iPhone comes to China without key feature

BEIJING -- Apple's iPhone is making its long-awaited formal debut in the world's most populous mobile phone market, without a key feature and at higher prices than widely available black market models. iphone crowds
Apple's local service provider, China Unicom Ltd., hopes the iPhone will give it an edge against giant rival China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by subscribers.
Unicom was to start selling iPhones equipped for third-generation service Friday night at 2,000 stores in areas as farflung as Tibet. Chinese news reports say Unicom hopes to sell 5 million in three years, but the company declined to confirm that.
Unicom's first iPhones lack WiFi, a possible handicap with sophisticated, demanding Chinese buyers. The technology, a key part of the iPhone's appeal, allows the phones in other markets to use wireless networks in cafes and offices to download e-mail and the latest applications for free.
"There's going to be a perception that the phone they have is dumbed down from the one that somebody has in California," said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based technology research firm. "We've seen before that Chinese consumers don't like to be treated like second-class citizens." mobile phone
Apple Inc. and Unicom also could face competition from an unusual source: unlocked iPhones brought in from abroad that have WiFi.
There are already an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million such phones in China using China Mobile 3G service that allows Internet access and other features.
Unicom's prices range from 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the high-end, 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS. That is 20 percent above the 5,700 yuan ($835) charged by merchants at Chinese street markets for a 3GS with WiFi.

The iPhone's awkward, delayed entry into China reflects the regulatory and technical hurdles of a fast-changing market where other global technology companies have struggled to establish themselves.
Unicom's iPhones lack WiFi because it was temporarily banned by Beijing, which was promoting a rival Chinese system, according to BDA. The ban was relaxed in May after manufacturing had begun.
A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, said the company hopes to have WiFi in the next batch of phones.
"We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year," Yi said.

The iPhone debuted in the United States in June 2007 but its formal arrival in China was delayed as Apple carried on talks with service providers that Chinese media said snagged on disagreements about how to divide revenues.
China has more than 650 million mobile phone accounts, despite an average annual income of $3,000 per person. Consumers trade in phones as often as several times a year to get the latest models and features.
China Unicom has 143 million mobile accounts, which would be an impressive figure in any other market but lags far behind China's Mobile's 508 million accounts.
Global technology companies that dominate other markets have struggled to get a foothold in China. Search engine Google Inc. has less than 30 percent of the market, versus more than 60 percent for local rival Baidu Inc. Yahoo Inc. turned over its China operation to a local partner after failing to expand its market share.
China's state-owned phone companies were restructured by the communist government into three groups last year in hopes of reviving competition after the explosive popularity of mobile service turned China Mobile into a behemoth.
Unicom, China Mobile and the third company, China Telecom Ltd., all emerged with mobile and fixed-line services.
China Mobile has announced its own smart phone, dubbed the OPhone, and says seven models will be available by next year.
Chinese news reports in August said Unicom's deal with Apple called for buying 5 million handsets for 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion). Chairman Chang Xiaobin denied that but refused to give financial details.
The lack of WiFi means Unicom iPhone customers will have to pay to connect to the phone network for every function. BDA's Clark said that could alienate users if it leads to high monthly bills.

"This could be a real fiasco," he said.

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Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao contributed to this report.Read More.....

