Nokia Silence Booth

At selected festivals across the Netherlands and Belgium, Nokia installed silence booths, offering festival goers a place and a moment of silence while making a phone call.

In the booth, users could use their own phones or try out Nokia 3250.

[via Guerilla Innnovation]

Related: Other Isolation from cell phone concepts

EHS sufferer views computer through binoculars

The University of Essex is trying to unravel the truth behind a 21st century "disease" produced by exposure to electrical equipment, reports The Telegraph. [via del.icio.us/regine]

"Ryan Warne says he suffers so badly from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) that he has to view a computer through binoculars. He cannot use a mobile phone and, when he goes outside, he wears a special "hairnet" to protect himself from phone mast electromagnetism.

EHS sufferers experience headaches, nausea, dizziness and burning sensations when exposed to mobile phones, laptops and other equipment.

Mr Warne, 35, has volunteered to take part in the largest-ever study to determine if the masts affect human health.

The research, due to be completed at the end of the year, is examining the effects of electromagnetic fields on 264 people, half of whom are sensitive to mobile phone technology.

The National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) is carrying out a review of existing scientific studies. Two studies into the condition, funded with £750,000 from the Department of Health and the telecommunications industry, are already under way.

... According to Nic Fleming, Health Correspondent for The Telelgraph, the Swedish government, which recognised EHS as a physical impairment in 2000, calculates that 3.1 per cent of its population – 200,000 people – suffer from the condition."

Related articles:

-- Scientists serious about 'electricity sickness' claims

-- I have to switch the mains off to get to sleep'

-- Mobiles, computers can cause "electrosensitivity"

-- Mobile mast effects to be studied

-- Mobiles, computers can cause "electrosensitivity"

-- Dutch study claims the next generation of mobile phone services can cause headaches and nausea

The dead going “hi-tech” in Vietnam

According to tradition in Vietnam, the lunar July is the month to give thanks and praise to parents and ancestors as well as to help lost souls. However, this tradition has taken on some of the trappings of the modern age, wtih vendors selling cell phones or gift coupons, allowing allow the dead to go shopping at ‘underworld supermarkets’. Vietnam.net reports.

"CM City’s Binh Tay Market is famous as a place producing votive subjects for export. There a man offered: “You can buy everything for the dead here. If you can’t find the thing you need, you can place an order”.

“Nowadays, no one sends ordinary TV sets to the dead, but LCDs. We have LCDs with screens showing all kinds of current game shows,” he added.

At another shop, the seller recommended products for the dead: “Laptops for businessmen, I-pod MP3 players or O2 mobile phones for the young...”

Related articles on mobile phones and death rituals:

-- Handsets get taken to the grave

-- The "Phone Angel"

-- Japan's camera phone craze spreads to funerals

-- The cellphone gravestone

-- In Ghana, you can take your Nokia with you

-- Dead people in Slovakia are buried with their mobile phones

-- Irish are taking their cell phones with them to the grave

-- Mobile phone started ringing inside coffin

Nokia SMS slogan contest in China

Sending mobile short messages have become popular culture in China. On Saturday, according to CCTV International and "Chinese youngsters were able to flex their thumb muscles at the 2006 Nokia SMS slogan contest in Beijing. The competition has its theme on the environment, and 10 children were awarded the title of "Environmental Pioneer".

"One of the children said in his SMS that, he hoped in the future, paper could be made from fibers, while ink could be made from chocolate. That way, we can eat the newspaper after reading it.

This year's contest received over 200 thousand SMS from more than 20 provinces. China's Association for the Promotion of Environment and Culture is one of the organizers of the event. "

Finn takes gold at 7th mobile phone throwing contest

The seventh annual contest of Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship held in Finland on Saturday, drew some 100 throwers from as far afield as Canada, Russia and Belgium, reports Reuters.

"This year's gold medal went to Finland's Lassi Etelatalo, who flung a scrapped Nokia unit a forceful 89.00 metres. "I prepared by javelin throwing, I haven't really practised throwing mobile phones," Etelatalo told Reuters.

"Founder Christine Lund describes the event as a good source of light exercise with an environmentally friendly twist. "There are a lot of mobile phones on the second-hand market, and we are recycling them (before they become toxic waste)," she said.

Links to previous championships: - Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships - Again

Nokia gets nod for being green

Greenpeace's "Green Electronics Guide," which ranks global electronics companies quarterly on environmental friendliness, has Nokia coming out on top among ranked phone manufacturers. EngadgetMobile reports.

"Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG are all bunched up in the middle of the pack, with Motorola finishing a distant last, besting only Lenovo."

Ranking criteria explained:

The two issues are connected. The use of harmful chemicals in electronics prevents their safe recycling when the products are discarded. Companies scored marks out of 30 this has then been calculated to a mark out of 10 for simplicity.

