Satellite for US cell phone service launched

The world's largest commercial satellite was launched into space Wednesday, with a mission to provide phone service to cellular "dead zones" in North America. [via Cellular News]

... TerreStar has shown prototypes of the phones, which are similar to BlackBerrys, and like them, would have access to data and e-mail. The phones aren't on sale yet. TerreStar plans to have the system running before the end of the year.

To connect to the satellite, the handsets will need a clear view of the southern sky, just like a satellite dish. When that's not available, the sets will be able to connect to regular ground-based cellular networks. TerreStar has a roaming agreement with AT&T Inc.

Political Cartoon: Dropping cell phones

Cartoon from Bruno Plante - Tulsa World. Captured in Newsweek, page 14, July 6/13, 2009.

Apple agrees to industry standard mobile phone charger

The European Commission (EC) announced today that 10 mobile phone manufacturers and chip producers, including Apple, have signed up to an initiative to produce standard mobile phone chargers. V2.co.uk reports.

Companies signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will harmonise chargers in Europe on the basis of the micro-USB connector, in order to cut down on electronics manufacturing and waste.

... Apart from Apple, the companies that have signed the MoU are LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

Previously:

-- Mobile phone makers agree to create standard charger

-- European Commission demands a single, standard phone charger

Rumors surface of a PlayStation cell phone

Sony Ericsson is reportedly working on a phone that combines PlayStation games with a cell phone. It’s not the first time that such rumors have floated, but Nikkei, a major Japanese business publication, reported that Sony has a team working on the product now.

[via The Industry Standard]

Nomophobia - The Fear of Being Out of Cell Phone Range

Research in Britain has shown that up to 53% of mobile phone users suffer from “no mobile phobia,” or nomophobia, the fear of being without cell phone service for any reason. Synthesis blog reports.

Experts say nomophobia could affect up to 53 per cent of mobile phone users, with 48 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men questioned admitting to experiencing feelings of anxiety when they run out of battery or credit, lose their phone or have no network coverage.

Russia Faces Mobile Phone Shortage Due to Customs Clamp-Down

Russia is facing a possible shortage of mobile phones following a clamp-down instigated by the Federal Customs Service. The Moscow Times reports via Cellular News.

Under new rules, a policy of randomly checking handset boxes to ensure they were as advertised has been changed to require that every single box is opened and the contents verified. The rules are temporary and due to expire in September.

Over the first two days that the rules have been in effect, customs points at Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo have not processed a single Nokia handset, spokeswoman Viktoria Yeremina said. By Tuesday, more than 440,000 Nokia telephones worth around US$42 million have piled up at the two posts, and the figure is rising, she added.

Motorola managed to get a large shipment into the country before the new rules came into effect, but subsequent deliveries are also being delayed.

Mobile Phone Thieves Have Hand and Foot Amputated by Court Order

In Somalia's capital, the radical Islamist al-Shabab militia amputated a hand and a foot each from four young men accused of stealing guns and mobile phones. [via Cellular News].

In front of a crowd of hundreds at an al-Shabab camp in the north of Mogadishu, militiamen cut off the right hand and left foot of the four suspected thieves.
An al-Shabab leader, Ali Mohamed Hussein, spoke at the scene of the punishment.

"The four men had already been sentenced," he said. "Each had his right hand and left foot cut off. We are implementing sharia law. We sentenced these men after confirming that they robbed people in Mogadishu."

Verizon To Refund Millions For Unwanted Ring Tones

As part of an agreement with Florida's Attorney General, Verizon and Alltel (now part of Verizon) will have to deliver roughly $30 million in refunds to consumers for ringtones and other services that customers either didn't want or didn't understand they signed up for. According to a statement by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Verizon is also required to adopt new guidelines preventing customers from getting snookered by such promotions in the future.

[via Broadband]

Intel and Nokia band together

The world's largest chip maker has teamed up with the world's largest mobile phone maker to create what they say will be a "new exciting industry". The BBC reports.

Intel and Nokia said their "technology collaboration" would deliver new mobile computing products - beyond existing smartphones, netbooks and notebooks.

But both companies added it was still too early to talk about product plans.

The deal gives Intel its first real breakthrough in the multi-billion dollar mobile-phone market.

ASCAP and Copyright Doublespeak

Just a few days ago, the EFF pointed out that ASCAP is arguing in federal court that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.

Now, reports the EFF in a follow up article:

ASCAP has fired up its spin control machinery and issued a statement to Billboard, including this talking point, doubtless meant to be reassuring:

To be completely clear, ASCAP’s approach has always been to license these businesses – not to charge listeners/end-users.