Samsung to Push Google-Powered Handsets Here

Android Phone for Christmas?
Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest handset vendor, said it plans to introduce mobile phones powered by the Google-backed Android operating system in South Korea. "We are engaging in talks with local mobile carriers over the possibility over selling Android-based handsets. Basically, our goal is to support any mobile operating system if consumers want it," Shin Jong-kyun, a Samsung executive vice president and head of the company's mobile communications division, told reporters Tuesday. In a news conference held at the company's headquarters in southern Seoul, Samsung was introducing five new handsets that represent the latest lineup of its Omnia premium "smart" phones, which enable Web browsing and multimedia features on top of voice. Shin declined to comment over when the company expects to see its Android-based handsets hit local shelves, but company insiders say the first phones could come out by the end of the year or in January. iphone crowds Electronics makers have been competing for supremacy in smart phones, which feature Web browsing and multimedia features, as they offer higher margins compared to conventional handsets. Apple has been leading the smart phone wars in recent years with its iconic do-it-all iPhone, and the App Store, an online applications service. This has electronic makers and wireless carriers desperately seeking ways to beat Apple at its own game, and they are ready to bet that the Google Android operating system could be the answer. The Android platform, developed by a massive cross-industry alliance led by Internet giant Google, is based on open source Linux software and enables greater flexibility for programmers building applications and features tailored to handsets.mobile phone Handset vendors such as Samsung promise that their Android-powered mobile devices will allow users a seamless transition in Web services from their desktop computers to mobile phones. Currently, more than 32 mobile carriers in 265 countries are providing Android-based phones and the number is expected to grow, giving companies like Samsung a fighting chance against the iPhones and Blackberries of the world. Aside from Samsung, U.S. handset maker Motorola and Taiwan's HTC also consider the Android platform as their key weapons in the smart phone wars. It remains to be seen whether the Google-backed operating system will be able to gain a significant chunk of the global mobile market, industry watchers say. The success of Android-based handsets and services will depend on the number of partners the Android community is able to gather, experts say, and the open-source nature of the technology collaboration means that relationships will not always be in lock-step. Also, third-party developers, who build and sell software applications for smart phone users, have mostly been developing products for the iPhone and it bears further watching whether Android-based handsets will ever get to have such a vast content pool. Nonetheless, Shin predicts a bright future for Samsung's Android-based handsets, with the market for smart phones ripe for an explosion in developed markets."Smart phones will be the new global trend in the mobile category. Users will be able to access a richer collection of content through the smart phones, opening up a totally new experience for them, and we have been putting in constant efforts to improve on our smart phone lineup," Shin said. "We are looking to boost the shipments of our latest Omnia handsets, which we believe will generate a buzz and find significant demand. Apple's iPhone has some competitive edges, but we are confident that Omnia phones are better in functions and the variety of features they can support. We may see countries where Omnia phones outsell the iPhones,'' he said."The company plans to be aggressive in its marketing efforts for the Omnia handsets ahead of the high-demand season around Christmas." Shin also said that the company is likely to meet its annual target of 200 million in handset sales for 2009. "We are likely to pass the 200-million mark, and our operating profit from our handset business will grow in double-digit rates as our global market share will finish the year at north of 20 percent," Shin said. Samsung is looking to expand the coverage of its mobile application store to 24 countries next year from the current four. The massive success of Apple's App Store has rival tech giants racing to introduce me-too products, and Samsung is one of them. Apple users have downloaded more than 1.8 billion programs in a little more than a year, and the store has become a significant driver of sales for the iPhone. Samsung, along with RIM, Microsoft and Nokia is also rolling out online stores for users to browse, buy, download, and install apps on their handsets.Read More......

HTC Looks To Make The Mobile Phone Personal

Mobile phone maker HTC Corp. wants to make the phone personal, emphasizing the breadth of its handsets and how each one can appeal to different needs through a new global advertising campaign that addresses you, the individual. iphone crowds
The effort, developed by Deutsch LA, emphasizes the personal when it comes to mobile handset technology. Noting that people have an emotional relationship with their phones, the campaign uses the word "you" to emphasize the company's brand promise. A newly redesigned Web site has the word written out in various styles, with explanations underneath them such as: "want to Tweet wherever you are" or "could use a good laugh." Clicking on one of the "Yous" takes the user to the phone that is right for them. (The "good laugh" one, for instance, directs a user to the Imagio, which features easy access to YouTube video.) mobile phone
Television commercials take a similar tack, with a voiceover proclaiming things about "you," while visuals show people interacting with their phones. "You are different from you," says a voiceover as the camera moves from one person to another. "You are trying to forget about work," it says while a man is having a conversation in an office stairwell, "while you are working late," as the picture shifts to a man in an office late at night.
After several other such proclamations, the voiceover continues: "And you realize you don't need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you. And you. And you." A second commercial depicts similar scenes from the phone's point of view, looking up at different users in different situations. Both spots end with the HTC logo and company tagline "Quietly brilliant."
"'Quietly Brilliant' is doing great things in a humble way, with the belief that the best things in life can only be experienced, not explained," said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation, in a statement. "The You campaign is the perfect embodiment of 'quietly brilliant' and is core to HTC as a company, innovator and partner."
The campaign, which will include television, print, outdoor and online executions, began airing over the weekend in London and will eventually roll out to 20 countries worldwide. (The U.S. rollout is expected later this week.)

