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Sony Ericsson's K800i Cyber-shot- Best 3GSM Handset

Sony Ericsson K800 Cyber-shot camera phone has been awarded Best 3GSM Handset at the GSM Association's Global Mobile Awards 2007.

Launched last year, the K800 is the first Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone, a brand that created a new lifestyle of mobile communication by combining a performance 3.2 Megapixel camera for quality image capture and a 3G mobile handset for fast and easy transfer and sharing of those images.

The K800 was also put to use by the world's greatest secret agent in last year's James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

Source: 3G

Gmail- Free for all!

Now anyone in India will be able to go to Gmail.com and create a free account. Until today, Gmail was an invitation only service. Google also launched a new downloadable Gmail for mobile application. From a user perspective the experience is very similar to using Gmail on a computer. Gmail for mobile is automatically synchronised with a user's Web-based Gmail account. The application is free-of-charge.

Source: iSource

Cow dung powered mobile networks

Ericsson and Idea Cellular with the help of GSM Association (GSMA) are rolling out mobile towers powered by bio-fuels. The towers are expected to bring down opex significantly and may bring down cost of calls in rural areas.

According to Lehman Brothers, about $5,600 is spent on a tower as opex each year by an operator with no sharing. Besides cutting down on fuel costs needed to power towers, biofuels can also help bring down cost of sharing amongst operators. In a pilot project in Pune, the three organisations (Ericsson, Idea Cellular and GSMA) will begin using biofuels to power mobile base stations, which are beyond the reach of the electricity grid.

Source: The ET

"My Quest"- Mobile directory

"MyQuest’s" new directory service can help you to locate a destination that you don’t have a name or even whereabouts for!

It has a comprehensive database of Delhi and NCR. You can log on to myquest.in or get information via SMS. SMS ‘Q’ followed by search term, say “bars in Noida” or “24-hour chemists in New Delhi” or “ATMs in West Delhi” to 4646, and a reply message will list all the options.

The service is available with Airtel, Hutch, Tata, Reliance (CDMA) and IDEA. Upcoming features include maps and directions (on Web, WAP, SMS) as well as a service to help convert distance, weight, height, currency, temperature and time.

Source: iSource

Most awaited phones of 2007

• Nokia E90
• Nokia N77
• T-Mobile Ameo
• BlackBerry 8800
• HP iPAQ 500
• Apple iPhone
• LG Prada
• Motorola Rizr Z8
• Nokia N6110

Source: iSource

Verizon owns GSM rights

The USA based CDMA operator, Verizon Wireless has purchased the operating assets of the GSM network, West Virginia Wireless, owned by Key Communications, and managed by PC Management.

Source: Cellular news

Is it a mobile phone or hearing aid?

Don't get surprised, its mobile phone not a hearing aid! Neonode N2, a quad-band GSM/GPRS phone, weighs just 70 gms, has a 2 mega pixel camera and a 2 inch colour screen along with a touch screen display. When you put it to the ear, people might confuse it with a hearing aid.

The only downside: the finger stroke navigation takes a lot of getting used to.

Source: ET

Wind & Sun powered mobile network

Wind and solar energy could be used to set up mobile phone networks in rural areas of the world without power. The world’s first mobile phone base station powered by wind and the Sun’s rays will soon open in Namibia. The trial follows a pilot held in Swindon, UK, led by Motorola.

Source: TOI

Pick up the damn phone!

You might ignore your mobile phone if your ringtone is Beethoven’s “Fur Elise,” but what if it’s a gruff voice that yells “Pick up the damn phone?” Now that musical ringtones have become commonplace, Time Warner’s Cartoon Network is planning to use the voices and personalities of its cartoon characters to alert mobile phone users to incoming calls.

One choice for adults could be the cynical next-door neighbour Carl from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” Carl first growls “Hey,” but if the call is not answered, he gets more irate and ends with “Pick up your friggin’ phone.” If the same ignored caller phones again, Carl eventually yells, “You’re lazy. That’s nice. That’s fine. Like you get paid by the government or something?”

Source: DNA

FM mobiles from Haier

Haier Mobile, on Tuesday, launched its Hi FM range of handsets with Z1700 and Z2000. Loaded with stereophonic sound, the phones can tune into FM and other radio stations and offer polyphonic ring-tones, which are six individual unique tones.

