System meltdown forces BBC presenter to read the headlines from her iPhone

A BBC Radio 3 newsreader was forced to read the headlines from her iPhone after the in-house computer and telephone systems collapsed just as she was about to go on air. [The Independent via Pocket Lint]

Alison Rooper, has more than 20 years of newsreading experience, and so calmly settled behind the microphone with her mobile in front of her instead of the usual printed sheet.

Smart Phones Allow Quick Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis

Radiologists can accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location with the use of a handheld device or mobile phone equipped with special software, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

For the study performed at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, CT examinations of the abdomen and pelvis of 25 patients with pain in the right lower abdomen were reviewed over an encrypted wireless network by five radiologists using an iPhone G3 equipped with OsiriX Mobile medical image viewing software. All of the patients had surgical confirmation or follow-up evaluations to confirm whether or not they had appendicitis.

"The scans can be read in full resolution with very little panning, and the software allows the reader to zoom and adjust the contrast and brightness of the image," Dr. Choudhri said. "The radiologist is evaluating actual raw image data, not snapshots."

Read full Press release

Mobile phone cures back pain

According to News.com.au, back pains could be cured by mobile phones.

Researchers say they've developed a chip to treat backpain that is powered by mobile phone.

The chip is implanted directly into the sufferer's back but draws electricity from a power source in his or her mobile phone, says Lin Chi-wan, a biomedical engineer at National Taiwan University.

Read full article.

Chocolate Phones

Spotted on The Raw Feed, NTT Docomo's cell phones designed to look like melting chocolate candy bars.

Chinese eBay rival to launch branded mobile phone

China's biggest online auction and retail Web site, Taobao.com, plans to stamp its brand on a new mobile phone, reports MisASIA.

The phone, which will be co-branded by Lenovo Mobile and come with a pre-installed Taobao application, the source said Wednesday. The handset is part of ongoing efforts by the company to "develop the wireless market," including by drawing more mobile users to Taobao.

PayPal mobile payments surge nearly 650 percent

More consumers used their mobile phone to make purchases and compare prices on Black Friday than ever before, according to data reviewed by Dow Jones, reports mocoNews.net.

Some amazing numbers:

-- PayPal said mobile payments surge nearly 650 percent, compared to last year.

-- Mobile searches jumped to about 200,000 this year from 5,000 on Black Friday in 2008.

Read full report.

Xbox Live iPhone app

A new Xbox Live iPhone app called 360 Live is now available in the Apple Store for hard coregamers.

The app allows you to retrieves your friends Xbox Live stats such as their gamerscore, online status, gamer pictures, avatars, latest games, achievements and much more.

[via 1Up.com]

France Telecom Beat Down By Economy, Suicides

France Telecom, which has seen 25 employee suicides since the beginning of 2008, expects to spend up to 1 billion euros on initiatives to ease employee tensions.

That was the word on Thursday when Europe’s third-largest telecom provider reported its third-quarter earnings.

[via xChange]

DoCoMo to Sell Phones With Self-Healing Paint Covers

Japan's DoCoMo is to license a "Scratch Shield" paint for its mobile phones from Nissan Motors. The self-healing paint, currently applied to certain Nissan and Infiniti vehicles worldwide, was developed in collaboration with University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials. Cellular News reports.

Scratch Shield is a clearcoat that is more scratch resistant compared with conventional clearcoats, helping a vehicle maintain its new look for a longer period of time. The paint also repairs fine scratches, restoring a vehicle's surface close to its original state.

According to Nissan special highly elastic resin has been combined with a conventional clearcoat to increase the paint's flexibility. This has also increased its strength by raising the resin density.

Press Release

Church fined for blocking cellphones

An Auckland church has been fined $1,250 after it used a jamming device to prevent mobile phone calls from interrupting services.

Using jamming devices without a licence is illegal. In August, the Economic Development Ministry also a banned their sale and manufacture.

[via Stuff.co.nz]

More shoppers use smartphones to study, find, buy

Some 19% of Americans will use their mobile devices for shopping this holiday season, according to a Deloitte survey. The number is twice as high for young consumers: 39% of those 18 to 29 say they'll use their phones to find store locations, obtain coupons and sales information and research products and prices. One-quarter of all who plan to use their phones to shop say they will make purchases on the devices.

[via USA Today]

Twitter Japan to introduce payment model

Twitter Japan has further moved to differentiate itself from its global counterpart through the introduction of a tiered payment model that will charge audiences to view tweets from premium Twitter accounts. Media Asia reports.

