Sola Rosa Moves On Mobile

Regular Xtra Mobile users may have noticed the Sola Rosa link on the main Xtra Mobile WAP page, and I highly recommend following it through. Defiantly the nicest looking WAP mini site I have seen yet. Sola Rosa a.k.a. Andrew Spraggan creates a non-genre specific blend of music listed under "Easy Listening, Electronic, Film Music, Ambient, Breaks, Funk, Dub/Reggae" on Amplifier.co.nz. Sola Rosa's music is available for download as a Tru-Tone on compatible phones, and also Caller Tunes for every 027 Mobile. Video Clips are also available for those lucky Sanyo 7400 and 5600 users. The animated clips 'Leave Home' and 'Ready' are among the nicest looking streaming video clips yet seen. Well worth checking out.

I love the things some people come up with, and lets face it, who hasn't thought a watch phone would be useful? Sure its a little retro, but so practical...

From: Oh Gizmo!

WiFi News 10-08-2005

These clever geeks have managed to beam WiFi, unamplified, over 125 miles, thats a slight improvement over the the current 300 metres or so offered by current wireless access points.

So how can you boost your WiFi? Easy! WiFI Speed Spray, Another clever invention from the "Only In America" category will improve your WiFi if you live in polluted areas such as Los Angeles, (or perhaps Auckland), just spray and watch your data transfers improve!

Theres A Lot Going On ...

Post London Bombing, two new mobile phone services in the UK have gained attention;

ICE is a simple yet very effective idea, In Case of Emergengy. Easy to implement, just list your emergency contacts under ICE in your mobile's phone book, then if something happens to you, a passerby can pick up your phone, scroll through your contacts for ICE, and call your mum/dad/doctor, or whoever you want really.

textOK.com stores all your contacts email address online, and by sending a txt containing the word 'OK' to their number, textOK.com emails all your contacts to let them know you're safe. Quite a clever idea, it has the benefit of not overloading the mobile networks after terrorist incidents.

The Fun New Nokia 6235

The newest addition to the Telecom family of cool handsets, the 6235 features a sexy colour screen, photo and video messaging, WAP 2.0, and a Nokia favourie, FM radio. The stereo handsfree headset is also included. Read up on it here

Support information, user guide, software dowloads, available here.

Pretec’s 4GB SD card

>>From engadet.com

(Quote)
In our latest ginormous memory format check-in this month, we proxy news of Pretec’s new 4GB SD card, beating out current record holder ATP’s 2GB card by, um, 100%. It’ll transfer data at 20MBps when it hits production lines in August, and will set you back by $700, but fret not—by this time next year it’ll be a hundred bucks and we’ll be giddily showing up images of 16GB MiniSD cards.
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Read the article here

Bad Customer Service is Top Reason Consumers Switch Carriers

>>From Mobiledia.com

(Quote)

Despite the increased use of new technologies intended to improve customer service, such as automated phone systems and live chat over the Internet, poor customer service is the primary reason that consumers switch service providers, according to results of a study released today by Accenture.

Nearly half (49 percent) of the more than 2000 U.S. and U.K. consumers surveyed said poor service led them to change service providers in at least one industry in the past year. When asked to further explain their reasons for switching, the greatest number of these respondents (61 percent) identified poor service or product quality, to get lower prices (46 percent), a service representative's lack of knowledge about a provider's services or products (39 percent), lack of customized solutions (22 percent), company policies that create bureaucracy (19 percent), and technologies that delay or stop service (19 percent).

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Read the rest here

It's old news now but still worth noting:

The Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Phone MM-5600 by Sanyo was selected out of the hundreds of digital products on display at the Photo Marketing Association 2005 Convention and Trade show in Orlando, Fla, to receive the prestigious DIMA (Digital Imaging Marketing Association) Innovative Digital Product Award. The award is presented by DIMA based on a comprehensive evaluation by a blue-ribbon panel of digital imaging editors and writers. Read the full article here

Source: mobiledia

Crossing my fingers that we'll have this baby soon.

Chinese Pandas get Broadband

BEIJING (Reuters) - Calling all tech-savvy pandas -- China's biggest nature reserve in the foggy mountains of southwest Sichuan province is now wired for broadband.

Some might argue that the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, China's largest, is now ready for the world's first panda internet cafe, but the great digital leap forward is aimed more at panda protection.

Researchers are able to process real-time data on the pandas, including photos and video signals, around the clock at any given corner of the nature reserve, or observe giant panda cubs on a daily basis without having to step out of their offices," Xinhua said. read the rest here

source: yahoo news

Never run out of battery life again!

just think about how much energy you waste when you pound your heels into the ground while walking or jogging. you exert a lot of effort fighting gravity to lift your foot and body from the ground, only to let gravity take over, allowing your body to fall forward onto your heel again and wear another layer from the sole of your sneaker.

the kind folks at the mit media lab decided to do something about this. by placing a piezoelectric element or a rotary magnetic generator into the heel of your shoe, you can effectively recycle some of your strut and use it for a mobile device.

it’s like regenerative braking for your feet.

source: engadget

The New 2112

Check it out

Cell Phone Toys

A line of cutesy minibots that you control with your cellphone? You know there’s no way that’s not going to have something to do with Japan. Not sure how long these have been out and about, but Takara offers five different Choro Mode Pets—a blue bunny, a brown cat, a green cat, a brown dog, and a white dog (no brown bunny, but we think Vincent Gallo will live)—each of which you can control using the keypad on your phone (press 2 to go straight, 1 to go left, 3 to go right). The Choro Mode Pets can also sing songs, run around in circles, and according to 3Yen, pretend to “see a ghost and get scared.” Each pet costs ¥999 (about $9.50), and is controlled via a cable, rather than Bluetooth (hardly any Japanese handsets have Bluetooth).

Source: engadget

I knew it wasn't my fault...

Maybe MythBusters isn’t a solid enough scientific authority for Connecticut state senator Andreas Stillman, who wants to ban the use of cellphones when you’re filling up your car, but a professor from University of Kent in the UK has decided to settle once and for all whether cellphones can cause gas station fires (technically he studied whether cellphones cause petrol station fires, but we’re pretty sure his research applies to the rest of the world). He studied all 243 gas station fires from the past 11 years that were supposedly sparked by cellphones and determined that not a single one was actually caused by a handset. The actual cause of most of these fires? Static electricity, which is what everyone who actually knows anything about this stuff has been saying all along.

source: engadget

Are you this obsessed?

The 8200 Is Coming!

Check out the specs