Features:

• 65 K CSTN 1.5-inch colour screen
• 0.3-pixel inbuilt camera

Source:iSource

Telsima participatesin 2nd mobile Wi-MAX plugfest

Telsima Corporation, a leading developer and provider of WiMAX based Broadband Wireless Access and Mobility solutions, announces its participation in the WiMAX Forum’s second public, Mobile WiMAX PlugFest in Malaga, Spain, from Feb11-17, 2007. Telsima will demonstrate its role in the Mobile WiMAX ecosystem and showcase its Mobile StarMAX base station and mobile station technology platforms.

Source: iSource

Slashed roaming tariffs for Airtel & RCOM sunscribers

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have cut roaming tariffs and scrapped rental rates for roaming services, in line with TRAI guidelines issued last month. The reduction in tariffs is effective February 15.

Bharti Airtel has slashed roaming charges by 56 per cent, and has waived off the roaming rental of Rs 49 per month. Reliance Communications has also reduced roaming charges by up to 44 per cent on its pre-paid connections.

Source: iSource

After Google its Yahoo now- Chat within mail interface

Yahoo! has blended its free email and Instant Messaging (IM) services, thus making it simpler for users to chat online from any computer connected to the Internet. The company said that starting yesterday and continuing over the coming months, Yahoo! will activate this feature for users of the new version of Yahoo! Mail, which is in beta phase but available to all users of the service.

It is about bringing to the masses choices on how they communicate. They are hopefully bridging the gap between email users and IM users. According to Yahoo!, the new feature alerts Yahoo! Mail beta users if their contacts are logged on to Yahoo! Messenger and gives them the option of starting a text chat session from within the mail interface. And if the user is composing an email message but wants to chat instead, Yahoo! Mail can take the text and paste it into the text chat window. Similarly, the chat session can be automatically imported to an email message form.

Source: Techtree

Smartphones- Yes or no?

A new research study finds many users of wireless devices such as BlackBerry, Palm Treo and other similar 'smartphones' struggle with the blurring of boundaries between life and work.


While smartphones give users ability to get work done outside the office, the survey showed that owners worked somewhat more, not less than average.


















Source: Cellular news

MSN IM on Vodafone

Vodafone and Microsoft have announced a co-branded Instant Messaging (IM) service that can be accessed from both the PC and mobile phone, based on the Windows Live Messenger platform.It will be launched in selected European markets later this year.

The new service will provide the use of address book functionality and show the presence of their Messenger contacts and exchange messages when these contacts are either on their PC or mobile devices.

The co-branded IM experience will be available on a wide range of Vodafone consumer handsets, including those on the Windows Mobile platform, bringing together customers of other Mobile Network Operator IM networks.

Source: Cellular news

Vodafone aims to lift India User revenues

Vodafone Group Chief Executive Arun Sarin, speaking during his keynote speech at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, said he would look to boost user revenues by introducing new services, such as mobile banking in India.

On Monday Vodafone announced it would work with Citigroup to develop M-PESA, a mobile phone money transfer application across the world. Sarin added that in many emerging markets - such as India and Africa - mobile phones provide the only way to transact with a bank. "We're going to bring low-cost handsets and mobile-banking and money-transfer services," he said.

Earlier Tuesday Vodafone announced a deal with Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE to produce a range of low-cost Vodafone-branded phones to appeal to customers in emerging markets.

Source: Cellular news

Nokia N77- An optimized mobile TV experience

Nokia introduced the Nokia N77 multimedia computer offering an optimized mobile TV experience in a compact form factor with complete Nokia Nseries functionalities.

The dedicated TV key on the Nokia N77 gives you straight access to a world of DVB-H TV. It even remembers the last channel you were viewing when you switched off the TV. You can also set reminders to alert you when your program is starting and access it at the push of a button. Through the Program Guide in the mobile TV application you can view program information up to seven days, browse TV channels, purchase new channels if desired and select the TV program you are interested in.

Features:

• 2 megapixel camera
• 3G, EDGE
• 2GB of memory and integrated stereo speakers

Source: 3G

Mobile money

If you think that money transfer or sending drafts is tedious, you can now use your mobile phones to send money to your loved ones.