One charger for all phones

THE dream of a one-size-fits-all cellphone charger is no longer just wishful thinking.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the technology arm of the United Nations, has just given its stamp of approval for a universal charger system that will allow mobile phone users to juice up their devices from any available charger, regardless of manufacturer or make.
The move will "dramatically cut the number of chargers produced, shipped and subsequently discarded as new models become available" because new phones can still use existing chargers, a statement from the ITU said. iphone crowds
As it is now, new phone chargers are packaged with every new handset. Consumers are thus likely to have a drawer of unused chargers collecting dust, as many people in countries like Singapore change cellphones every year or so. mobile phone
Each manufacturer has its own proprietary charger design, and different models require different chargers now.
Electronic waste now makes up 5 per cent of all solid waste worldwide - and mobile phones and computers are the biggest culprits because they are replaced most frequently, said Greenpeace International, a global organisation that campaigns against environment degradation.
Between 30 million and 50 million tonnes of such e-waste are discarded yearly worldwide.
Chargers using the new Universal Charging Solution, or UCS, are also three times more energy efficient than unrated chargers.
The switch to a universal charger is likely to halve standby energy consumption and reduce redundant chargers by 51,000 tonnes a year, the GSM Association predicted. The change will also cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6 million tonnes.
The move, proposed by the GSM Association in February, is supported by leading phone manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, as well as carriers like NTT DoCoMo, AT&T and Vodafone.
Cellphones which use universal chargers are expected to start appearing next year and go mainstream by 2012. They will have micro USB ports, like those now on digital cameras and music players.
Nokia spokesman Francis Cheong told The Straits Times it had piloted a programme in Europe where people could choose to buy phones without the chargers. "We are also surveying consumers to see if more people would like this choice," he said.
Technology consultancy Ovum's senior analyst Emeka Obiodu said "once UCS reaches a critical mass in circulation after 2012, the industry should stop shipping a new charger with every new phone.
That would save over 500 million new chargers that would have been manufactured", he said.

Read More...

VW Launches Car With iPhone App: Play the Game, Win a Car

Play an iPhone game, win a car? It sounds too good to be true.
But to launch its new 2010 GTI hatchback, Volkswagen is relying solely on a free iPhone game. If you play it, you could win one of six limited-edition GTI models.iphone crowds
Available in Apple's App Store starting today, Volkswagen of America, Inc.'s Real Racing GTI App challenges players to race virtual GTIs around a racetrack. The more you play, the more points you build up. And each week for six weeks, the company will reward the week's top player with his or her own real car.mobile phone
As they compete, players can share videos of their game play with friends on YouTube. They can also carry the competition over to Twitter and send messages to other players.
In an effort to reach a young, tech-savvy demographic, Volkswagen hopes the iPhone and iPod Touch will be more effective than traditional Web and TV ads.
"With the personalization of media and the challenges inherent with reaching constantly connected consumers, we tasked ourselves to rethink the way we launch vehicles in order to engage our consumers in a meaningful way," Tim Ellis, vice president of marketing for Volkswagen of America, Inc., said in a statement. "Launching the all-new 2010 GTI via the Real Racing GTI App allows us to connect with this savvy GTI consumer within his or her everyday life in a way that no 30-second spot ever could."
Volkswagen isn't the first to use an iPhone application to launch a product. The sports clothing company PUMA has released an iPhone app to promote its new line of bodywear. And, earlier this month, Pepsi released a controversial app that claimed to help men "score" with women to help generate buzz around its new energy drink.
But when it comes to Apple's App Store, those are still just the tip of the iceberg. There are about 85,000 applications -- from the silly to the serious -- for the iPod Touch and iPhone.
Here is a sampling:
Application Remotely Unlocks, Starts Cars
Last week, developers released an application that promises to remotely unlock, start and warm your car from almost anywhere in the world.
Called Viper SmartStart, the app was launched earlier this week by Directed Electronics, a vehicle security and remote start systems designer, and can be downloaded for free from Apple's App store.Read More.......

