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What Does Your Cell Phone Say About You?



First impressions mean everything.

But what if you declare yourself by the cell phone you use? What do these handheld packages of personality say about you? The folks at Forbes.com say the answer is obvious depending on how stylish, functional or simply fun your cell phone is designed to be.

Take, for example, the Nokia N95, a sleek-looking phone designed to capture and upload images and text to Web sites or blogs. If you're carrying one of these capable devices around, chances are you're a "mash creative," a term used by Jonathan Steuer, a vice president at cultural trends researcher Iconoculture, to describe the personality type seemingly compelled to share all daily events with everyone, with constant updates via mobile capture.

What if you use a Blackberry, iPhone or Palm smartphone? Then you're a "pioneer," since you're using your phone to organize your life and more. Pioneers likely utilize every feature on their phones, tapping in to the scheduling, communicating and organizing capabilities to the extreme.

Though it's old news by now, the Motorola Razr still holds some cachet, since it comes in many colors and can be accessorized.

Each type of phone is designed for a different kind of user, whether your interest is fashion, function or simply making a dramatic statement. Take the LG Prada phone for example. This one says you've got money to burn and, let's face it, you've got no time for those of us with regular mobile devices.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. [Source: Forbes, via Textually]

Evidence of 3G iPhone in Software Update?

Evidence of 3G iPhone in Software Update?
Intrepid geeks have dug up an intriguing bit of code buried deep in the confines of the latest iPhone software update. Rooting through millions of lines of code revealed reference to "SGOLD3," which very well may be a reference to the follow up to the S-GOLD2 chip from Infineon that powers the current iPhone.

S-GOLD3 is a 3G cell phone chip capable of downloading data at 7.2 megabits per second, about three dozen times faster than the current EDGE network the iPhone is saddled with. Currently AT&T's network is only capable of 3.6 megabits down, but that is plenty fast for a truly rich internet browsing experience.

The chip also adds support for higher resolution cameras (5 megapixels instead of 2) and an SD/MMC slot. This just adds to the mounting evidence that an iPhone with a blazing fast 3G data connection is right around the corner.

From Engadget


Verizon Debuts Loopt Service To Track Friends, Pics By GPS

Loopt for Verizon mobile phones.

Verizon Wireless is getting in on the friend-tracking game, offering a $3.99 per month service for its GPS-capable phones that allows a user to note the location of a friend or where a picture was taken.

The service, called Loopt, allows people to share their location with anyone in their contact list or in their AOL Instant Messenger list.

Privacy controls are in place so each user adjust security settings. That way you can keep your location private, an important feature in any social network or shared service application where personal information is involved.

Sprint Nextel and its Boost Mobile brand have already included Loopt into its GPS-enabled phones. Helio provides a service that is similar to Loopt. Other wireless carriers have safety plans that allow parents to track where their kids are located.

From BetaNews.


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Cuba Lifts Restrictions On Mobile Phones



In a sign that Cuban residents will be getting more freedom, president Raul Castro announced that he would allow mobile phone use for the country's citizens. Previously, access was limited only to employees of foreign firms and government officials.

The announcement, made in Communist newspaper Granma, said that Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA "is able to offer mobile phone service to the public." As a way around the ban, many Cubans would have foreigners sign contracts for them, but now they'll be able to purchase prepaid plans through the company. This comes as part of Castro's pledge to make "structural changes" and "big decisions," which, according to a leaked internal memo, may also allow Cubans to own appliances DVD players and computers.

Although the news is promising for Cuba, which currently has the lowest rate of cellular use in Latin America, it likely won't be priced for the average citizen. The plans can only be bought in Cuban Convertible Pesos, worth 24 times the regular Cuban peso used in normal paychecks. ETECSA says this will allow them to improve telecommunications throughout the country, with regular peso plans being available in the future.

So, great news for Cuba, but still, no cigars for us.

From Reuters/AOL News (via Engadget)

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68% of Americans Suffer from 'Disconnect Anxiety'

68% of Americans Suffer from 'Disconnect Anxiety'
According to a recent study by the Solutions Research Group (Warning: PDF file), Americans just can't stand to be out of touch. According to the survey, 68 percent of Americans suffer from at least occasional disconnect anxiety when away from the computer or cell phone. The participants' feelings when away from the 'net range from general discomfort to inadequacy and panic.

Some other interesting statistics: Only 37 percent of laptop users frequently log on from their bed rooms, but 63 percent of Blackberry users admitted to using their device of choice while in the "washroom." That last number seemed particularly disturbing to our pals over at Engadget, but we'll be the first to admit that entire articles on Switched have been written from the comfort of the porcelain throne (desk?), which really just goes to show how terrified of being disconnected we are.

