Who hasn’t dreamed of sporting the Dick Tracy watch-phone since they were a kid? Can you imagine having your phone, text messaging, contacts, email, music, etc. all in the palm of err. . around your wrist? Dick can, and now so can the rest of us. The once far-fetched dream prototype, now a market-ready device, will be shipping out to Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and Latin America in July 2009. The United States should expect the detective-like gadget to arrive in ’09 as well.
With the smart phone market booming and new technologies being introduced every day, what do you think the next big thing is? Could the LG GD910 watch-phone give the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Blackberry’s Storm a run for their money? Who knows, in the years to come, with two free hands, you may be streaming video calls from your waterproof watch-phone.
Watch CNET Review of this Phone:
Check out the CNET Article for More Information
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10134418-100.html?tag=mncol;txt
Rescue your cell from water
You always try to protect your cell from not going into water, but atleast once in its lifetime, it finds its way into water. That's a very sad moment. But does this mean that it's time to abandon your cell phone? No! Especially not if you try this home remedy.
- First of all, take out the phone battery from the cell immediately. This will prevent electrical short circuits within the cell which can even burn the internal parts of your cell.
- Next, gently wipe your cell with a tissue, and bury it into a jar full of uncooked rice. Yes, rice! Remember that the coconut is kept in dry rice to keep moisture away? It's the same logic that works here too. It has been found that rice has a high chemical affinity for water. In simple words, it attracts water. So, water doesn't stick to the cold metal of your cell, instead it is soaked by the rice, thus leaving your cell dry (well, almost dry).
Dual SIM handset manufacturers have been asked to stop import of phones as the patent holder (Somasundaram Ramkumar of Madurai) is seeking royalty of Rs. 35/ for every phone shipped to India.
Somasundaram Ramkumar, holds patent (awarded last year) "in India for phones with a plurality of SIM cards allocated to different communication networks" – and since the application is valid for 5 years, companies like Nokia, Samsung, Meridian Mobile and Spice might have to cough up the royalty (source).
Around 100,000 dual-SIM phones are sold in the country every month – @ royalty of Rs. 35/ per phone, you can imagine the value this patent would deliver!
This is what Business Standard has to Say:
The dual-SIM handset manufacturers are in a spot after a Madurai resident, who holds patent for such phones, asked the Indian Customs authorities to stop shipment of these phones till he was paid a royalty for every handset brought into the country.
Industry experts expect the move to hit the sales of dual-SIM handsets, which are imported into the country by companies including Nokia, Samsung, Meridian Mobile and Spice. More importantly, this could also affect the plans to manufacture these handsets in the country. It is estimated that around 100,000 dual-SIM phones are sold in the country every month.
The Madurai resident, Somasundaram Ramkumar, holds patent "in India for phones with a plurality of SIM cards allocated to different communication networks". The patent was awarded to him last year.
Ramkumar has moved the Office of the Commissioner of Customs of Chennai Airport in this regard. The office has accepted his application and directed officials throughout the country to stop clearing shipments of dual-SIM phones, a source close to the development told Business Standard.
The application is valid for five years or till the time the patent is valid, whichever is earlier. Ramkumar is believed to have sought royalty (believed to be around Rs 35) for every dual-SIM phone shipped into the country.
Even though Ramkumar could not be immediately contacted for comments, manufacturers and distributors in the country confirmed the development.
European handset major Meridian Mobile CEO Rajiv Khanna said most of the companies had inventory for a couple of months. He hoped that the issue would be resolved by then. Meridian Mobile sells dual SIM handsets under the brand name 'Fly'.
The Indian Cellular Association (ICA), the body of handset vendors in India, has already formed a committee to look into the matter, and has initiated dialogue with the Customs department.
Dual-SIM handsets have two SIM slots and can work on both CDMA and GSM networks. They are popular among users due to the convenience of alternating between two numbers. These phones are particularly useful to international as some countries (like South Korea) do not have GSM networks, while others (certain places in the US) do not have CDMA networks.
With Apple store being too nagging to approve applications for iPhones, people often resort jail breaking to get these applications working on their phone. This was the case up until now for Fring, a free mobile Voice-over-IP service (VoIP). However, this application is now available officially at apple store.
What does this mean. This means that now you don’t have to jailbreak or hack your iPhone to get this application running on your phone and now skype calls can be made on the iPhones. Using Fring you can also chat with your friends over Google Talk, AIM, MSN and Yahoo messenger and also Frings own chat service.
Also watch the video below to see this software in action
If you love to use skype and have been waiting for a solution that can make skype service available on your iPhone then your wait is over. Grab your Fring application from the apple store.