After two years of iPhone launch Nokia sues Apple for patent infringement

Couple of days after Apple posted yet again impressive revenues and profits mainly banked upon its iPhone popularity and success and just weeks after Nokia posted its first ever loss since 1996, the Finnish handset maker filed a suit in a US Federal Court in Delaware on Thursday accusing Apple of patent infringement.
Terming Apple’s refusal to pay royalty fees as ‘free ride’ Nokia claims that by avoiding the payments Apple was in a position to price its products at lesser rates and thereby the company was effectively gaining market share. “This allows it to obtain market share that it would otherwise not be able to obtain were its products to bear the costs for the patented technology,” says Nokia in its lawsuit. Perhaps Nokia is under the belief that price is the sole differentiator between its range of smartphone offerings and iPhone and features do not matter to the consumer.iphone crowds “By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” said Ilkka Rahnasto, vice president for legal and intellectual property, Nokia. mobile phone
Surprisingly Nokia has not asked the Court to impose an injunction into sales of iPhone.
Nokia has sued Apple for 10 patent infringements spanning all iPhone models launched till date. The patents relate to speech coding, security, wireless data transmission to name a few. Nokia says 40 other handset manufacturers pays it for use of these technologies.
Globally Nokia’s move has not gone down well with observers terming it as desperate measure by the firm to keep a check on Apple’s rapid march.
Recently a survey had revealed that Research in Motion and Apple have only a 3 5 share in global handset shipments but a 35 % share in profitability.Read More.....

Small screen hits our pockets

Live TV is streaming to iPhones, writes Garry Barker.

HEY, hey — or words to that recently dubious effect — the iPhone experience has just expanded yet again.
Now we can watch small-screen stuff on an even smaller screen. In short, live television is now available on the iPhone and it is surprisingly good. iphone crowds
I hasten to add that by the above, I am not rating the quality of the content. Rather, I speak of the excellent picture and audio quality of live, free-to-air television on the iPhone.
The operative word here is live, as distinct from episodes of television programs or movies that can be downloaded to an iPhone. The iTunes Store is loaded with them, from Top Gear to South Park; TV shows for $2.99 an episode, movies for $5.99 (rent) or $24.99 (buy).
Elgato, whose EyeTV software pioneered television on the Mac, last week launched an app that allows streaming of live television to an iPhone over a home wi-fi network. mobile phone
Then, not to be outdone, pay TV joined the party with Telstra's BigPond launching Foxtel on the iPhone over the Next G network. The service costs $18 a month for what they call the Ultimate Combo (sounds like a pizza but at least its better than Vegemite's iSnack 2.0). There's a $12 children's option and a day-pass sampler for $4. The best bit: Telstra does not meter its mobile TV services.
Elgato competitor Equinux also has an iPhone TV app but Australian and other user reviews have been cool.
Elgato's app is elegant and user-friendly. It is in the top five apps in the entertainment category in most iTunes App Stores around the world and in the top 10 paid apps of any kind. It costs $5.99 in Australia and includes a program guide and recording capability.
Communion with a wi-fi enabled Core 2 Duo or better Intel Mac running Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard and the latest EyeTV version 3.2 is essential. The Mac does the grunt work of converting the television signal to iPhone format. You also need iPhone OS version 3.0 or better.
Set-up was simplicity itself. Download the app, launch it, tap the screen and, voila! TV on your iPhone, no configuration required — the Mac and the iPhone marry automatically.
Of battery life I cannot speak personally, but if you were watching the Bathurst 1000, you might not finish without refuelling.
I have used it with an EyeTV Diversity tuner, which allows watching one program while recording another, but other brands of tuner compatible with EyeTV should work.
It's also possible to watch TV away from home, using Elgato's My EyeTV service. But even Elgato says it is not for novices, adding: “Please don't try this if you are not familiar with the term, 'port forwarding'. ”
But if you are a communications guru or can bribe a geek with a year's supply of Super Supremes, it can work.
Of course, video has been on iPhone 3G for some time but most of it was from the internet, either via wi-fi or a mobile network. There is, for example, a massive library of video podcasts, some great, a lot so trivial they endanger one's digestion.
Some TV apps deliver specific channels, such as France 24, a news channel broadcasting 24 hours a day in English, French and Arabic. It will help cripple your bank account by consuming large lumps of your 3G bandwidth quota.
Al Jazeera streams its news in English over 3G. Video quality is good but every 10 minutes of viewing burns 7MB. You can be bankrupted while you watch people telling you the world is going to hell in a handcart. But at least there are no ads.
The BBC's live video-streaming iPhone app is not available in Australia, although their text-based BBCReader and scads of free podcasts are.
Then there are apps such as CirclePix's Video Uploader, with which anyone disposed to self-exposure can add mountains of stuff on Facebook and YouTube, mostly, I think, to pass the time as they queue for, say, another Big Mac. At least it is better than spreading graffiti on trams.
MAC FILE
IT IS not necessary to be serious always. In fact, a touch of mild eccentricity is beneficial, although I find bursting into tears in front of a parking warden will not stop him issuing a ticket.
Parking wardens have to show they are heartless, even if, deep down, they would like to be pussycats.
Therefore, and though it has nothing to do with parking, I confess I have been diverted recently by a little application called Cuckoo. It turns your Mac into a cuckoo clock. Download it from tinyurl.com/yz5raet.
You can set the cuckoo to chirp on the hour or at any other five-minute interval. Handy if you tend to go to sleep over the keyboard or get too engrossed in your work.
And just to show your friends that Matt Preston isn't the only man on the planet with a palate, check out Dinner Spinner, an iPhone and iPod Touch app, free from the iTunes App Store.
It is from Allrecipes.com.au, which describes itself as "Australia and New Zealand's biggest online food community". It provides access to thousands of recipes, with photographs and reviews. Perhaps best of all, when you don't know what to cook, you can simply shake the iPhone and the accelerometer will throw up its best suggestion.Read More.....

