Phones

Sprint jumps on the unlimited cell phone plan bandwagon

Phones / By /

Sprint has joined AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile in offering unlimited cell phone calling plans. Sprint’s first unlimited plan is $99 and includes *everything*, not just calls, but data and PTT (Push to Talk) if you have one of those phones. Sprint is certainly pushing its competitors harder, and they must if they are to stem the financial bleeding they’ve been experiencing.

Ah, competition. It may be a cliche, but it really is amazing for consumers, although these price breaks and the possible ensuing price war may sink 1 or more of these cell providers before this is all over. But then again, it’s never over.

100 iPhone Applications, Tools and Guides

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In case you’re one of the many converts to Apple’s vision for cell phones, namely the iPhone, then you will definitely be interested in this nice collection of links (with succinct descriptions). It is literally 100 links – 42 applications: productivity, real-time info, entertainment and of course, games; 26 tools: like SSH, development, more; 32 web guides with tips, tricks and howtos to get the most out of your iPhone. Definitely worth a bookmark itself.

First Home Telephone Custom Ringtone Player

1 Comment / Gizmo of the Day, Phones / By /

First Home Telephone Custom Ringtone Player Ringtones are all the rage and fun to collect for your cell phone. Now, you can bring your ringtones to your home phone… if you still have one!

This is the first device that personalizes your landline telephone with songs, movie sound-clips, or comedic greetings that play when someone calls. If you have caller ID, you can use the included PC software to assign unique ringtones to friends, family, and unwanted 800 numbers so you can identify a caller by ear. Ringtones are downloaded from your PC to the unit via the included USB cable. The player connects between your home’s telephone jack and your telephone so it can read the caller ID information, but it will not interrupt normal service. The device holds up to 10 free ringtones and comes with credits for additional downloads from a library of thousands of popular songs and audio clips from the manufacturer’s website.

Gimmie!

Suggested Price: $69.95

Portable Bluetooth Conference System

Gizmo of the Day, Phones / By /

Welcome to the world’s first and only portable conference system allowing you to utilize your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone for conference calls. The conference system provides clear sounds from the built-in 5-watt speaker and receives signals up to 30′ away from a paired cell phone (yeah, that’s the Bluetooth range and the reality is that the paired phone probably can be up to 15′ to 20′ away).

The conference system uses three microphones to provide 360° of full duplex coverage. You can even use your bluetooth connection to sync up to 6,000 contacts on the phone to place your calls using the TFT display and keypad.

Gimmie!

Suggested Price: $279.95

Skyfire Looks to Save Windows Mobile Web Browsing

Phones, Software / By /

With iPhone users now being treated to a desktop like web experience on a portable device, jealous Windows Mobile users have had to cough up twenty-five smackers for Opera Mobile to get a mediocre (but at least functional) mobile web browser. But it looks like Opera’s stranglehold as the only decent mobile web experience may be coming to and an end when Skyfire makes its first public appearance. Promising a desktop like browsing experience, complete with support for flash, YouTube, ajax, and more, Skyfire looks to be heaven sent for Windows Mobile users.

Check out a video demo of Skyfire and get more info at TechLore.com.

The Technology Week in view: 28th January 2008

Networking & Internet, Phones, Software / By /

This week Microsoft Powershell gets put under the spotlight in Power Shell. If you’ve heard of PowerShell (it used to be called Monad) or you haven’t but you are using Microsoft server systems then you really should be reading more about it so pop it onto your radar now. Powershell is an interesting technology that on the face of it doesn’t indicate much but lift the lid and it really is a revelation. The power of the thing and extensibility is surprising – you’ll soon be loving cmdlets. Here is a little tip if you have been receiving the Event 400 Powershell message in the event logs.
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Over 1 Billion Cell Phones Sold in 2007

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According to Wikipedia’s entry on world population, there are about 6.6 billion people on Earth. According to market research firm, Strategy Analytics, 1.1 billion cell phones were sold in 2007. That means, that assuming that no one had a mobile before, 1/6 of the people in the world would now have one. Of course, that’s not the case, and it’s pretty easy to assume that well over that number currently have cell phones. Pretty amazing. It wasn’t that long ago (early 90s) that cell phones were these heavy brick-sized devices that sat in your car and were hardly portable. We’ve certainly come a long way.

The technology week in view: 21st January 2008

Computers, Networking & Internet, Phones / By /

Recently, I have been evaluating a new product, PacketTrap, which integrates a number of network management tools into a common graphical user interface. It also contains a number of useful reporting features that can be accessed using a gadget driven dashboard. Some interesting things you can run with PacketTrap are Ping Scan, SNMP Scan, WMI Scan, TFTP Server, Syslog, Whois, Wake on Lan, DNS Audit, and several others. A few days ago I used the product to assist in identifying then fixing a problem with a network infrastructure switch – not the easiest of things to sort out in the middle of the day – especially when users just want to get on with their work. PacketTrap does a great job and in my opinion should be on every technicians radar.
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iPhone Update

GPS, Phones / By /

Apple iPhoneThe Apple iPhone Update v1.1.3 was delivered earlier this week to iPhones around the country with new features including:

  • location data via cell tower triangulation (via Google) or WiFi triangulation (via Skyhook Wireless)
  • Webclips – ability to make sections of web pages into widgets
  • custom icon layouts for home screens (up to 9 total)
  • SMS multiple recipients
  • Chapters for video and subtitle/audio language options
  • Karaoke mode (Lyrics displayable)

Apparently the “CPS” (Cell Positioning System instead of Global Positioning System) is fairly accurate with Google Maps as reported by BMW Geek:

I got the new iPhone update – holy crap it’s accurate with google maps using the cell tower “gps” they have now. It has me within 100yds of dead center, and I’m definitely in the circle it provides as the estimate area. For cell phones, I think this is better than GPS because of limited line of sight to the sky when in buildings.

5 Important and Useful Phone Numbers – Add to Your Cell

Miscellaneous, Phones / By /

Men’s Health Best Life magazine put out a list of telephone numbers that they feel every man should have. Honestly, it’s not that kind of list; anyone can benefit from these numbers. I didn’t think all 10 deserved to be ranked together, but I did think that 5 of them were very useful. Here they are summarized:
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