This is an archetypal example of copyright doublespeak. What ASCAP should be saying is: "It's not infringing when your ringtone goes off in public." That's because the Copyright Act specifically provides in Section 110(4) that public performances "without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage" are "not infringements of copyright."

Instead, ASCAP's statement essentially amounts to "you're all pirates, but don't fret, we'd never sue you for it, just every company that provides you with services."

Read full article.

Iran's Internet monitoring provided by European telcos

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale. The Wall Street Journal reports.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

... China's vaunted "Great Firewall," which is widely considered the most advanced and extensive Internet censoring in the world, is believed also to involve deep packet inspection. But China appears to be developing this capability in a more decentralized manner, at the level of its Internet service providers rather than through a single hub, according to experts. That suggests its implementation might not be as uniform as that in Iran, they said, as the arrangement depends on the cooperation of all the service providers.

Read full article.

And interesting, an article which was published on the BBC website Friday, with a theory on why Iran had turned off state-owned telecoms.

According to Craig Labovitz of Arbor Networks, the authorities were buying time to install the filtering tools they needed to have a functioning internet infrastructure, but one over which they had some measure of control. So he reckons they gradually turned the tap back on as they put the filters in.

ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings

According to the EFF, ASCAP appears to believe that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.

At least that's the import of a brief it filed in ASCAP's court battle with mobile phone giant AT&T.

This will doubtless come as a shock to the millions of Americans who have legitimately purchased musical ringtones, contributing millions to the music industry's bottom line. Are we each liable for statutory damages (say, $80,000) if we forget to silence our phones in a restaurant?

ASCAP's outlandish claim is part of its battle with major mobile carriers (including Verizon and AT&T) over whether ASCAP is owed any money for "public performances" of the musical ringtones sold by the carriers. The carriers point out that the owners of the musical compositions (i.e., songwriters and music publishers) are already paid for each ringtone download, but ASCAP claims that it's owed another royalty for the "public performances" (i.e., ringing in a restaurant) of those same ringtones.

Read full article.

David Pogue's "I'm a Mac" mock video to introduce iPhone 3GS features

Watch New York Times David Pogue's mock "I'm a Mac" commercial highlighting iPhone 3GS's new features. Great!

IBM To Invest $100 Million In Cell Phone Research

IBM, long synonymous with the personal computer, hopes to become equally influential in the world of mobile computing. Bits blog reports.

The company plans to announce Wednesday a $100 million investment pool to develop new services for mobile phones. The company provided few specifics about its research goals but said it broadly hopes to improve mobile payment methods, security, privacy, and user interface and, chiefly, to enhance the ability of corporations to used mobile devices to interact with customers and employees.

Read full article.

Obama backs repeal of tax on personal cellphones

According to Reuters, the Obama administration on Tuesday said it will back repealing a hard-to-enforce tax on personal use of work cellphones, appeasing the business community, phone makers and users.

Related: - IRS proposes taxing workers for company-issued cell phones

Iowa Girl Wins L.G. National Texting Championship

A 15-year-old girl with a 500-texts-a-day texting habit thumbed her way to the $50,000 grand prize at the L.G. National Texting Championship in New York on Tuesday. reports CNN.

Over 250,000 participants of all ages entered the competition, whose championship rounds were held in New York on Monday and Tuesday. Some challenges were straightforward tests of speed and accuracy, but others required a little extra texting savvy.

In one round, texters had to send texts while blindfolded. Another round quizzed contestants' knowledge of texting acronyms.

The only acronym to stump every texter was PAW -- parents are watching.

Links to previous texting championships.

Well-dressed bank robbery suspect foiled by text

A man wearing a suit and driving a BMW tried to rob a Boston-area bank at gunpoint but was foiled when an employee texted another branch for help, police said Tuesday, reports Cellular News.

Delroy George Henry, 34, of Boston, walked into a Citizens Bank just as it opened Tuesday and pulled a pellet gun on employees.

Henry pretended to be withdrawing money from an ATM then forced his way in the bank when an employee walked inside and ordered employees to try to open the locked vault, Nedder said.

In the confusion, one of the workers sent a text message to the manager at the nearby Norwood branch, who alerted police.

Officers working a road detail just 100 yards away responded within seconds and arrested Henry as he left the bank.

Microsoft Stops Paying For Employees' iPhones

Microsoft's cost-cutting measures drove it to lay off thousands of employees and led to some perks being discontinued for its remaining employees - including no longer paying for their Apple Phone data service plans anymore, even if they're used significantly for work purposes.

