:: The Cellphones ::May 31, 2007

Mr. Bean’s Holiday was sponsored by Nokia


So I caught Mr. Bean’s Holiday this morning. In fact I wrote a review over at my blog, but realized that most of the review was a direct commentary on how Nokia was practically sprawled across the show, from the Nokia 7370 fashion phone to the ring tone fest that was prevalent whenever Bean and Max had to dial a number combination to find Max’s father.

This is perhaps one of the best examples of well-put product placements. Nokia is prevalent throughout the film as Bean and Stepan (Max Baldry) dial several numbers at three key points in the film with many people around the world answering. The signature Nokia ring tones are promiscuous. Bean also holds with him a Nokia 7370. [source]

Quite an effective use of product placement as Bean in his ever obnoxious and curious self had to play with each and every ring tone downloaded in Sabine’s 7370.

[image source here]


Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 29, 2007

Samsung develops 8GB microSD card


The Samsung press release states that an 8GB memory card is “a size optimal for today’s multimedia mobile phones.” With the rollout of cheaper micro memory expansion options, Samsung as well as other portable storage manufacturers are really upping the bar in terms of mobile phone kit standards. “Kit” phones usually come with half a gigabyte of memory. This was unheard of about a year ago where 256MB of external memory was a boon when it came to packaging.

But now, 512MB of memory isn’t enough anymore. Storing videos, photos, and using your external card as a memory dump for personal files is common in today’s digital trek away from home.

With a read speed of 16 Megabytes (MBs) per second and a write speed of 6MB/s, Samsung’s 8GB microSD card well exceeds the Speed Class 4 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard which requires a data write speed of 4MB/s. This is also much faster than the SD Speed Class 2 designation carried by most competing microSD cards currently on the market.

Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 27, 2007

Nokia 7373 Fashion Phone


nokia-7373.jpg

[image capped from Nokia USA site]



The Nokia 7373 is a swivel design fashion phone that, although cute, doesn’t present much to the table in terms of features. It is pretty basic really with a 2MP camera (confusing a bit since the spec sheet indicates a 1.3MP camera while the main website indicates 2MP), expandable memory and a digital music player integrated onto the phone.



Other features include Bluetooth and IrDA connectivity, a bundled Nokia PC Suite cable and limited web browsing with GPRS.



Labels: ,


READ MORE ...

Cellphone theft prevention


With cellphones becoming as close a commodity to actual cash in several countries, there are obviously several ways that the government can help stop the rampant spread of mobile phone snatching. Where I’m from, we have a few public service campaigns (albeit not very widespread) on how to make cellphone theft an unprofitable sideline by reporting a lost phone to the NTC and having your IMEI (the main key of your phone) blocked. This is different from blocking off your SIM card as the IMEI will render the entire phone useless.



The guys at Mobile Review suggest waiting a while before doing such lockdown measures:



If your mobile gets stolen or lost, if a good person has it, he will call you or redial or use number from your phonebook to contact you, this happened to a friend of mine. The phone was recovered. In this case I suggest not to use the PIN Code or block your SIM immediately that will prohibit this good person from getting your info and contacting you. If it was stolen and a thief has it he or she will might call home or someone, you can contact your service provider for the call history after the mobile was stolen and probably catch the theif. You can also dial your number and the thief might answer it (a fool that is) and it may help you determine who the hell it is. PIN Code and blocked SIM are useless here as well. The only useful code that will make it hard for a devil mind to use the phone
is Prevent New SIM Phone Code, but it is still not fool proof.


Lia of The Gadgenista reportedly lost her phone and had to resort to doing this. She was able to replace her phone with exactly the same model, because that is how much the Gadgenista loves her gadgets.

Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 24, 2007

“Sorry my dog ate my phone book”


I can be really mean sometimes.

But other times it is by pure lack of luck that I lose contacts on my phone book either through a bad sync or because my phone crashes. Or because I just really, didn’t save your number the first time we met.

Friends have been telling me about their painful SMS experiences. When they get a message coming from an unknown number saying “hey congratulations on winning that award” or “hey bro would it be cool if you be a sponsor for my wedding?” it pains to text back asking “thanks a lot! By the way, I deleted your number my phone book crashed, who is this please?”

The Art of Phone Book Deletion is becoming a commercialized one. It’s the most common excuse people give to those who’s numbers come in unregistered. Are phones that flimsy nowadays to have their phone books in a state of volatility?

Do you have a “my dog ate my phonebook experience?”

Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 22, 2007

Motorola SOLR (?): The Solar Powered Cellphone


Motorola has filed patent for a chargerless mobile phone that gets its juice from the LED screen absorbing the sun’s rays.

Motorola believes it can get 75% or more of the light entering through the front of an LCD to the solar cell by using a different type of liquid crystal. By switching from nematic crystals to cholesteric or polymer disbursed, Motorola says it can eliminate the use of a metallic reflector that’s used in LCDs to illuminate the screen. [source]

A lot of questions here of course. It would sorta change the way we carry around our mobile phones. When we’re low on battery, rather than look for a charger, we’d carry the mobile on our hands and not in our pocket so that the sun can do its job. When we’re home, we’d prolly leave the phone below a lamp or beside the small potted plant on the window sill.

And you know what? They’re probably going to call it, The SOLR. I just know it.

Labels: ,


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 20, 2007

Bush has different kind of distortion field


If Steve Jobs can give Apple keynotes with the reality distortion field emanating from his iBelt, George Bush has a cellphone signal jamming field that follows him whenever he goes to visit other countries.

Conjecture around the phone-jamming helicopter has arisen as a result of its appearance in attendance on Mr Bush at the 2005 APEC summit in South Korea. Reporters covering the conference said that a Black Hawk chopper would shadow the presidential motorcade, and as it passed overhead mobile phones would lose touch with the local network. - The Register


I’d love a nifty gadget like that, especially when its equipped onto a Blackhawk chopper. It sure makes some good excuse too for missing out on calls from family and friends. The mobile phone jammer is meant to jam wireless signals that can potentially be instruments for detonating weapons of mass destruction.

Last year, Nokia said they’re the number one manufacturer of digital cameras and MP3 players. I guess if you take these things with face value, they’re also the number one manufacturers of bomb detonators?

Gee.

Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 18, 2007

The oPhone Microsoft Parody






Definitely a unique and cute idea, I wonder why it is even a parody. Just kidding! The phone reminds me of the mid 90’s Shadow Hhawk blades from Image Comics.



Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 16, 2007

Nokia: Unplug your chargers!


Nokia has issued a public service announcement concerning electricity wastage in homes. As it turns out, wasted electricity goes to - get this - not from idle charging of cellphones when the battery is full but from the adapters that don’t have cellphones plugged in!

Has this practice become a force of habit with mobile phone users? I always unplug my charger when I’m done filling up my battery to full. Isn’t leaving the charger plugged a bit dangerous too? It’s like getting a six pack from the fridge and not closing the fridge door.

Labels: ,


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 15, 2007

Motorola V9m: The RAZR’s Second Coming


I really like it how pre-press photos work. I’m almost sure there phone company’s PR agency out there that takes blurred cameraphone shots of new “seen in the wild” products like the Motorola V9m for viral marketing campaigns. “Make sure its just a tad more blurry, but enough to still see the logo.” Heh. Kidding.

Coming out by late this year, the V9m is an all chrome CDMA device that has an incorporated touch screen. Not too many details are known just yet, except that reports do confirm that it will not run on Linux, as products like the MotoMing confirm. Hmm, this is weird. I’d say that the V9m was the more user friendly version of the Motorola Ming.

[photo and info sources]

Labels:


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 13, 2007

Nokia 2760: No Frills Fashion


nokia-2760.jpg


The Nokia 2760 is an entry level phone with a stylish appeal and features that are competent enough to keep you on the loop with the latest in mobile phone technology. It has two essential features - namely Bluetooth connectivity and a VGA (640 x 480) camera.



The Nokia 2760 boasts a clamshell design, three color choices and huge hardware buttons. It also features GPRS connectivity, MP3 playback and 10MB of internal memory.


And all this for the affordable price of around USD $120? Wowzers. I say go for it. Even as a primary phone, its features are quite adept with the times.



Labels: ,


READ MORE ...

:: The Cellphones ::May 09, 2007

Sony Ericsson Media Studio


If you own a Sony Ericsson phone and by chance have a lot of spare time on your hands, why not convert your DVD movies into a mobile format for your phone. Each “high quality” movie will take up approximately 128MB of space and this is really no problem as most SE phones ship with half a gig to a full gig of expansion memory.

phpthumb.jpeg



The price for the Sony Ericsson Media Studio software is about $26.00 and it gives you fast DVD to phone format conversion. And yes it also supports subtitles - but good luck on viewing this on your uber small screen!

Labels: ,


READ MORE ...