Satellites deliver UV index via SMS

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60,000 deaths are caused annually by excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In ‘Satellites help ensure safe sunning,’ the European Space Agency (ESA) reports that a new service using its satellites can deliver the UV index to your cellphone via SMS. The Happy Sun Mobile (HSM) service also will advise about how to protect you and send you details about sea surface temperature and sea water transparency if you plan to dive. So far, the service is limited to Sardinia and Tuscany, Italy, but several operators will start to use it next summer.

Below is a screenshot of what you could see on your cellphone if you have access to the Happy Sun Mobile service. (Credit: Flyby, HappySun service provider)

[ Source : ZDNet ]

Yobbos? Just hit E for Eject

SPECTATORS at this summer’s Ashes Test at the SCG may be able to use mobile phones to have troublemakers kicked out. Cricket Australia yesterday confirmed it was considering a proposal to have fans text message a security hotline to have unruly fans removed.

The dob-in-a-yob system would allow fans who felt threatened by misbehaving patrons to anonymously dob them in without fear of reprisal.  The dob-in-a-yob hotline has been used successfully in the UK to have football hooligans punted from soccer matches.

Patrons can send an SMS to a security number, which is displayed on the venue’s big screen and on the back of tickets. Offended parties must include the nature of the offence as well as a location. Once the message is received, stadium security use CCTV cameras to zoom in on the area and see if the complaint is legitimate.

The text hotline is expected to be introduced at the Gabba for the first Test.

[ Source : News.com, Smartmobs ]

[tags]SMS, mobile-applications, mobile-life-style, italy, australia[/tags]

Symbian’s Nigel Clifford forecasts the death of PC, as ‘dawning era of the smart phone represents a shift “as profound as the Internet and PC were in the 1990s.” Clifford suggested that the popularity of smart phones in the developed world and the “leapfrog economies” phenomenon in developing countries–in which expensive wired infrastructures are bypassed in favor of wireless–would create a situation where there was a “smart phone in every pocket.”

Demand for smart phones and personal digital assistants is continuing to grow rapidly, according to the latest statistics from Gartner. Smart-phone sales have already increased by 75.5 percent in the last year to 37.4 million units, and will grow by a further 66 percent during 2006, according to data released last week by the analyst firm.

And, Informa Telecoms & Media is predicting that the smartphone segment will be the fastest growing part of the mobile handset market in 2006 and will continue to enjoy healthy growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.5% until 2011.

There is no question that the PC has democratised computing and unleashed innovation; but it is the mobile phone that now seems most likely to carry the dream of the personal computer to its conclusion. - The Economist (Via Emergic)
We at ‘The Cellular Life Style‘ strongly believe so, for a reason. What about you? Would you like to carry an iPod, a Sony recorder, a Palm PDA, a cell phone, a digital camera, a gaming console, a GPS navigator, a jump drive, a laptop, …………….. OR a cool smart Cellular phone?

It is so painful to carry each individual device and its accessories. And it is quite expensive to buy an individual device for each function. Read how you can actually save 100s of dollars if you buy a smartphone in my previous post Busting The myth of Smartphone Market . If you decide to have an individual device for each function, don’t forget to buy a nice handbag as well, to carry all of them and accessories (:-))

At ‘The Cellular Life Style‘, we strongly believe that It is fundamental and very important for users to think of and use Mobile as multi-utility device than just a simple phone. That is exactly why Smartphones will be THE key factor in success of Mobiles and will rule the markets.

Read my recent posts on this topic for more analysis and discussion.

• Smart Phone is the Key to Content World
• Busting The myth of Smartphone Market

And here is a point of proof of what we believe in. Informa Telecoms & Media is predicting that the smartphone segment will be the fastest growing part of the mobile handset market in 2006, showing a year-on-year volume increase of over 40%. Other segments will show slower rates of expansion of 4% for basic phones, 19% for low feature phones and 20% for feature-rich non smartphones.

Although the feature-rich phone market, particularly smartphones, will continue to enjoy healthy growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.5% until 2011, sales of basic phones will start to decline from 2007 to reach about 129 million units sold in 2011 from 239 million in 2006.

The strongest forecast growth to 2011 is expected to be in the area of feature rich low-end smartphones, mainly due to significant price reductions of these devices and improvements in their multimedia capabilities.

[tags]smart-phone, mobile-handsets, mobile-applications, mobile-life-style[/tags]

This week it is all about new 3G handsets. Two of the leading wireless carriers in 3G space Vodafone and NTTDocomo have released a whole bunch of new handsets, that are expected to spur the growth of mobile content consumption this christmas season and days ahead.

We can clearly see the trend towards music downloads and video downloads on the mobile phones.

Vodafone : ( Read the press release here)

24 Vodafone live! with 3G handsets, all offering Mobile TV services

14 Vodafone live! with 3G handsets offering Vodafone Radio DJ, Vodafone’s innovative music service

6 3G broadband consumer handsets from Motorola and Samsung, allowing faster access to multi media services such as mobile TV and full track music downloads, faster download of music and video files and high speed download of emails when the handset is used as a modem for the PC.

NTT DoCoMo : (Read the press Release here) Unveiled 14 new handsets. Key features of new handsets released by NTT DoCoMo

• Advanced Email capabilities with attachments up to 2MB
• Push-to-Talk
• 3G international roaming
• Full track Music downloading
• Play tracks transferred from PCs
• Download music/video automatically overnight.
• IC cards with triple the storage capacity
• Mobile credit card
• GPS services

[tags]NTTDocomo, vodafone, mobile-life-style, mobile-handsets, japan, uk, europe[/tags]