From Engadget

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Sprint Opens Faster Network to Mogul Cell Phone

Sprint logo

In its continuing effort to stem the exodus of subscribers to competing mobile phone service and data providers, Sprint Nextel is providing an upgrade to one of its handsets to allow access to a faster upload and download network called EV-DO Rev. A.

Sprint is the first of the mobile providers to allows a phone to utilize this particular network, which should double download speeds and increase upload speeds by eight times. The phone, called Mogul (Product Specs) and made by Taiwanese handset company HTC, can be upgraded by going to the HTC Web site.

EV-DO Rev. A, which stands for Evolution-Data Optimized Revision A, is also used by Verizon Wireless but so far only for its data cards, which are inserted into laptop computers to allow Internet access while travelling anywhere within the wireless coverage area. As for right now, Verizon says it will not make any of its phones EV-DO Rev. A capable, instead saying its laptop subscribers are the only customers who really need the faster upload and download speeds for e-mail and file transfer. Whether the carrier changes its approach following the Sprint announcement remains to be seen.

To date, Sprint's phones have been able to access only the older and slower EV-DO Rev. 0.

Sprint is trying several new initiatives in an attempt to stop its subscribers from leaving. Just last month, the troubled company announced a $99 unlimited service plan. Sprint lost $29.5 billion during the last fiscal quarter, due in large part to the ungainly integration of Nextel as well as to the hemorrhaging of subscribers, who have complained of terrible customer service and problems with dropped calls.

AT&T has several phone models available that can connect to its high-speed network, called HSDPA, which stands for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access. It has similar upload and download speeds at EV-DO Rev A.

From AOL Money & Finance.


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London Lamp Posts Padded to Protect Distracted Texters

Lamp Posts in London Padded to Protect Walk'n'Text-ers
We live in a dangerous world filled with murderers, terrorists, and lamp posts. That's right: lamp posts. Don't play coy with us. We know on at least one occasion you've been walking down the street texting away on your mobile phone and walked right into a lamp post or telephone pole.

British telephone directory service 118 118 is out to save Londoners from themselves and has started wrapping lampposts in thick padding. Apparently serious injuries from people paying less attention to where they were going and more to their tiny cell phone screen has inspired the company (along with charity Living Streets) to take action. The company will poll pedestrians in the area of the pilot program and if all goes well, Birmingam, Manchester, and Liverpool are next.

The best part about the 118 118 program is that there is simply nothing we can do to make it any funnier. Once in a while something comes along that is so perfectly hilarious we are forced to just let the story mock itself. If this was April we would have written this off immediately.

And for those of you who don't believe us:

From Engadget, Yahoo News, Metro, and Daily Mail

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Sprint Tops Rivals With $99 Unlimited Everything Plan

Sprint Offers $99 Unlimited Everything Plan
Spint has just announced that it lost $29.5 billion loss for the last quarter. Most of the loss is due to the purchase of Nextel, but Sprint has also been hemorrhaging customers as well. Dropped calls and poor customer service have become real sticking points, even topping a Google search test for which cell phone provider is "the suckiest."

But Sprint isn't ready to lay down and die just yet. The beleagured provider is looking to upstage its competitors $99 unlimited calling plans. AT&T and Verizon offer unlimited voice for $99, and T-Mobile adds unlimited text messaging, but Sprint is offering unlimited everything at the now industry standard price point of just under a Benjamin. Unlimited calling, texting, data, e-mail, Sprint TV, GPS, and push to talk. Matching that offering on Verizon or AT&T would easily push your monthly bill to over $140.

We're glad to see a U.S. provider finally offer a reasonable flat fee plan for unlimited everything. If Sprint can successfully tackle some of its other issues, such as network reliability, it may be able to put significant pressure on other companies to match its offer.

From CNET and Consumerist

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Taliban Threatens to Blow Up Cell Phone Towers

Taliban Threatens to Blow Up Cell Phone Towers

Taliban militants are threatening to blow up the radio towers of cell phone companies in Afghanistan if they don't shut down their networks for ten hours, starting at 5 P.M, according to the Associated Press. Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, has said the networks have three days to comply with the demands.

The Taliban believes that the U.S. military is using the cell phone signals to collect intelligence about insurgent locations and plans. In the past, leaders have even accused Afghanistan's four cell phone companies of conspiring with the American forces.

But while the complicity of the cell phone companies would certainly be of aide to the U.S., it is not necessary. U.S. intelligence agencies have satellites and other technologies that would allow them to intercept cell phone signals without the assistance of the companies themselves.

The only people who would suffer, alas, from a post-dusk cell-phone-network-shut-down, are the Afghani people (and, presumably, the cell phone companies).

