braincell.ro

How safe is your mobile phone?

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:02:18 +0000

How safe is your mobile phone? A group called The Environmental Working Group has publishd a reported about the level of radiation coming out of the mobile phones - and they say it's pretty high! QUOTE(The Sydney Morning Herald) Handsets from high profile manufacturers such as BlackBerry and Motorola might be beaming out higher levels of radiation than those of some of their peers, says a recently published report. The ranking of more than 1200 mobile phones was published online by The Environmental Working Group to draw attention to the issue of mobile-phone safety, which is the subject of vigorous debate among scientists. The group ranked phones according to their radiation emissions. Topping the list was Motorola's Moto VU204, while BlackBerrys featured heavily at the top of the smartphone category. Four other Motorola handsets featured in the top 10, while the two lowest radiation emitters were the Samsung Impression and the Motorola RAZR V8. Yikes! That's a bit scary... considering the number of people who use Blackberry for business use. A quick search on Google tells me there are 50 millions Blackberry sold! Mmm, fried brain... [Via: The Sydney Morning Herald ]

Action urged on mobiles coverage

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:02:15 +0000

Action urged on mobiles coverage The Communications Consumer Panel and also Ofcom has pledged to investigate why there are such gaps of mobile coverage around the UK. Living in Norfolk, I do feel there are poor mobile coverage in my area. No 3G at all from T-Mobile! So it's good that they are looking into this. QUOTE(BBC News Technology) UK mobile operators need to do more to help customers who experience coverage problems, an advisory panel has said. It recommends a "try before you buy" period in mobile contracts to enable customers disappointed by their new handset's coverage to switch operator. The Communications Consumer Panel, which advises Ofcom, says about one-third of consumers and small businesses regularly experience coverage problems. So how good is your mobile coverage in your area? Or no coverage at all? A map below shows the 3G coverage and you could see some big gaps in some areas - do you think mobile operators are not doing enough to improve it? [Via: BBC News Technology ]

10 of the best open source mobiles

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:02:12 +0000

10 of the best open source mobiles A quick article from Silicon.com showing you the top 10 open source mobile phones. QUOTE(Silicon.com - Mobile & Wireless) Smartphones have come a long way in the last few years. Not so long ago, a smartphone all too often meant a cumbersome PDA-style brick running an equally cumbersome operating system, or else a Qwerty-sporting BlackBerry tucked discretely inside a businessperson's briefcase. How times have changed. Nowadays smartphones are more likely to resemble shiny touchscreen toys and their OS has never been so important. To serve a very demanding consumer audience and to attract all-important developers, smartphone makers are increasingly opting for an open source operating system. More than 60 per cent of the smartphone market now uses an open source OS, according to analyst house Juniper Research, which has noted a significant shift from proprietary to open source. Which one do you prefer? And why? I do like the look of the Nokia N900 mobile phone. [Via: Silicon.com - Mobile & Wireless ]

Nokia makes loss after poor sales

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:02:08 +0000

Nokia makes loss after poor sales As more and more "Smartphones" comes to the market, it seems that Nokia is suffering from competition and has made some loss due to poor sales. I'm pretty sure Nokia is not the only company that are sufering tho... QUOTE(BBC News Technology) Nokia has reported a loss for the July to September quarter after sales sank by almost a fifth. The company made a net loss of 913m euros ($1.4bn; £838m) for the period, compared with a profit of 1.1bn euros for the same quarter last year. This included a write-off of 908m euros reflecting the fall in value of its Nokia Siemens Networks division. Nokia has suffered as mobile phone makers like Apple have developed more popular smartphones, analysts say. Is competition on mobile phones healthy for the market? Would you pick other brands over Nokia? [Via: BBC News Technology ]

Universal phone charger approved

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:02:05 +0000

Universal phone charger approved After a while, it has been announced that the Universal phone charger has been finally approved ! No more old phone chargers left lying in your drawers once your old mobile phone 'expires'. No more trying to find the correct charger for your mobile phone. The new charger will be in the popular Micro USB plug format, which is now popular in most digital camera, memory card reader, etc. QUOTE(BBC News Technology) A new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. Industry body the GSMA predicts that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year. Currently most chargers are product or brand specific, so people tend to change them when they upgrade to a new phone. However, the new energy-efficient chargers can be kept for much longer. The GSMA also estimates that they will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6m tonnes. Nice one International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for doing this! If I can recall it correctly, I think I have about 4 or 5 different mobile phone charger in my drawer. Now with this being approved, this will free up our geek drawers. So how many chargers do you have? [Via: BBC News Technology ]