Google, Baidu eye new mobile market

Receptionists work at the head office of Baidu.com in Beijing. Baidu, which controls 61 percent of the desktop search market, now is focusing on its mobile platform. [Agencies]

As China ushers in a new generation of snazzy smartphones and 3G networks, Google and Baidu are shifting their battle from the Internet to China's mobile search market. iphone crowds
The country's mobile search market is likely to become the world's largest, with the potential promise of billions of dollars in revenue.
However, experts said that putting a price tag on the potentially massive market is tough.
Any future riches could be years off due to a lack of clear business models and potential competition, as well as the political risk in China's tightly controlled media markets, the experts said.
"Everything is growing very fast, but who is going to make money?" asked Wallace Cheung, an analyst with Credit Suisse. mobile phone
"The (mobile search) market is so diverse, even globally there is no sure business model yet," Cheung said.
Google, a distant second to Baidu in China's 1.8 billion yuan ($263.66 million) PC search market, is the world leader in mobile search by revenue and determined not to cede control of mobile search in the Chinese market.
Google said recently it expects mobile search revenues to surpass PC search revenues in a few years.
China's mobile search market, where Google and Baidu are currently tied with a market share of about 26 percent each, is potentially huge due to China's more than 700 million mobile subscribers. That's about double its 338 million Internet users.
Billions of dollars in revenue could be at stake if the market develops along lines similar to PC Internet search.
According to government data, at the end of June this year China had 155 million mobile Internet users, and more than 40 million of them used mobile search.
China's mobile Internet market numbers far surpass those of the United States, where there were only about 40 million mobile Internet surfers at the start of the year, according to a JP Morgan report.
"For the mobile search market, the number is still small but the growth potential is extremely high," Baidu Chief Technology Officer Li Yinan told Reuters in a recent interview. "It is an important area."
China's mobile advertising industry was worth 754 million yuan last year and is set to nearly double by 2010.
Mobile search volume rose 120 percent in the second quarter alone to 272 million clicks, according to Analysys International.
Some analysts said the mobile platform could actually be easier to monetize, too, since mobile carriers can also double as bill collectors. This function has helped texting services run by companies such as Sina and Sohu.com to reap profits.
"We expect China's mobile value-added services industry to have another two to three years of rapid growth with a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent from 2009 to 2012," Alan Hellawell, a Deutsche Bank analyst, said in a recent report.
"The deployment of 3G networks will enable a far broader and deeper market for mobile applications," he said.
Mobile competition
Google and Baidu have been aggressively courting mobile users this year. Google, which recently introduced new mobile services in China, launched an advertising campaign in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to market its mobile services.
Baidu, which holds 61 percent of the desktop search market, said in early September it planned to hire two software engineers to focus specifically on the mobile platform.
Baidu and Google already have mobile products and provide free services such as maps, games and news over cell phones.
Analysts said Baidu still has the edge in China's mobile market given its brand, depth of local information and its dominant position in the desktop search market.
The rollout of 3G will lead to faster downloads and offer users more sophisticated functions such as global positioning search, mobile reading and music search.
"The market is still young, so it is hard to say. But with 3G, a lot more people will use mobile search because the data speed allows them to get on the Internet," said Dick Wei, an analyst with JPMorgan.
If the market really takes off, Baidu and Google could also face the potential for competition from other companies such as Tencent Holdings. The operator of China's largest instant messaging platform has been experimenting with its own search algorithms, industry sources said.
"It's going to take some time for them to figure out what is the right business model to generate revenue on the mobile platform," said Elinor Leung, a CLSA analyst. Read More.......