Speaking at the Mobidec2009 conference earlier this week, Kenichi Sugi, COO of DG Mobile – a subsidiary of Japanese Twitter partner Digital Garage – announced that Twitter would introduce paid subscription options starting in January that will allow account holders to charge audiences who want to look at their tweets and access links to their external websites.

MiKandi: The World's First Porn App Store (for Android)

Newly launched Mikandi is the first Mobile Adult Application Marketplace for Android devices, with other devices coming soon.

In their own words: What we do for the developer is simple. We provide a way to market, monetize and deliver adult apps to users that you wouldn't have access to in your traditional channels.

From the moment you stock an app, we provide you an easy-to-use online account where you can upload multiple apps, add detailed descriptions, screenshots and videos showing off your app. You can have a discussion with your users or they can review your app on your profile page at MiKandi.com.

[via Gizmod]

Over $315,000 raised for flood victims through SMS

Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communication raised over 5.7 billion dong for flood victims in the central region via mobile text messages. Vietnamnet reports.

Some people sent hundreds of messages each, worth several million dong to help flood victims.

The SMS month in support of flood victims lasted from October 10 to November 11.

Google Search by voice: Now in Times Square!

For the past couple of weeks, Google Search by voice is powering Times Square's largest combined displays, the Reuters Sign and the NASDAQ sign - on any day from 12:30-2:00pm or 6:30-8:00pm.

Anyone can call 888-376-4336 and say the name of a business or a location that they want to search for, like "museum of modern art" or "pizza". Then, the query and local search results from Google will appear on one of the two electronic billboards.

This is all part of Verizon's "Droid Does" campaign and has been developed in partnership with Reuters and R/GA, a digital advertising agency.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

Hey Santa app helps find gift ideas

Hey Santa is the latest free iphone app from Super Monko Studio.

Hey Santa is a quirky app that suggests Christmas gifts based on budget and taste for 3 age groups. There are almost 2,000 original fun gift ideas, so there is something for everyone. The app lets you change settings, create a list, add items and email them.

Wonderful felt iPhone case

Another wonderful felt iPhone case spotted on etsy.

France Telecom, Sunrise Merge Swiss Mobile Phone Business

France Telecom said it had agreed to buy a 75 percent stake in Switzerland’s No. 2 mobile operator in order to better challenge Swisscom, the state-owned market leader.

[via The New York Times]

Widespread adoption of bulk SMS messaging by schools

Many schools have adopted bulk SMS messaging to improve communications with parents of school-goers. The traditional communication channels were all problematic in that notes sent to parents via learners often got lost; calling a number of parents telephonically can be very time consuming and; not all parents have access to e-mail and the internet.

“Most parents have a cellphone and can receive important announcements from the school via SMS. With SMS messaging, schools have a more effective and cost-efficient way of communicating with parents,” said Dr Pieter E. Streicher, managing director of BulkSMS.com, a Cape Town based mobile messaging company.

By using a bulk SMS gateway, a school is able to send out one message to all relevant parties instantaneously. According to Dr Streicher, “SMS is a good way to keep parents informed – whether it is a notification that a learner is absent from school or will be returning home with a report card, a reminder about a parent/teacher meeting or a sporting event, an announcement for a forthcoming school social or theatre production, or a phone call to parents requesting outstanding school fees.”

Schools are finding that SMS communications reduces expenses such as phone bills, photocopying, printing and mailing. It also reduces staff workload by freeing up time that would otherwise be spent on preparing communications by school administrators or teachers.

“Not only does using SMS messaging benefit the school; it also allows schools to communicate to the parents in a way that includes them in the day to day school life of their child,” said Dr Streicher.

Due to its immediacy, SMS is particularly effective for communicating last minute changes, such as the cancellation of a sports event.

More and more schools are using the BulkSMS Text Messenger service to send SMS’s to parents. This desktop application is user-friendly, and makes sending an SMS as easy as sending an email. In addition, BulkSMS.com offers schools a part-sponsored tagline discount when they register on the Community.BulkSMS.com website. This has the advantage of offering the schools a reduced cost when sending SMS messages.

This is a paid editorial ad, promoting BulkSMS, a company providing solutions to send and receive single and bulk SMS messages using the Internet, covering 700 networks globally.

Broadway shows get an app

BroadwayWorld.com has just launched an iPhone app provides up to the minute top stories, special offers, discounted tickets, news, photos, coverage of theatre all around America and the world, blogs, show guide, restaurant guide and more.