Mobile phone users to top…

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:01:47 +0000

Mobile phone users to top... Go on, have a guess. The number of mobile phone account around the world at the end of this year is how many? Can't guess? A stagging 4.6 billion at the end of this year!! That's a LOT of mobile phone accounts. QUOTE(Computer Weekly) More than 4.6 billion people will have a mobile phone account by the end of the year if present growth rates continue, says the International Telecomunications Union (ITU). The ITU's latest statistics, published yesterday, revealed rapid growth in information and communications technologiesin most parts of the world. Consumers were taking up everything from mobile cellular subscriptions to fixed and mobile broadband, and from TVs to computers, with mobile technology acting as a key driver, especially in developing countries. The data showed that mobile penetration continued to grow. Global mobile subscriptions was expected to reach 4.6 billion by the end of the year, and mobile broadband subscriptions to top 600 million in 2009, having overtaken fixed broadband subscribers in 2008, the ITU said. And there is no sign of stopping. There are more areas around the world that has not taken up mobile phones yet. As soon as the technology improves in their area, they will be added tio the counter. But what defines an account? I have 4 - one is monthly contract and the other three are PAYG for different networks. So the figures could be a bit misleading... but it's still a lot! So how many accounts do you have? [Via: Computer Weekly ]

Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M preview

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:01:42 +0000

Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M preview Thanks to minhgi for submitting this news to our Submit News section Samsung has announced a new mobile phone... or should we call it a super phonecam ? QUOTE(GSMArena) The Samsung W880 ups the ante with a world's first 12 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom. Featuring a hardware Mode dial and a real zoom lever it does feel like a real camera and you may find yourself struggling to find the mobile phone under the digicam skin. Now while W880 is South Korea bound only, it's enough to give us a taste of what's coming in the shape of the rumored Samsung M8920, which should make it our way sometime next year - but with Wi-Fi and GPS on board. Looks like a very nice phone. Here's a quick breakdown on the specifications: Network : GSM 900/1800/1900. CDMA2000 800/1700. UMTS 2100. 1xEV-DO 800/1700 Size : 115.8 x 56.9 x 16.3 mm Display : AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors. 480 x 800 pixels, 3.3 inches Internal memory : 4GB Data Connectivity : GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth Camera : 12 MP, 4000 x 3000 pixels, 3x optical zoom, autofocus, xenon flash, LED flash. Video at 720p@30fps Features : Accelerometer sensor, Proximity sensor, TouchWiz, T-DMB TV receiver, MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV player, DivX/XviD/H.263/H.264/MP4/WMV player, Organizer, Voice memo, T9. A mobile phone that can take 720p HD videos, with the digital camera doing 12MP at 4000 x 3000 pixels, this is one sweet phone. Is anyone looking forward to get this phone? [Via: GSMArena ]

Mobile net ‘heading for data jam’

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:01:41 +0000

Mobile net 'heading for data jam' With more and more new mobile phones coming with Facebook, Twitter, etc software pre-loaded, it's not surprising that the experts are saying the mobile network will be filling up, causing slowdown fo data usage. QUOTE(BBC News Technology) The number of people accessing the net on mobile phones could soon outstrip the capacity of networks, experts warn. Mobile data traffic looks set to rise 25 fold by 2012, said mobile analyst firm Informa. The boom could present operators with problems as revenues generated by those using such mobile data services will only double over the same time period. Mobile network experts warn that operators need to take action to avoid imminent data traffic jams. What are the chances for the mobile operator to upgrade their network? Their main priority is profit, but then if they do not do anything, they will lose customers. Who will be first to upgrade their network? Who will cap their download speed very hard if you go over the limit? What can they do to improve it? Should we switch to 4G or other technology? But then it would mean larger downloads... we can't win. [Via: BBC News Technology ]

O2/Vodafone network share fully operational

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:01:39 +0000

O2/Vodafone network share fully operational Cornerstone, the company managing the O2 and Vodafone network share, is now fully operational with over 100 sites live or under construction. QUOTE(Mobile Exec) Cornerstone may invite tenders for the management of the two networks’ sites soon. In March, O2 and Vodafone announced a deal to share network assets across Europe, which was exclusively revealed by Mobile. O2 parent Telefónica and Vodafone will use the agreement, which is expected to save ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ over the next 10 years, to aid the roll out of their networks. In the UK, both companies will focus on the joint build of new sites and consolidation of existing 2G and 3G sites. In the latest move, Cornerstone is considering putting a tender out for the maintenance of the two networks’ sites, to take place in January, Mobile understands. So what does it mean for customers? I would say you will have better coverage and I would suspect you could pigyback each other's network if one goes down. Wonder what will Orange & T-Mobile do? [Via: Mobile Exec ]

Is HTC preparing to deploy the new Hero software (version 2) OTA?

bolfescu — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:59:53 +0000

As the title suggests, Is HTC preparing to deploy the new Hero software (version 2) OTA? If the screenshots below snapped exclusively for MoDaCo are anything to go by, then it looks to be a resounding yes! So much for those fears of non-Google experience devices being update crippled eh...? The update is already shaping up to be oh-so-sweet judging by the incredible speed of the leaked ROM , the potential ease of deployment just takes it to another level right? P