Bias affects cell phone cancer risk findings

(ellumobile.blogspot.com) -- A group of South Korean and American researchers has found studies of possible links between cell phones and brain tumors and other cancers vary in quality, and those suggesting there is little or no risk may have some bias.

The scientists were from the National Cancer Center in Goyang, South Korea, the Seoul National University Hospital, Ewha Womans University and the University of California in Berkeley. The team carried out a meta-analysis of 23 published epidemiological studies, covering a total of 37,916 people who had been investigated to determine if there was a link between cell phones and cancer. iphone crowds
The findings of the analysis, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, were that the results of the studies varied widely, depending on who carried out and funded the research and what controls they had in place for bias and errors.
The researchers, led by Dr. Seung-Kwon Myung, divided the studies into "high quality" if the research blinded subjects of the study to bias (because the researchers did not know which subjects had tumors when they did their interviews), and "low quality" if the research did not counter bias, or if it was funded by the mobile phone industry.
They discovered that eight high quality studies found a 10-30% increase in tumors in people who regularly used cell phones over those who rarely or never used them. The same studies found an increased risk of benign (non-malignant) tumors in people who had been using the phones for ten years or more.
These high quality studies were funded by the Orebro University Hospital Cancer Fund in Sweden, the Orebro Cancer Fund, and the Swedish Work Environment Fund, but seven of the eight studies were carried out by Dr. Lennart Hardell, a Swedish oncologist. This leads to a supposition that the results might be related to the Swedish environment: many Swedes live in rural areas, and the radiation emitted by phones is greater in rural areas where the signal is weaker.
The "low quality" studies, which did not correct for bias, found no link, or found that people who used mobile phones faced lower risks of tumors than people who rarely or never used the phones. Myung's team said some of these studies were funded by the Global System for Mobile Communication Association and the Mobile Manufacturer's Forum.

he analysis also concluded the studies were not broad enough to prove a link exists between cancers and phone use, and larger cohort studies would be needed to finally settle the question. Until now, the only published cohort study showed no link between tumors and phone use, but this study, from Denmark, used telephone subscription data rather than actual phone use.
The studies being analyzed were all case studies. This means the researchers divided their subjects into two groups: those who had brain tumors or other cancers and those who did not, and then interviewed the subjects about their use of mobile phones. The researchers concluded that cohort studies are needed, in which groups of phone and non-phone users are followed over a long time period to see which group develops cancer more often.
The use of cell phones and other cordless phones has increased dramatically over the last decade, with an estimated 4.6 billion users today, according to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union. There have been concerns the radiation emitted by the phones may cause health problems, but so far there is no proof, and the debate continues.
More information: Mobile Phone Use and Risk of Tumors: A Meta-Analysis, Seung-Kwon Myung et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology, Read More......

Pre-Paid Mobile Connections may be Banned Jammu and Kashmir

Here is a bad news for of Pre-paid mobile phone subscribers in Jammu & Kashmir.Millions of Prepaid Mobile service users may no longer be able to use their mobile phone connections. This is because; the government is examining the possibility of banning pre-paid cellular services in these security sensitive areas.
According to the latest media reports from PTI, the Government of India has plans for banning Prepaid mobile service in the in the Kashmir valley Jammu and Kashmir state for security reasons. iphone crowds
Union Home Minister Mr. P Chidambaram announced this while addressing the media in Srinagar at the All India Editors’ Conference organized by Press Information Bureau. Mr. P Chidambaram said “I urge everyone to switch over to post-paid mobile connections. We may have to ban the use of pre-paid connection for a while in the Kashmir valley if people do not switch over to post-paid”. mobile phones This can affect nearly 38 lakh Mobile Subsribers of the state who use prepaid connections from various mobile service operators. The GSM Mobile Operator Airtel has nearly 19 lakh GSM subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having 7 lakh.Currently, Indian citizens of other states who have a pre-paid connection are not allowed roaming facilities while visiting J&K and the seven North Eastern states. Media has learnt that the government has no plans to lift this restriction in the immediate future. However, critics say that a mere ban on pre-paid mobile connections will not address security issues, especially considering that residents have access to other access to other technologies such as internet telephony, e-mail, chat services from several web portals such as Google and Yahoo! and even satellite phones. Read More........

