Alert Ringtones

I’ve just come across a site that offers FREE unlimited music downloads. For a 3-minute automatic setup, members can be on their way to grooving with the latest music. Free free free… but is there a catch?

The site has been around for just under 5 years, and is hosted in the US. It claims to be 100% legal and free… but somehow there must be a catch. Nowhere on the site does it disclose prices or anything to suggest charges are involved. Anyway, the curiosity got to the better of me and I signed up.

Anyway, after entering my email address and name, I was shown the prices page below. Ok, it’s not free, but close to it.

The Unlimited access plan is a lifetime membership. All plans are a one-time charge with no re-billing.

Anyone with an iPhone can now get such affordable music downloads that it has become a consumer’s paradise. Beats the traditional ringtone download plans we’ve seen in the past and even to this current day. The future of free information!

On June 18th, Apple was quick to publish competitive data with other smart phones. It was timed well to build on the hype of the iPhone release. However, in an effort to get this data out asap, Apple made a convenient? blunder with the talk time of the Nokia N95. It does in fact have WiFi whereas Apple reported it doesn’t.

How do you use your mobile?

Whilst the mobile phone was initially developed for business users, it’s now obvious that it’s predominantly being used for contacting friends and family. These are the findings from a survey of 1300 users by Australian National University. The survey found some other interesting facts too:

• 90% said they could not live without a mobile phone.
• 10% do not switch off their mobile phone in cinemas. Shame on you!
• Worldwide, there are more than 1.7 BILLION mobile phones. That’s more than fixed line phones.

It seems the mobile phone industry is strong and shows no sign of slowing down either. In the past decade, mobile phones and the internet have changed our lives dramatically. Society shows no hesitation in embracing new technologies.

There are two trains of thought on the effects of mobile phone radiation on us. One group of people think mobiles are dangerous, and the other group think we have nothing to worry about. Which group do you fall into?

View 1

Yes, there is some danger in using a mobile phone. This is because mobile phones use electromagnetic waves in the microwave range. These radio waves are then absorbed by your head.

However, you are more likely to become sick from smoking, crossing the road and even from TVs and TV transmitters. Statistics have shown that you are more likely to win the lottery than to become sick from using a mobile phone. You are very likely to injure yourself from tripping over the cord of your fixed landline phone!

View 2

Just how much radiation do you get from a mobile phone?

A GSM handset can emit a peak of 2 watts, whilst an analog phone a peak of 3.6 watts. CDMA and TDMA have a lower output power, hence they typically emit less than 1 watt.

Calculations

It may seem that mobile phones cause negligible radiation in comparison to microwave ovens but a simple calculation will show you the opposite. If you talk on the mobile just one hour a day, you can expect the following radiation levels:

1 hour a day x 365 days a year = 365 hours
365 hours x 2 watts = 730 watts
730 watts x 10 years = 7300 watts!

7300 watts of radiation from a mobile is ten times more powerful than if you were to put your head in a microwaves oven. My microwave oven emits 550 watts. Now you can imagine what would happen to you… you would fry like bacon.

Mobile phones can cause the following sicknesses:

- Headaches
- Earaches
- Blurring of vision
- Short-term memory loss
- Numbing, tingling, and burning sensations
- Bad sleep

Which view do believe?

There have been a small number of lawsuits in the USA taken against companies as Motorola, Nokia, NEC and Siemens. However, as there is no scientific evidence showing the linkage of brain cancer / sickness with the use of mobile phones, these lawsuits have quickly become squashed.

It didn’t take long for expert hackers to bypass iPhone’s activation requirement with AT&T.

A Norwegian hacker Jon Lech Johansen, has found a way to use the iPhone’s wireless web surfing application and iPod features without the need to first activate the phone. What this means is that in essence, you have free internet access after purchasing your iPhone. The iPhone is sold as a non-activated device, with all features disabled. Unless users activate their phone, it doesn’t hold much value.

Many want an iPhone to use the iPod and WiFi features without the need of entering a 2-year contract with AT&T. Jon’s iPhone hack shows on his blog the exact steps required and what programs are needed to complete the hack. I wont list them here for the sake of upsetting Steve Jobs.

Jon is only 23 years old and has a full write up in Wikipedia. He has already been taken to court twice for his involvement with DeCSS, a computer program capable of decrypting content. Both times his innocence was proven.

