ArchiveJune, 2007

Okay, I like my cell phone too, but this is crazy:

According to a recent Mobile Life survey of 1,256 British cell phone users, one-third of respondents would pass on a whopping $2 million (or 1 million pounds) in favor of their cell phones, and 16 percent said that price was no object when it came to keeping their beloved electronic companion.

That was just the highlight of the study, conducted in the United Kingdom, and designed to quantify the impact of cell phones on modern life. Actually, this might be the highlight: a majority of 16- to 24-year olds would rather surrender tea, coffee, alcohol chocolate or sex than live without their cell phone for a month. The same research found that 76% of respondents believe that owning a cell phone is a “social requirement,� while 85% say that their phone is “vital to maintaining their quality of life.�

Read more…

An Italian author has just self-published his first novel Compagni di Viaggio (Traveling Companion) on Lulu.com. That’s no so unusual – except that he typed the entire 384 page novel on his cell phone during his daily commute. Using the predictive text capability helped but it was still a seventeen week process.

The science fiction novel hasn’t sold very well, despite its availability in Italian, English and Spanish, and being talked about extensively on the web because of its unique creation process. I wonder if cellular literature has a future as a genre.

Texas Instruments is reportedly on track with its release of the third-generation OMAP processor; OMAP 3, as it’s also known, will allow cell phones running the chip to display high-definition video and take photos at 12 megapixel resolution (or four 3-megapixel shots in burst mode!). That means high-definition video — that’s 720 by 1,368-pixel resolution at the high end — is on the way for U.S. cell phone consumers.

OMAP 3 phones should be hitting the market in 2008, according to Texas Instruments spokesperson Avner Goren.

OMAP 3 chips will further blur the distinction between cell phone and laptop computer because super-high speeds will allow users to easily zoom and rotate files, manipulate graphic content, transfer large files at USB2.0 speeds, and perform other calculation-heavy functions that we currently save for our computers.

(TI has also been reported to be working on a projector for a cell phone capable of displaying high-definition movies onto a flat surface, so you can share hi-def video with friends over a tub of popcorn. So long as it’s never any pirated movies from the Internet, of course.)

Those of you who live in Washington DC most likely know the frustration of having your cell phone calls getting dropped inside the DC Metro system. You may be happy to hear that Metro is working on a plan to make it easier for other cell phone carriers to provide service within the subway system.

Thanks to a network build-out Verizon undertook in the 1990s, only Verizon Wireless customers currently have coverage inside the tunnels (although Sprint users are able to roam on the network). GSM reception inside the tunnels is non-existent.

Don’t expect other carriers to rush into expansion projects, however; Verizon says that it took a month for every mile they wired, and a total investment of $25.5 million. But demand for more and better wireless coverage is high, and even Congress is getting involved in trying to make it happen.

Yet the discussion about this issue on a local website leaves no doubt that not all DC Metro riders are thrilled by the prospect of better cell phone reception during their commutes.

It’s been quite a while since the last time the U.S. market went crazy over a $500 cell phone. That phone was the Motorola RAZR, which set a completely new standard for size, form, and fashion among cell phones. A limited supply plus an unprecedented national advertising blitz by Motorola and Cingular didn’t hurt either.

Later this month, Cingular (now rebranded as AT&T) will attempt to do it again. This time, AT&T has partnered with Apple, and the product is the Apple iPhone, a device which combines cell phone and iPod functions with a touch screen instead of a traditional cell phone keypad. The iPhone will be launched exclusively at AT&T and Apple stores. With unprecedented buzz for a new cell phone, and availability expected to be limited, the Apple iPhone is sure to be an instant hit.

Make no mistake. The iPhone is up against a different competitive landscape than the Motorola RAZR faced in 2004. Read more…

You may already be familiar with the web browser Opera, an application known for its speed and accessibility. What you might not know is that there’s a newly launched version for mobile devices - Opera Mini – that works on almost any phone; best of all, it’s free. I sat down today to experiment with the software.

I have a Motorola Red RAZR (I already have an unlimited data plan), and I followed the directions on the Opera Mini site to download the software onto my phone. The browser installed itself in my “Applicationsâ€? folder, and, once I found it, it took one click to launch. Suddenly I was looking at a graphic version of BBC news instead of the text version I had been seeing when I used the built-in browser (which wasn’t often – I have the data plan for sending pictures and getting mobile content).

I was able to easily scroll around and zoom in on particular areas of the screen. It’s never going to turn a standard phone into a smartphone and replace all those features, but it’s enough to keep you going when you need to look something up or access your email.

Sprint Nextel today launched a cell phone recycling program called Recycle for Victory, which benefits a NASCAR Nextel Cup series charity: the Victory Junction Gang camp. Victory Junction Gang camp is a year-round racing-themed camp that serves children ages 7 to 15 with a variety of chronic illnesses. The camp allows the children to participate in activities they would otherwise be unable to do.

The program is similar to other programs, including Wirefly’s cell phone recycling program, in that it allows people to send in old, unused cell phones to a donation center at no cost to themselves. The recycling center disposes or recycles the phones in an environmentally friendly manner and donates the proceeds to a charity.