Tags: apple store, Best iPhone Apps, Download iPhone Applications, Free iPhone Apps, fring, skype on iphone, voip iphone application
Are you concerned about your telephone bills. Do you change plans or wish to change your service provider because you’ve had poor experience with the huge mobile bills that you incurred. Or you are just researching to find what’s the best mobile service provider for your kind of mobile usage. Now you have a service that tells you exactly the service provider that you’ll need to cut your payments on the mobile bills. I am afraid this service is only available for Indian mobile users.
This service is called as YourBillBuddy and helps you know what is the best plan and which service provider is going to provide you with such a plan. As the site says and rightly so, there’s no one best plan for all the people. The best plan however depends on various parameters like:
1) Which provider are you on ?
2) Which providers do you call the most ?
3) Are the voice calls you make STD or Local ?
4) What time of day do you call ?
5) Are there some numbers you call most often ?
6) Are the calls you are making roaming ?
7) Are the calls being made to landlines or Mobiles ?
Same parameters apply on your SMS usage as well.
Now that I have managed to open your eyes to the parameters that affect your mobile bill, I am sure you are curious to know what plan will best suit your needs. Based on all the above information (which of course you have to share with the service YourBillBuddy) you’ll be given a best plan for the kind of usage you have.
This is calculated:
from the whole variety of plans available in your circle. With an average 6 Providers, 10 plans each, with around 8 Service packs available to go as a addon to the plan leaving you with a choice of almost 480 (6*10*8) plan + service pack combinations !! Of these roughly 500 plan combinations only ONE is best for you based on your usage.
You’ll have to submit your ebills of your current plan and service provider for the site to pick the heuristics and calculate for you the best plan available. Following is how the site promises to calculate your mobile usage pattern and come up with a plan for you which is the best plan available.
From your E-Bill we extract call details of each and every single call you make. For each call you make we determine the attributes of the call that effect the billing rate. The attributes we consider in our calculations are the service provider of the number called, units of call, your pulse rate in the current plan, type of call (STD/ISD/Local), Time of call, is the call made while Roaming, is the called number a landline or a mobile. Same extraction process is followed for every SMS you make. In short summary all the hundreds of calls and SMSs that appear in your E-Bill are extracted and the relevant details that will impact your bill are pulled up. This extraction is supported for hundreds of E-Bill formats available across Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata Indicom and Idea.
The company says that after they’ve had your ebills and they have given you the best plan they also would give you free sms worth rupees 700 to be sent to your contacts. If you are concerned about the privacy, you might want to read their privacy policy here. Personally, I use a prepaid mobile and hence haven’t tested this service (for the lack of ebills for prepaid). However, if any of our reader would like to share their experience about the service, it’ll be great for us to rate it and for our other users to try it.
Also, I am delightfully surprised to see such a useful service being launched in India.
Tags: best mobile plan, best mobile plan india, cheap mobile plan india, cheap mobile service provider, Mobile, mobile bills, reduce mobile bills
Maverick Mobile, An Indian (Pune based) company launched a new software at a technology conference in San Diego, Calif., recently. This application helps you recover your mobile phone or at least all the information on it if the phone is stolen.
This software is capable of sending you encrypted information about the phones location, you can also retrieve your phone contacts and disable to the phone remotely. Once the application is installed, it starts working in invisible mode and can be used only using predefined keys+password. After the installation the user needs to add a secondary number which receives all the reports in case the device is stolen.
This application reminds me of the movie “Home Alone 3” in which the miscreants are similarly tortured and harassed. Well this application certainly does not go to the extent of punching them in the face but does pretty odd things.
The moment it detects an unauthorized SIM change it locks/encrypts all the data on the phone which includes SMS, Photos, PhoneBook, etc.. It not only sends information such as new phone number, device id, country code, operator name and location to the secondary number but it also starts sending information about the incoming/outgoing calls, SMS’s received/sent along with the text or any new contacts added to the phone.
That’s not all; I’ve saved the best for last. These two features are my favorite. The phone offers something called “SPY Call”. In case the phone is stolen the owner of the phone can call using the secondary number which will be termed as a SPY Call, in case of spy call the loudspeaker and the MIC will be automatically activated, the incoming call will be received without any notification so that the owner can listen to the conversations happening around the phone. Even if the thief comes to know that the SPY Call is activated, he/she will not be able to terminate the call. Wicked Cool, Right?
Another thing it does is Raises and Alarm and Disables the phone. Just send a preformatted SMS from the reporting/secondary number and it will automatically start making loud sounds and will also flash a customized message with the Owners Name, Address, Alternate Number and Award price.
It is also known that the company has tied up with Nokia to offer this application pre-installed on selectd Nokia phones.
The site has a “Buy” option but is currently inactive. Their offical website is http://www.maverickmobile.in/
The application certinly offers greta security and data backup featues, its just a matter of time before we start using it on our phones.