Nor will it pay for Research In Motio BlackBerry service, or a new Palm Pre. Instead, it will only reimburse data plans for Microsoft Windows Mobile-powered smartphones.

[via Silicon Alley Insider via The Washington Post]

Cyber-monks: Alexian Brothers enlist YouTube, Facebook, Twitter to reach new recruits

At first glance, it might seem the Alexian Brothers would have use only for the Good Book, not Facebook. But the Roman Catholic religious order -- which dates to the Middle Ages -- is using social media to reach out to new recruits. The Chicago Tribune reports.

The results? More than 2,000 views. To achieve similar results would require years of recruiting fairs, McCormick said. Casual surfers can see the brothers in everyday life -- gardening, painting, working with the ill and elderly. Technology also helps dispel any stereotype of the men as "cloistered monks" and makes it easier to engage in a dialogue about seeking a higher calling.

Providing Cellphones for the Poor

A growing number of low-income Americans benefiting from a new wrinkle to a decades-old federal law that provided them with subsidized landline telephone service. The New York Times reports.

In a twist, wireless carriers are receiving subsidies to provide people in need with a phone and typically 68 minutes of talk time each month. It is a form of wireless welfare that puts a societal stamp on the central role played by the mobile device.

Read full article.

No Tweets in Iranian Election

Per Al-Jazeera via Breaking Tweets, thousands of Iranians have filled the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in protest of election results. The situation has deteriorated to “the biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution.” Violence intensified after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on national television the vote was “completely free” and Iran should now celebrate a “great victory.”

Twitterers reported that Facebook, YouTube, Friend Feed, and a host of other social networking sites including Twitter itself had been blocked on Saturday, as well as a number of news sites. It was also reported that cell phone service was down throughout the country and Internet was running abnormally slow. Many Iranians are still managing to tweet through third-party applications.

Related:

-- Iran - SMS system down in Iran just hours before election

Apple cuts price of basic iPhone

Apple has cut the price of its iPhone 3G with 8GB of memory to $99. It made the announcement at its annual developers conference where it also unveiled a new iPhone 3GS.

The iPhone 3GS will cost $199 for a 16GB version and $299 for a 32GB version. The phone will be available from 19 June in the US and UK.

[via the BBC]

iPhone 3GS Complete Feature Guide from Gizmodo

The new Apple iPhone 3GS is out. Same design as before, including the glossy finish of the back. Gizmodo has put together comprehensive guide to the iPhone 3GS' new features:

Highlights:

Speed: The "S" stands for "SPEED!" And according to Apple, it is faster launching applications or rendering Web pages.

Camera: This is one of the strong points of the iPhone 3GS, according to Apple. They increased the resolution to 3 megapixels with auto focus, auto exposure, and auto white balance. The camera also supports photo and video geotagging.

Video: 30 frames per second VGA with auto focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure.

Special features: It has a magnetometer, which works with a Compass application.

Voice control: You can now talk with your iPhone, Enterprise-style. You can instruct it to play similar songs to the one you are playing, or call people.

Read full article.

Related:

-- A full video of Apple's WWDC keynote has been posted at events.apple.com

-- Apple cuts price of basic iPhone

Apple iPhone's history in pictures

A blast from the past. Apple iPhone's history in 17 wonderful pictures posted at The Telegraph.

Mossberg on Palm's Answer to the iPhone

Wall Street Journal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg reviews Palm's new smartphone, the Pre via FoxBusiness Network on YouTube.

The next iPhone, in detail: video capture, twice the storage and much faster CPU

The Guardian reports on how the iPhone's software will change.

Microsoft offering Bingtones to promote Bing search engine

To further publicize Microsoft's Bing search engine, the company is offering branded ringtones for your cell phone called, you got it, BingTones.

[via MalekTips]

INQ to launch Twitterphone

While devices like the iPhone and other smartphones have long had "native" Twitter clients that let users send and manage tweets, ordinary phone users have been kinda stuck with sub-standard (and often costly) text-message based tweeting.

INQ Mobile wants to change that, announcing plans to offer a mass-market phone with a built-in Twitter client…and that client would pull and send tweets via the Internet, rather than using text messages.

[via DigitalTrends]

Apple sued over methods for repeat iTunes, App Store sales

Apple along with more than a dozen other firms conducting e-commerce, have been hit with a lawsuit from a patent trolling claiming first rights to technology that simplifies the re-billing process for repeat customers making purchases through online store.

[via Apple Insider]

Unconfirmed. Brazilian TV says Air France passengers sent SMS

Brazilian TV station says that some passengers have been able to send SMS from the missing Air France plane, but there is not confirmation on this news.

[via Huliq News]