Bar-Type Cells Back in Vogue

According to The Korea Times, bar-type cell phones have made a come back in Korea thanks to the make-it-slim trend.

"... Experts projected that bar-type handsets would continue to hit shops as companies stage their uphill battles to crank out slimmer models.

"Cell phone manufacturers know it well but they have no choice but to embrace a bar-type design to make the gadgets wafer-thin, a mega trend of today’s mobile market,’’said Kevin Lee, an analyst at Woori Securities.

Bar-type phones were the mainstream format for mobile phones in the industry’s nascent stage but they phased out as clamshell and slider phones caught on. "

Free Mobilists’ Mobile RSS Reader

MobHappy teamed up a while ago with Free News to offer a mobile phone RSS reader, which allows you to follow our favourite blogs from your mobile.

And now they are extending this popular service to include all their Mobilist friends and offer a Mobilist Mobile RSS reader, consisting of the 14 most popular and active Mobilist contributors.

Makeshift Bomb Trigger

Street Use has found mores pictures - via Back Five- of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) found in Irak.

"Soldiers from the 39th Brigade Combat Team recently hit the jackpot in Taji, Iraq. After some intense fighting, they nabbed a terrorist leader and cache of weapons and items used for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device). One type of trigger device found was a cell phone rigged up to a motorcycle battery which allows the trigger to remain operational for an extended period."

Previously: - Improvised Cell Phone Explosive Device

BJP kicks off 'SMS to CM' Campaign

Armed with poetry and text messaging, the Punjab BJP today kicked off a novel 'SMS to CM' campaign to draw the Chief Minister's attention on how acute power shortage in the state is, reports The Hindu.

"Aiming to "sensitise" the general public and the administration about the power crisis in Punjab, the party will keep sending the messages to the Chief Minister's mobile phone to apprise him of the terrible power situation his state is witnessing.

The messages would contain poetic verses to drive home the point that "unprecedented but not unavoidable power shortage in Punjab has crossed the tolerance limit of the people,", said BJP youth wing leader Vineet Joshi."

Mobile phones seized by Russia returned to Motorola

Russian authorities returned 117,519 phones worth $15 million in a case that became a symbol of Russia's capricious and, many believe, corrupt bureaucracy. IHT reports.

"The Interior Ministry seized more than 167,000 phones from Motorola in March, although they had been approved for sale in Russia, and then provided a series of shifting reasons, saying first that the phones were counterfeit, then contraband, then a health hazard and finally evidence in a criminal corruption case that has, evidently, since been dropped.

... The authorities released the phones with no clearer explanation, leaving the resolution of the case as opaque as its beginning. A spokesman for the office of the prosecutor general declined to comment, and the Interior Ministry could not be reached for comment."

Latest Trend. Mobification - or dressing up your cell phone

Mod Your Mob - short for Mobification - collects user submissions of modified (or dressed up) mobile phones.

See for yourself! [via Pocket Picks]

Related article:

-- Handset Cover Personalisation Takes Off - "Findings unveiled by Orange UK show that young people are personalising their mobile phones at record levels. More than two million mobile phone users aged between 16 and 18 have modified their handset in some way, a massive 86.4% of the age group.

The mobile operator revealed that in the last six months they have seen the number of consumers modifying handsets more than double. The network currently estimates the value of the market at more than £30 (US$56.7) million, predicting that it will grow by 100% in the next 12 months.

The trend is known as mobification and it is fast establishing itself as the latest craze amongst Britain's youth".

Stationery items as straps for mobile phones

Not all cellphone straps are as esoteric as ghost detectors and shiitake mushroom's, some are actually useful at the office.

Nikkei Net writes up a Japanese company which has rolled out a series of eight miniature stationery items that can double as cell-phone straps.

"The items, ranging from a ballpoint pen to an eraser, are 6cm long or less, and are designed to look the same as their regular-size counterparts. They can be attached to cell phones and notebooks."

German Railway Offers Cell-Phone Tickets

Germany's national railway launched today a service that allows passengers to buy tickets with their mobile phones, according to The Washington Post.

"Customers who use the service receive a multimedia message on their mobile phones that's read by new scanners and serve as a ticket. Booking via cell phone is available until 10 minutes before a train's departure. Customers must register for the service online before buying their first mobile phone ticket.

... The railway operator said all train ticket collectors should be equipped with the new scanners by mid-September."

Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Cell Phone

Why do countries in Europe and Asia have cooler gadgets than the US? Interesting insight from TechMSN who examines some of the reasons why.

Americans are still one cell-phone users - Europeans and Asians are accustomed to the idea of having more than one cell.

Transportation habits affect gadget design - One reason Asians and Europeans have high expectations for innovation and sexy designs when it comes to cell phones is that they live in densely populated countries and must rely on public transportation.

