted at a time when the president's sole communication was on paper, and there wasn't that much of it. But now, with things like e-mail and instant messaging, the most mundane messages from or to Obama would become government property, and much of it would eventually be accessible to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.
Becker gets dumped by girlfriend with text messages (Nov 22 2008 18:16 GMT)
Heartbroken Boris Becker has revealed to the German tabloid press that his 25-year-old girlfriend dumped him with five text messages less than a month ago. The 40-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion told Bild that the blow "trampled on my soul." [via Tennis Talk]
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