Information about The News Cellphone and Mobile Blog
Research in Motion has recently unveiled the BlackBerry 8820, a much larger version of the 8810 Pearl due to its full QWERTY keyboard. The 8820 comes with built in GPS as well as 802.11b/g. The 8820 can seamlessly switch between cellular and data networks for seamless transmission of data such as push email and Internet browsing.
You can view more details on the BlackBerry 8820 here.
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Wait, you mean Nokia actually assumed that people would still hold on to their N-Gage “gaming” phones? What I do find awkward is the fact that you can actually play some of these games on other mobile handsets such as System Rush that comes bundled with the Nokia N95.
What’s stopping Nokia to develop a better gaming device? I’d rather they just license the Nintendo DS and integrte the whole thing on a phone.
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“We’ve already lost one generation.”
These were the striking words coming from Mr. James Young, Senior Marketing Manager of Tegic Communications. Tegic is more popularly known as the company behind the T9 “predictive text” input that we find in almost all our phones today.
A campaign is being launched in the South East Asia region to address the alarming rate of elementary school kids who have succumbed to the pangs of “text speak.” Abbreviated words like “tnx”, “go der” or “w8″ have been appearing in elementary school essays and the worst thing about it is that a good number of these children don’t see anything wrong with it.
I come from a traditional elementary school that set high standards for studying the classics, Romance literature as well as imposing hours and hours of training in penmanship and grammar class. We were also subject to four years of Latin when I went to high school.
As an Education graduate (I am also a teacher by degree), I can see the growing concern in Asia, particularly the Philippines, for children who grew up not knowing what a pulse dial telephone is - and base most of their communication through mobile phone use.
Mr. Young, on behalf of T9 is pushing an ongoing campaign that promotes the use of T9 which is the easiest way to help kids acquire better spelling habits without removing them from technology. Of course, as a company, I would see the vested interest of the T9 group in this endeavor, but their campaign also does make sense.
The Philippines has been considered to be four years advanced when it comes to mobile phone services. The SMS hype started back in 2002 and is quickly gaining ground in the West (from the many movies I now see with kids text messaging). Will the US become subject to the same problems in mobile phone culture adaptivity?
Here are definitely some points to ponder on:
1. How early should your children own cellphones? Although I am not a parent, I’m going to be a devil’s advocate for a bit and rationalize that mobile technology does have its humongous benefits and that the coming of the mobile phone was timely for us at an age where we already were subject to rigorous grammar and spelling classes. Our kids, “the lost generation” (aptly called Generation TXT by many of us here in the Philippines) are thrown into the technology cage sooner than they could ever expect.
2. Should you allow cellphones in school? Schools are slowly starting to allow mobile phones into the classroom. According to Young, they should be allowed in the same way that the scientific calculator was allowed. Teachers should encourage children not to stray from the comfort zone of owning a mobile phone, but rather encourage them to use the built in predictive text input method so that, by repetition, they will be able to spell better.
3. Is the problem really the cellphone or is it something even bigger? In the same way that the home is the extension of the school, I feel that parents should be more active in helping their children become more competent in certain “life skills” such as spelling, cleaning behind the ears, and saying please. If I were a parent, I would not deny the use of mobile phones as these are already too inculcated into our lives.
Ever since I owned my first phone, I was introduced to the predictive text input method in the Nokia 3210. I actually found it easier and much faster to compose long and short messages with fewer keystrokes than by the traditional keypad entry. I guess the reinforcement here would be to help kids maintain good spelling habits by at least giving them a phone that will encourage them to spell right - like a QWERTY thumbboard Treo.
Is the situation I’ve written about a true concern or is it hyped? I’d love to hear from the readers.
[DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST INTERVIEW]
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Labels: Samsung
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An application called Telekenesis allows you to use the iPhone as a remote conduit for performing such tasks as streaming video, using iTunes … and playing WoW.
Holy cow, the iPhone can handle World of Warcraft!
These are the current features of the developer release. The application was developed by Google:
* Stream music and videos from your computer
* Screen capture with mouse click and basic typing support
* Simple iTunes Remote control
* Browse your files
* Run applescript remotely
* iSight image capture
* Easily create and add more apps
What other possibilities can be unleashed with this sort of technology?
[source]
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UPDATE: Official iPhone warranty information is out:
The iPhone is not eligible for insurance under AT&T. Under the AppleCare Extended Warranty program, $70 will give you an extended year of warranty. Not a very generous deal considering that coverage does not include dropping hazards. There is another alternative to iPhone insurance courtesy of a SquareTrade CarePlan:
Our basic CarePlan is a great deal, at only 10% of item price - $49.99 - $59.99 depending on which iPhone you have. The coverage is equivalent to that of the AppleCare warranty. If something does happen, we’ll either fix it, or pay you the full $499-$599 that you spent on the phone – All within 5 days. Guaranteed.
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Here is a video demonstrating the HTC Touch TouchFLO technology. Notice the similarity to the “Cube” transition effect which you find in Apple’s Keynote application. Special thanks to Juned for taking this.
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Contrary to what everyone else says, Apple was beaten by HTC to come up with the very first smartphone with innovative touch features. With the iPhone set to launch last week, HTC beat Apple only by a few hours (in Asia that is). I was able to extensively try the TouchFLO interface which basically allows you to flick a proprietary menu up and down from the bottom of the screen.
One thing you will notice about the device is that the screen extends to the very edge of the real estate, unlike all other Windows Mobile devices that has its screen boxed into the metal finish. The Touch’s borders are still part of the screen which allows you to flick your thumb up, down, left and right to access special menus.
At any point in using the device, you can flick up a special menu (drag your thumb from the logo up towards the top of the screen). From here you can flick your thumb to the left or to the right to unveil different menu sets including quick applications selection, speed dialing, as well as MP3 and multimedia capabilities.
Another notable difference is that HTC completely removed the boring Today screen typical to all Windows Mobile devices. Instead, it has replaced it with its own proprietary home screen that displays several huge widgets such as time, date, and the weather. The new home screen is much more intuitive and easier to use.
HTC Touch Fact Sheet
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Yes iPhone has been launched in United State and all the wait is over. There is no words how many iPhone sold today, at least it is still ready stock. Asian people, like me, have to wait until 2008 to kiss it. And until then, we are here just watching American around their country join the party. It is not bad to be the last person to join, and what i can say today: Have a nice party American! do not forget Asian here :)
Some pictures during the iPhone launching:
(Image: One of the first customers; Credit: Reuters)
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