“If you spend an hour on the train every day, then you will want a cell phone with the latest functions,” says Franklin Chang, a research scientist who has worked in Germany and Japan. “If you are in your car, you aren't going to be spending your time playing a game on your cell phone.”

[via digg]

Reality Check: Blogs, Pods, RSS

According to Advertising Age via Cyberjournalist.net, the reach most marketers srave still comes From TV, print and Internet ads.

"According to Jupiter Research, 7% of American adults write blogs and 22% read them; about 8% listen to podcasts and 5% use RSS feeds. According to a separate study by WorkPlace Print Media, 88% of the at-work audience doesn't even know what RSS is.

And recent data from word-of-mouth research group Keller Fay indicate 92% of brand conversations were taking place offline -- far more than the commonly assumed rate of 80%."

Mobile Straps: Ghost Detectors and Shiitake Mushroom's are bestsellers in Japan

From ghost detectors to shiitake mushrooms, ultraviolet ray meters to jewels, mobile phone straps are among Japan's most successful consumer products, according to Mainichi Daily News. And the trinkets used on them are getting sillier than ever. Some bestellers:

-- The Ghost Detector mobile phone strap promises to detect any abnormal energy source in the air and shift into "barrier mode" to protect users from any savage spirits it picks up.

-- The Shiitake mushroom mobile strap uses authentic 40- to 60-year-old delicacies too small to be sent to pricey ryotei restaurants, but just right to hang off the end of a mobile phone.

-- Other popular straps include handmade glass baubles modeled on similar jewelry worn in Mesopotamia in 2500 BC and beads that act as a UV ray checker to let people know to take care when it's sunny.

Surprisingly, buying lots of these straps, especially the pricey ones, are older Japanese.

"Mobile phone straps first become popular in about 1997. Now, about 70 percent of all mobile phone users across Japan are said to decorate their phones with a strap. They've been popular and unpopular at various times since they first appeared, but I think it's fair to say that they are well and truly part of our lives now," says Atsushi Higuchi, operator of a store in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, that stocks over 10,000 different varieties of mobile phone-related merchandise.

via [Tom Hume and Shiny Shiny]

Friendster Mobilizes in The Philippines

According to GigaOM.com, Friendster Mobile has become popular in the texting capital of the world, i.e. the Philippines.

"Friendster’s President Kent Lindstrom says Friendster’s text-message system in the Phillipines already has 50,000 subscribers and the company has a beta web-to-SMS chat system, called MOBS, for Mobile Broadcast System, that will extend Friendster Mobile further in that country."

Special Emmy Edition 24 Karat Nokia 8801

A company named Biuzzirk Mobile has manufactured Special Edition, 24-Karat Gold, triple-plated Nokia 8801s that they will present to the nominees at this year’s Emmy Awards from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

[via Gadgetell]

Related: - Sprint And Samsung Give Oscar Nominees Phones

BA sends 20,000 texts to customers during terror threats

British Airways sent out over 20,000 text messages to passengers, cabin crew and cargo staff during the 10-14 August at height of the traffic chaos caused by terror threats.

Passenger alerts went up 18 times the previous highs, with an average of 23 people contacted per flight.

Messages were sent to passengers and crew in 87 different countries, with the UK accounting for the highest at 70% followed by the US at 13%.

[Incentivated via Mobile Marketing Magazine]

Gadgets Offer ‘Peeking Protection’ to Consumers

Electronics makers are introducing new devices that stop people from peeking at other’s laptops and mobile phones, reports The Korea Times.

"LG.Philips LCD yesterday unveiled prototype of an LCD monitor that can shift its viewing angle between 180 degrees and 80 degrees at the press of a button.

When the privacy function is activated, the screen instantly clouds over for people viewing from the side, while it is still visible to persons directly in front of the monitor. When turned off, the blurring effect quickly goes away and the screen provides a wider view.

Mobile phone makers are also aware that peeking has become an irritating issue.

Samsung Electronics’ latest Ultra phone series has a "Zoomable SMS’’ function. Users can easily adjust the font sizes while sending or reading the messages.

"The idea was to help people to read the messages better in a dark area by zooming in, and to prevent others from peeking by zooming out,’’ said a Samsung spokesperson.

Disposable card mobile phone covers

On Core77 via Yanko Design, descirbes Ame Design new project: TREND cell phone covers.

"Pushing the boundaries of the acceptance in disposability of mobile phonesAME have created the card mobile phone cover, a fashion accessory which only has a short life span and can be replaced as fast as it is disposed. The cover is a card cut out which once folded simply envelopes your phone and creates a new gender of mobile phone fashion."

-- TREND #1_ARTISTS enables in vogue designer the chance to express themselves in a new media and mobile companies to commission some of the biggest names of the moment.