Mobile Phone Blows Up

Oh my, I hope this doesn’t happen again. A factory worker was reported to have had his mobile phone blow up this week killing him on the spot. The explosion was so fierce that it broke his ribs with rib fragments piercing his heart. The Motorola phone was in his shirt pocket and apparently blew up due to high temperatures. Don’t be too concerned though if you’re using a Motorola phone. The guy that died was actually using a fake Motorola battery. If you’re using the real McCoy, then keep fingers crossed that this wont happen.

This is not the first time a mobile phone has blown up due to using fake batteries. In 2004, a Kyocera mobile blew up burning the users hand when the battery acid spewed out. In China, over 10 million fake batteries are made each year, with many of them finding their way to the western world.

Since 2004 Nokia has been applying hologram labels to its batteries to help users distinguish from a fake battery. Don’t risk your life by using a fake battery! Unfortunately many will still buy a fake battery over an authentic one due to the costs. Authentic batteries sell typically 7 times the price of a fake one.

For those that don’t know, YouTube Mobile was released back in May of this year. The idea is to get users to upload funnier content from their mobile phones whilst on the road. You no longer need to be at a PC to browse or upload videos to YouTube. However, YouTube Mobile wont suit all phones or phone plans. You will need:

1. A mobile that supports RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)
2. A service carrier that supports video streaming

Check your phone’s manual and speak with your service carrier to confirm whether you are ready to go. Or even easier, visit m.youtube.com from your phone’s browser and see what happens.

Beware of Costs Though
Whilst YouTube doesn’t charge you anything, your service carrier may charge you for data downloads. YouTube Mobile is quite a data intensive application that could soon eat into your back pocket. I suggest subscribing to a flat-rate data plan.

Uploading
The uploading process is simple. Members simply create a YouTube Mobile profile, receive a unique email address and then send videos from their mobile to this address. To keep you from wondering, YouTube will then send you an SMS upon successful upload.

Hopefully as time goes, we will then see funnier and more on the spur video footage.

Just a day after writing about a cheaper iPhone, I’m sorry to say that you’ll have to hold your breath a little longer. JPMorgan stock analyst Kevin Chang who made the initial findings was shot down today (not literally) by three of his colleagues claiming that he was a little too excited. Chang’s speculation helped Apple stock’s climb to a record high.

Most likely there will be a 3G model available before any low-end model comes out. The possibility of a low-end iPhone probably wont come anytime soon. It took Apple two years before they released a low-end iPod mini. In fact, it wouldn’t be sound business sense to undercut a new product with a cheaper version only months after.

It’s not the first time a rumour has affected Apple stocks. Back in May, tech blog Engadget reported that the iPhone will be delayed, wiping off 4 billion from Apple’s market value.

Hold on! A cheaper iPhone could be only months away. As with anything new, we can expect to pay high prices. Give things a few months, and that’s when the real price value is typically applied to products. And for all those who rushed out and bought themselves an iPhone, well at least you had the bragging rights to it for a while.

Apple is now mulling over a cheaper ultra-slim iPhone version that could be released before Christmas and priced below $300. This is bad news for Nokia and Motorola whom primarily service the cheaper end of the market.

Last July 5th, Apple filed a patent for a new hand-held device that features a scroll wheel similar to that of the iPod nano. I know speculation can really bite you in the bum, but if you’re about to buy yourself an iPhone, I suggest holding off for a few months.

Apple realises that the majority (85% to be exact) of mobile phone users tend to spend $100 or less on a mobile phone.

Apple declined to comment on my inquiries.

The mobile phone was once JUST a humble mobile phone. Then in no time, it went to a triad of entertainment options:

• Audio
• Games
• Video

And now we see the next generation phones offering even more:

• Audio
• Games
• Video
• INTERNET
• TV

Some experts say that we now spend more than 80% of our time using mobile phones for entertainment rather than chatting. The new iPhone would surely make this figure rise too.

Cell Phone TV

The ultimate in cell phone entertainment is video. Whilst many would tell you that TV on a cell phone is ludicrous due to the small screen size, slow 12~15 frames per second, dropouts and whatnot, manufacturers are still heading towards making this a standard feature. Nearly every survey conducted, cell phone users are telling us that TV on a cell phone is plain stupid. Manufacturers do not care though – perhaps they will beat our expectations. Already in Japan we are seeing waterproof cell phones with inbuilt TV. The idea is to watch it in the bathtub! And Nokia’s N92 cell phone is already shaping the future for some exciting new trends in entertainment.