[via BroadwayWorld Blog]

Guerrila Innovation. SMS Enabled Art Toilet at The Danish National Gallery

From Guerilla Innovation:

In conjunction with a music event held outside the The National Gallery in Copenhagen earlier this summer, the gallery introduced a new kind of service: Art Toilets.

Besides being cleaned after each visit, the Art Toilets were equipped with art magazines and posters, thereby turning the trivial and potential unpleasant activity into a somewhat nice and memorable experience.

To access the Art Toilets, users were required to send an SMS to a dedicated number, which in return gave them a virtual toilet token, free of charge.

The phone numbers were collected and later used by the National Gallery to kick start a new SMS service.

iPhone app for virtual gifts

Little World Gifts - Demo from Katie Lips on Vimeo.

For the person who would rather receive pixels instead of presents for Christmas, the Little World Gifts app for iPhone, lets users buy virtual Christmas gifts for each other.

Spotted on mocoNews.

Turkey Timer app

A usefull app for this Thanksgiving, Turkey Timer which helps you figure out just how long it takes to cook your turkey.

How does it work? Enter the weight of your turkey, whether it's stuffed, your desired internal temperature, and whether you plan to baste the turkey. Using algorithms based on top cookbook instructions, TurkeyTimer will track the approximate brownness of your turkey, the approximate internal temperature of your turkey, and about how long it will be until you can take the turkey out of the oven.

You will even be reminded when it's time to baste the turkey.

eBay launches holiday deals app for iPhone

In time for Black Friday, eBay is offering a free eBay Deals app for the iPhone that is a tool for finding and buying the best deals on eBay.

In their own words: Create, edit, and save your personalized searches so that you won’t miss out on that must have item. The eBay Deals application even lets you share the items you find on your favorite social network. Upcoming releases will enable you to further refine your deal searches and set alerts for the deals that mean the most to you.

[via Cnet news]

New Website keeps track of rejected iPhone apps

A new website of interest for all app developers, App Rejections.

App Rejections keeps track of rejected iPhone apps. The blog features the name of the rejected app, Apple's justification for rejection, and then an editorial comment.

If YOUR iPhone app has been rejected by Apple in an unusual or unfair way, please write about it on your blog / news / etc, and send a link to @redglassesapps on Twitter.

[via PCMag]

European MPs votes on new telecoms law

The European Parliament has approved a major overhaul of telecoms law across Europe. The BBC reports.

The package includes a provision for "internet freedom" - the first time it has been referred to in law as fundamental right says the EU.

Member states have until May 24 2011 to include the legislation in their own rules.

It comes amid controversial laws being introduced in France and the UK to cut off persistent illegal downloaders.

Read full article.

First app to go Red for Bono: (Shazam)RED

For the first time, an app is part of Bono's (RED) Project, a business model created to raise awareness and money for investments in African AIDS programs.

Teaming up with the world's most iconic brands, Shazam has launched a special charity edition app for iPhone.

When you buy (Shazam)RED, 20% of the purchase price is contributed to HIV and AIDS programs in Africa.

[via TechRadar]

Tourists get tweets from New York toilets

Five new restroom ambassadors will soon be tweeting from Charmin toilets opened last week at Times Square after beating hundreds of hopefuls for the coveted jobs. Reuters reports.

They won a contest that included aspiring actors, students and even a businessman hoping to greet and chat with tourists and hoards of holiday shoppers visiting the Manhattan restrooms.

Each winner will collect $US10,000 for six weeks of work.

Read full article.

Clickatell's 2009 Festive Mobile Marketing Handbook

As organizations look for more effective and cost efficient ways to reach customers during this year's holiday season, many of Clickatell's customers are taking advantage of mobile marketing for immediate reach, reduced campaign costs, higher customer satisfaction, increased traffic—ultimately resulting in higher profits.

SMS global gateway Clickatell has published its '2009 Festive Mobile Marketing Handbook' to help large and small businesses conceptualize, implement and monitor effective mobile sales, mobile marketing, and customer relationship management campaigns this festive shopping season, using the power of SMS.

Read full Press release.

New iPhone ads tout holding voice and data connection simultaneously

Apple iPhone Ad - Did You See My Email? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Apple iPhone Ad - What Time's The Movie? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Spotted on Business Week, two new iPhone ads launched last night, touting the iPhone’s ability to hold a simultaneous voice and data connection at the same time.