So far none of the mobile operators have agreed to the Taliban's demands.

From AOL News/AP

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Nokia 'Remade' Phone Built Entirely Out of Recycled Materials

Nokia's 'Remade' Handset at MWC

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week, Nokia unveiled a handset made entirely of recycled materials. The green-minded handset is pieced together from old cell phones, tin cans, and recycled plastics. Unfortunately, the phone, called Remade, is currently only a concept and can't place calls. We doubt this particular handset will ever hit the market, but we wouldn't be surprised to see a Nokia handset made at least partially with recycled materials somewhere down the line.

From Engadget

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Hot New Phones Unveiled at Barcelona Congress

Mobile World Congress Coverage and Highlights

We couldn't make it out to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona -- a big international cell-phone conference focused mainly on GSM-style world phones -- but our good friends over at Engadget were able to make the trek and are sending back reports from the front line of cellular and mobile computing technologies.

All the usual suspects are there, Samsung, Nokia, even Motorola are showing off some of their 2008 handset lineups. The most innovative stars of the show, however, are unquestionably the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 and the Google-backed, Linux based smart phone operating system Android.

Take a look at Engadget's comprehensive coverage, and check back here for some more selective highlights.

From Engadget

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Grandmother Fends Off Intruder With a Cell Phone

Grandmother fends off intruder with cell phone
How's this for a 21st century update of an adage? "The cell phone is mightier than the Taser." No? Kinda lame? Yeah, you're probably right. But lame or not it's also apparently true. A grandmother in Speake, Alabama chased off an intruder Saturday night with nothing more than a cell phone. According to police reports, the man attempted to use a Taser on the nice old lady, and she even believes he may have succeeded. How she was still standing boggles our minds and leads us to believe he probably missed.

The incident took place at around 8 P.M. when the grandmother, with her granddaughter in the house, noticed her porch light wasn't working. She opened the door to see what had happened when a man tried to force his way in and the altercation took place. We're not sure exactly how she fended off her would be attacker with her mobile handset, be we're assuming she used it as a blunt object with which to bludgeon him.

From Decatur Daily

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Modu Modular Cell Phone Turns Your Handset Into a 'Transformer'

Modu the Modular Cell Phone

Dov Moran, the inventor of the USB flash drive, has yet another innovation up his sleeve. Modu, around which there is still plenty of mystery, is a new take on the cell phone that is interesting, if nothing else.

Modu is a modular cell phone. The base unit slips into metallic or plastic "jackets" that change the appearance and even some functions of the handset. For example, Modu has struck a deal with Universal Music Group, which will provide "jackets" that feature images of artists from the label and add controls for music playback.

Further down the road, we'll see "Modu Mates," electronic devices that the Modu handset can be inserted into to add wireless capabilities or other features, such as speaker phone through your car stereo or internet searches on a GPS unit. Essentially, the "jackets" are "skins' on steroids.

Modu is expected to launch in late 2008, with the first Modu Mate devices hitting the market in early 2009. Pricing has not been announced, but if the device is affordable enough, it could make quite a splash with the finnicky young set.

From BetaNews

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Google Phones to Premier Next Week?

Google Phones to Premier Next Week?
Rumor has it that next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona the world will finally get to lay its eyes (and hopefully hands) on the first cell phones powered by the Google-backed Android operating system. Google itself has bought up a lot of floor space at the expo, and ARM, maker of the most popular processors in the mobile phone market, is expected to demo its own hardware running the Android platform.

Andoid handsets (also called gPhones) being shown off at the premier mobile phone expo comes as no shock, but it's still exciting. gPhones are supposed to start shipping in the second half of this year, but outside of some videos posted by Google developers, we've yet to see it running on any real hardware.

From Times Online

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Motorola Looking to Exit the Cell Phone Business

Motorola Exiting the Cell Phone Business
After roughly 25 years of selling hand-held cellular phones, Motorola is getting ready to exit the business. Though Motorola did not officially say they were selling off their mobile phone division, it did announce it is searching for "alternatives" for its handset business, a euphemism for "looking for a buyer".

Motorola has struggled to keep its mobile division profitable, and has failed to replicate the success it had with its ubiquitous RAZR. Motorola has a long history of being at the forefront of mobile technology but has failed to keep pace competitors such as Nokia.

According to one source, Motorola is deep into talks with Dell, which lends credence to rumors that the PC manufacturer will be entering the mobile phone market with its own handset based on the Google-backed Android phone OS.

Take a look at the gallery to check out some of the innovative and industry shaping phones Motorola has released since their first entry into the market in 1983.



From CNBC

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