2008 March

Levi’s play at being High Fashion with New Release

Levi’s make nice jeans. That’s about all they do. Sure they have a whole range of clothes, but no one would compare them favourably to the likes of Prada, D&G or Versace. How then can Levi’s justify the €549 price tag on their new handset design? Sure it has a crappy skull in a novelty hat etched on the back, but you could do that yourself with a pair of compasses and a steady hand.

If you simply must own a Levi’s phone, we recommend sticking with one of the original, cheaper ones. Who am I trying to kid? Don’t buy one at all.

levisphone2

Source: Switchedonset

By Kate Crowley | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

Gleaming The Cuban

cuban_phone_case Cuba has the lowest mobile phone usage in Latin America. Individuals could only get mobile phones through their jobs or foreign carriers. Now that Castro has retired, this is set to change. Today his brother Raúl Castro, Cuba’s new President, has ended the restriction. Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA, a joint venture with Telecom Italia, has said that they will begin to sell services within the next few days. I wonder how long it will be until the other big names in mobile communications come rolling in? Source: Reuters

By MattyB | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

Nokia N810: The WiMAX Cometh?

wimaxnokian810

Nokia Europe is showing a Nokia N810 with WiMAX capabilities. Will this be announced at CTIA this year?

By Kate Crowley | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

High Speed To China

olympic phone

As mainstream media gears up to cover the Beijing Olympics, many of the more nomophobic have expressed concerns that China’s famous technological censorship will impact their freedom (and their regular Fark browsing).

Hoping to allay these fears, China Mobile will being public commercial testing of its 3G network tomorrow, 4 months before the Olympics begin. Users in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Qin Huangdao will be given new numbers as part of a trial, in exchange for a 50% discount on their mobile phone bills. Though this is a step in the right direction, there will still be likely only 360,000 terminals by the end of April to cater for an nationwide audience of 7 million.

And if you were wondering, that scary-looking phone at the top of the post is an exclusive China-only ‘Fuwa HuanHuan’ Olympics mascot themed handset.

Source:VDUNet

By MattyB | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

a crushing blow

I’m sure many readers have been through a difficult case of breaking up with a loved one – but for someone people, their phone reception breaking up can be almost as painful!

A YouGov survey coins the term “nomophobia” for this newfound fear of being out of mobile contact. More than 20% of the 2,163 people questioned said they never turned off their mobiles, while the fear of running out of battery/credit, losing their handset and not having network coverage impacts 53% of phone-fans. The pollsters suggest this means more than 13million Britons have developed this peculiarly 21st-century affliction.

No statistics on how many people are worried about their mobile phones not being up-to-date enough, but I’m sure some of my colleagues have that too. Anachromophobia?

Source:Press Association

By MattyB | Monday, March 31st, 2008 | No Comments

The Future Of Phoning Is Scary

evil_phone

Much as we love the mobile landscape, it can’t be denied that there are many nuisances that come with the convenience of being able to communicate with anyone anywhere at any time. And this goes beyond the hassle of having to listen to the high-volume yammerings of whoever you’re sat next to on the bus. Most obviously, there are the safety risks: not just to drivers, but pedestrians too – the current NYC mayor has wanted to ban phone use by pedestrians since so many ignored the traffic while using them! But even for the safest users, a mobile universe has caused a great change in the way we operate.

Jan Schaumann, a style-trainer and behavioural expert, has commented on how society’s morés have changed: “the cell phone generation turns to their beloved text messaging more and more often in conflict resolution.” This means relationships end with the flick of a text message and what were once heartfelt comments are delegated to syntactically poor SMS. Take, for example, the ‘Camera Phone Killer’, Stephen Price, who stabbed his victim 80 times and posed with the body for his mobile. To apologise to him mum, he sent the message: “Listen ma av been thinkin aboot everythin, n wit a put you through n am really really sorry ma!”

The anonymity that a portable communications device offers also lets some people unleash their “inner jerk”. Obscene/prank calls have sky-rocketed since phones have become more readily available by teenagers. Nine people in Berkshire repeated this offensive to the fire brigade so often they have had their phones disconnected!

Phones themselves can cause a great deal of bother. A Halifax man, Christopher Cookland, was accused of common assault and theft after a fight with his girlfriend surrounding their mobile phone, which he scarpered away with.

With mobiles being such stressful things, that’s all the more reason to let Omio make things a lot easier!

Source:The Earth Times

By MattyB | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | No Comments

The Future Of Phoning Is Bright

future

Phones embedded into human bodies!

Numbers dialed through the power of human thought!

Mobile phone that help identify and cure diseases!

This may sound like some sort of futuristic wonderland, but Martin Cooper, inventor of the first personal handset back 1973, thinks that it’s not an impossibility. “It’s not really the technology, it’s the people. People are really conservative,” he complains.

As we humans are a stubborn creatures, it may take a while before we’re willing to start transmitting phone signals from inside our bodies. But what about inside our homes? At the moment, the average punter may not be particularly keen to have a phone mast inside their house but by the end of the year this will be a reality, thanks to femtocells. These wireless-router-sized boxes have been designed to help improve connectivity in buildings, where 70% of all mobile data is used (Fun Fact: its name comes from the root “femto-” meaning “one quadrillionth”). With indoors 3G radio masts, not only will it be easier to use broadband services it should actually be safer, as the masts will have to use less power and, as a result, less radiation.

Stuart Carlaw, research director of ABI Research, claims there will be 70m femtocells in the world by 2012, with maybe 200 million people using them. You tech-savvy readers may be familiar with them, but they’re still a mystery to most of of population, yet one day they may be as common as ‘mp3s’ or ‘bluetooth’.

Source:Guardian

By MattyB | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | No Comments

Excessive Texting a sign of Mental Illness

mentalproblems
U.S. Psychiatrist Dr. Jerald Block reckons that sending excessive text messages and emails may be an indication of mental illness. He says that there are four specific symptoms: suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed; an increased need for better equipment; need for more time to use it; and experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction.

Although text messaging is not directly linked to the Internet, Dr. Block believes that it should be included among the criteria because it’s a form of instant messaging. The ‘condition’ is better documented in countries such as South Korea, where research on internet addiction has revealed deaths from heart attacks and game-related murder.

Source: News-Medical

By Kate Crowley | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | 2 Comments

Why Motorola Sucks

brokenmoto Gizmodo have published an open letter from Geoffrey Frost, Chief Marketing Officer for Motorola. He was the guy who championed the Razr. He blames inept, out-of-touch executives for Motorola’s fall from grace. Here’s a little snippet:

“I’ve always considered it Motorola’s dirty little secret that the strategy for their entire profit machine was run by the company’s CMO—not the rest of the company’s executives, who are as inept now as they have ever been. Many close to Geoffrey believed Ed Zander worked him to death, putting the pressure of the fate of the company in his hands.”

If you’re interested in how the once mighty Motorola foundered, the full thing is a must-read.

Read it at Gizmodo

By Kate Crowley | Thursday, March 27th, 2008 | 3 Comments

Pantech’s Wacky Phones of the Future

wavyconceptphone

Two years from now will you still be using that Nokia 3210 held together by duct tape, or will you be upgrading to one of these ‘beauties’? These are concept design mobile phones born out of a partnership between phone company Pantech (Sky Premium) and Korean university students.

Pantech have a reputation for making unusual concept phones, but these seem to be entering a whole new level of crazy. I think I’ll stick with my Nokia 3210 held together by duct tape.
conceptphone2 conceptphone3 conceptphone4 conceptphone5
Source: DVICE