Say hello to your most treasured possession

AUSTRALIANS are increasingly treating their mobile phones as "back-up brains" - and losing them can be crippling.

New research released yesterday says Australians are relying on their phones as an intellectual and emotional crutch. iphone crowds
The poll of 1125 Australians, commissioned by IT giant Microsoft, showed that as Australians become more dependent on their phones, they are becoming less dependent on their memory.
Microsoft's director of mobile communication business Grace Kerrison said that while technology was making things easier for Australians, they should beware the price. mobile phones
"Twenty years ago, most Australians could tell you not only their office number, but the numbers of 10 of their closest friends," she said.
Today, she said, only half knew their work number from memory, and just a third the number of their best friend.
Modern mobile phones incorporate the myriad accessories past generations have had to carry - address book, street map, appointment diary, camera and more - into a single, pocket-sized device. With the growing availability of smartphones, the utility is limited only by imagination.
But that centralisation comes at a price: misplacing the phone - or simply leaving it at home in the morning - can cripple the user.
Mobile phones have become so integral to their owners' lives that they consider it twice as bad to lose a phone than their house keys.
For nobody is the new research more true than members of the latest generation, the most connected in history. Even their name - iGeneration or the internet generation - reflects their immersion in technology.
Year 11 student Lisa Ranson, 17, did not like being painted with the technological brush, but admitted there was some truth to the research.
Friend Imogen Sach, 16, said her phone was one of her most important possessions. "My life is on this," she said. "If I lost it, I would probably cry." Read more........

BlackBerry

BlackBerry is a line of wireless handheld devices that was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager. In 2002, the more commonly known smartphone BlackBerry was released, which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. It is an example of a convergent device. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on e-mail. RIM currently offers BlackBerry e-mail service to non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through the BlackBerry Connect software. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display, but all current models have color displays.

While including PDA applications (address book, calendar, to-do lists, etc.) as well as telephone capabilities on newer models, the BlackBerry is primarily known for its ability to send and receive e-mail wherever it can access a wireless network of certain cellular phone carriers. Most current BlackBerry models have a built-in QWERTY keyboard, optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type, and there are also several models that include a standard cell phone keypad for typing, and one model that is a full touch-screen device with no physical keyboard. System navigation is primarily accomplished by a scroll ball, or "trackball" in the middle of the device (older devices used a track wheel on the side). Some models (currently, those manufactured for use with iDEN networks such as Nextel and Mike) also incorporate a Push-to-Talk (PTT) feature, similar to a two-way radio. iphone crowds

Modern GSM-based BlackBerry handhelds incorporate an ARM 7 or 9 processor, while older BlackBerry 950 and 957 handhelds used Intel 80386 processors. The latest GSM BlackBerry models (8100, 8300 and 8700 series) have an Intel PXA901 312 MHz processor, 64 MB flash memory and 16 MB SDRAM.[2] CDMA BlackBerry smartphones are based on Qualcomm MSM6x00 chipsets which also include the ARM 9-based processor and GSM 900/1800 roaming (as the case with the 8830 and 9500) and include up to 256MB flash memory.[3][4] The devices are very popular with some businesses, where they are primarily used to provide e-mail access to roaming employees. To fully integrate the BlackBerry into a company's systems, the installation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is required, along with either Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes or Novell Groupwise email server applications.

BlackBerry is the world's second most popular smartphone platform, capturing 21% of worldwide smartphone sales in Q2, 2009.[5] On 30 May 2009, RIM announced the number of BlackBerry subscribers has reached approximately 28.5 million. [6]

iphone crowds have all iphone accessories and black berry in my shops
Apple trumpeted new milestones in the growth of the of the iTunes App Store on Friday, with ads stating 500 million apps had been downloaded and the number of apps available had reached 15,000. This monumental growth include 200,000 downloads in just the last 6 weeks, reflecting the huge surge in iPhone and iPod touch sales over the holidays. The figures released include both free and paid apps, so it is yet unknown what the total figures in sales are for the App Store. How ever the pace of sales represents tremendous growth for the store which was launched only six months ago. mobile phone

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