The Global System for Mobile Association (GSM) has launched a new service called Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) which enables users to send money from anywhere in the world using SMS. Bharti Airtel has joined hands with SBI to launch a pilot programme that will eventually enable over 25 million Indians abroad to remit money to India through their mobile phones.

Source: iSource

Bollywood goes mobile

Bollywood has joined hands with the global mobile communications world and premiered its first feature films for mobile viewers at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The two Bollywood short films Zahir and Matrimony are part of the feature film Dus Kahaniyaan (10 Stories) produced by Sanjay Gupta of White Feather Films. This move is initiated by Roamware, provider in roaming and mobile connectivity solutions, Hungama Mobile, and the GSM Association.

Source: iSource

Money transfer through mobiles

Do you think that money transfer or sending drafts are tedious? Mobile phones can now be used to send money to your loved ones.

The Global System for Mobile Association (GSM) has launched a new service called Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) which enables users to send money from anywhere in the world using SMS. Bharti Airtel has joined hands with SBI to launch a pilot programme that will eventually enable over 25 million Indians abroad to remit money to India through their mobile phones.

Announcing the initiative, Dayanidhi Maran, Minister for IT and Communication said, "The MMT program is a landmark initiative by GSMA to use the mobile phone as a device to reach increasingly greater economic and social benefits to the growing community of mobile users. The MMT programme is focused on catering to the needs of the large expatriate community of people from developing countries who live and work away from their homes and families and regularly remit money back to their families and loved ones."

Source: iSource

CBS Mobile division

Broadcaster CBS has formed a mobile division and launched three WAP-based sites. The first channels include two ad-supported sites and a mobile store.

A CBS SportsLine WAP site provides sports scores in real time and the ability to manage fantasy football teams. A CBS News WAP site gives mobile users access to full news stories and images. Both WAP sites are ad-supported with banners running across the top of the content and elsewhere on certain pages.

The third site included in the launch is a commerce site. At launch the site has more than 600 exclusive wallpapers and voice tones packaged especially for mobile use. The site also carries over 5,000 non-exclusive wallpapers and ringtones. Content is available by subscription. Exclusive wallpapers distributed on CBS Mobile are called "Live Wallpapers" and consist of still images taken from the network's shows and made available within hours of broadcast.

Source: ClickZ

Yahoo launches Mobile Ads

Yahoo has introduced display advertising on its mobile-specific Web sites in 19 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The move, which follows a year of aggressive expansion in the wireless space, marks Yahoo's first formal rollout of graphical ads on its sites around the world.
Company also released a new version of its downloadable mobile client, Yahoo! Go 2.0.

The ads on Yahoo's mobile sites are part of a new publishing platform built to better deliver both content and marketing messages to the company's mobile users. According to Yahoo, the system can fluidly target ad sizes and creative according to the screen size and other capabilities of a given device.

According to Telephia, Yahoo's mobile services reach six percent of the U.S. mobile audience. Mobile measurement firm M:Metrics meanwhile estimates Yahoo's U.S. reach for all mobile services is 14.5 million U.S. wireless subscribers, outpacing nearest competitors Google, MSN and AOL.

Source: ClickZ

Role of mobile technology in Social networking

http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=351

Reliance "YouTube"

Reliance World is planning to do a YouTube, for the nation’s favourite game, cricket. The Anil Ambani group company has tied-up with an online video networking firm, CrickeM.com, to enable customers to upload, view and share their cricket videos with the rest of the world.

YouTube is the world’s popular free video sharing website that permits users upload and share video clips. The content includes movie, TV and music video clip, and amateur content like videoblogging and short original videos.

Reliance World would enable users to record and upload their cricketing video footage from any of the 240 centres. Moreover, the company would also be the broadband partner for CrickeM.com and even offer memberships through its outlets in 104 cities across the country.

Source: iSource

India's mobile subscribers

At the end of December 2006, India had 146.1 million mobile subscribers (40.7 million CDMA, 105.4 GSM)

• Bharti Airtel - 31.2 million subscribers
• Reliance Communications - 29.7 million subscribers (26.3 million CDMA, 3.4 million GSM)
• BSNL CellOne - 23.61 million (excludes MTNL in Mumbai and Delhi)
• Hutch-Essar - 19.06 million (excludes BPL Mumbai)
• Tata Indicom Mobile - 14.4 million (all CDMA)

Source: iSource Updates

DoCoMo shoots world's first 5Gbps packets in 4G field

NTTDoCoMo announced that it achieved a maximum packet transmission rate of approximately 5Gbps in the downlink using 100MHz frequency bandwidth to a mobile station moving at 10km/h.