-- TREND #2_CUSTOMISE takes phone cover design in a completely new direction. Enabling users to have their say in how they want their mobile to look and create an individual design reflective of their personality.

Samsung Markets 8GB Cell Phone

Samsung Electronics is launching a "Super Music Phone" this week in Korea, reports the The Korea Times, boasting the biggest internal storage capacity on the market.

"The model, SCH-B570, has an internal 8 gigabyte ard disk drive that the Seoul-based company claims can carry 1,600 MP3 files, 16 movies and 20,000 photos.

According to an article in Digital Chosunilbo, the phone also comes with a “golf manager” function that allows users to search information on golf courses nationwide and how to play to score winning shots on a particular course. A built-in GPS feature allows users to calculate distance to the green and tee shot distance, though for a fee.

The phone has a range of other features including mobile TV, psychological tests and motion recognition games. "

Related golf phone: - Nokia N93 Golf Edition Improves Your Golf Game - A package combining mobile video capabilities of the Nokia N93 multimedia computer with a golf application enables users to capture their golf swing, analyze and improve their game by split screen swing comparison and other advanced analysis tools.

An Interesting Way of Showing Battery Status

NTT DoCoMo's new 3G cell phone, model N702, comes with a built in motion sensor and shows the battery status like a glass of water; the lower it reach, the less power you have. [via Slashphone]

Blogging for big bucks

It's not just a hobby -- some small sites are making big money. With Internet-like speed, blogs have gone from self-indulgent hobbies to flourishing businesses. Real businesses, with real revenue streams from real advertisers. Business 2.0 reports on CNNMoney.com and gives some real figures on some famous and familiar blogs. [via digg]

-- TechCrunch: More than 1.5 million readers regularly check out TechCrunch which is pulling in $60,000 in ad revenue every month. That's 10 times what the site was making earlier this year.

-- BoingBoing: a four-person operation, BoingBoing bills itself as a directory of wonderful things, is on track to gross an estimated $1 million in ad revenue this year.

-- PaidContent.org: The digital-media news site PaidContent.org, headquartered in the second bedroom of a Santa Monica apartment, is set to post even more than BoingBoing.

-- Fark: Though not a blog by most blogger standards, Fark.com is a site packed with sophomoric humor run by a lone guy in Lexington, Ky., is on pace to become a multimillion-dollar property.

Web ad agency Organic puts ad spending on blogs at $40 million this year.

Still, the blogging-for-dollars phenomenon is only in its infancy, and already blog ad spending is roughly twice what it was last year. With overall Web advertising expected to grow by 50 percent to $23.6 billion in 2010, it's certain that more and more ad dollars will land on blogs.

... Any downturn in the economy and ad market will, of course, hurt bloggers. The sheer numbers of blogging-for-dollars artists charging into the game could also muddy the market and put pressure on ad rates.

Still, it's far easier to weather a downturn when your costs are next to nothing. Plus, many players are diversifying, even within the blogosphere.

English Spam Floods Japanese Cell Phones

A large volume of English-language junk messages - marketing male impotence drugs- has been sent to Japanese mobile phones from overseas since late last month, according to Wireless Watch Japan.

"According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, unsolicited e-mails have been sent to mobile phones in Japanese before, but this is the first confirmed instance of English-language junk e-mails."

Ladies Weapons

It's not just cell phones that are designed with women in mind, but apparently, firearms as well.

Hoard Magazine showcases designer Antoni Riellio's Ladies Weapons

[via digg]

Digg2Phone or Digg news stories by SMS

Digg2Phone will follow the stories you are interested in and send text message to you when something happens.

In their own words:

For example, if you submitted a story to digg.com and wanted to be notified of changes to the story in real time, we can do that. We can notify you when a story hits the digg homepage, anytime somebody diggs the story, anytime somebody comments on a story, or when a story is buried.

Right now, Digg2Phone is closed to the public but looking for private beta testers. If you think Digg2Phone might be right for you, drop a line to beta@digg2phone.com and let us know why you want to be a Digg2Phone beta tester.

[via digg]

Motorola to release RAZR tattoos

Motorola will soon start shipping laser-etched - or tatooed - RAZR handsets. Mobile Tracker reports.

"The artwork was designed by tatoo artist Ami James, best known from the TV show Miami Ink".

For those who have never seen the show, myself included, some background from Wikipedia: Miami Ink is both the name of a tattoo shop on Miami's South Beach, and the title of a reality show on TLC which films the events that take place there. The shop is co-owned by artists Ami James and Chris Nuñez, and also features artists Chris Garver, Darren Brass and Yoji Harada. The show exhibits the process and finished work of these entrepreneurial tattoo artists by featuring a number of customers along with their backstory and motivations for their tattoos.

China mobile phone users top 431 million

China has more than 431 million mobile phone users, according to government news agency report published on Tuesday. [via the Associated Press].