The field experiment of 4G radio access took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on December 25, 2006. After having achieved a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps on December 14, 2005, DoCoMo doubled the speed in the more recent test by increasing the number of MIMO transmitting and receiving antennas from six to 12 each, and by using proprietary received signal processing technology.

As compared with the December 14, 2005 test, the frequency spectrum efficiency, or the ratio of data transmission rate to channel bandwidth, was also doubled from 25bps/Hz to 50bps/Hz (5Gbps/100MHz).

DoCoMo will present the details of the experiment at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona, Spain being held from February 12 to 15.

Source: Mobile monday

New Windows Mobile OS

Windows Mobile 6, a new version of Windows Mobile operating system (OS), which has the look of Windows Vista, plus features that were earlier available only on PCs. The new version includes Windows Live, offering instant messaging with more than one person at a time, as well as sending files/images and record/send voice notes.

It also introduces the ability to view e-mails in their original HTML Internet format with live Web links from smart phones. Moreover, it allows viewing, navigating, and editing documents in original Word, Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint format, without affecting tables, images, or text.

According to Microsoft, Windows Mobile 6 will be available in the second quarter of 2007. Manufacturers that are expected to come out with new devices supporting Windows Mobile 6 include Toshiba, Lenovo, LG Electronics, and Samsung Electronics.

Source: Techtree

9% interested in buying iPhone

A new ChangeWave survey has found that nearly one-in-ten respondents (9%) say they are likely to buy the Apple iPhone when the product becomes available (3% Very Likely; 6% Somewhat Likely). Another 7% say they are likely to buy it for someone else. Four-in-five planning to buy the iPhone say it will likely replace their existing cell phone.

Reasons for switching to the Apple iPhone-

• Integration of iPod, phone, camera and email/Internet capability (34%).
  

The survey also asked respondents who aren't considering buying the iPhone why they weren't interested. More than half (55%) said they have no need, but the key finding is that 28% cited the issue of price.

Source: Cellular news

"YouTube videos" & "MySpace services" into Vodafone Handsets

Vodafone has signed deals to offer “YouTube videos” & “MySpace services” on their handsets. Launching in UK initially, is expected to offer Vodafone customers in key markets across Europe the chance to access a version of the both service directly from the Vodafone live mobile internet portal.

YouTube will provide a daily selection of new videos. Customers can forward links for their favourite videos to friends and family, upload their own content from their mobile phones and search across multiple categories.

Vodafone customers will be allowed to access MySpace Mobile, allowing them to edit their own MySpace profiles, find and add friends, post photos and blogs and send and receive MySpace messages while on the move. “MySpace Mobile” & “YouTube videos” will be pre-loaded on future, selected Vodafone handsets to offer customers an 'out of the box' experience, and available for download from Vodafone live.

Source: Cellular news

Vodafone buys Hutch for $19 Billion

UK telecom giant Vodafone has emerged as the front-runner to buy a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar (HEL) at an enterprise value of $19.3 billion (Rs 86,000 crore. Hutchison Telecom, owned by Hong-Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is expected to issue a formal announcement on Monday.

Source: iSource updates

RCom's dream to turn No 1 shattered

Vodafone's emergence as the top bidder for Hutch-Essar comes as a big blow for the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications Ltd as it dashes its hope of emerging the largest mobile operator in the country from its number two position at present.

A successful acquisition of Hutch-Essar would have made Reliance Communications India’s largest cellular company, with a combined subscriber base of 52 million, ahead of Bharti Airtel, which has a subscriber base of 33 million. It would have given RCL immediate GSM presence in 16 circles in India — no waiting period and no brand building exercises. “Just buy and brand it RCL” would have been the easiest route to grab a larger share of the world’s fastest growing market.

Now, RCL will have to wait to get licences for GSM operations. Add to it the wait for spectrum and network rollout and it could be anywhere between two and four years before RCL turns a pan-India GSM player. The premium in buying HEL would have been the telco’s customer base, which is largely high-end and corporate customers.

Source: iSource updates