NewsforDev | News for Development News

Submit Source

New User

Dossiers

ACP-EU

CTA

ICT

ICT4D

S&T

S&T4D

Trade

World News

Select News

Home > All Sources > Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones


From the newsfordev database of articles
	1-25 > Next 25

Kenya's elephants send text messages to rangers (AP)
Yahoo! | World News 12 10 2008

Kimani, a huge bull elephant, can be seen with his collar containing a sim card, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 in the Ol Pejeta conservancy near Mt. Kenya. Save the Elephants has set up a project where they placed a mobile phone SIM card in an elephants collar, then set up a virtual 'geofence' using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

AP - The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.

Weekly Wrapup: Mobile Web, Google RSS, Social Shopping, and More
Read/WriteWeb | Weblog 11 10 2008

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the product side this week, Google said it would provide RSS feeds of search results, Yahoo updated its calendar app using Zimbra, Mozilla released Geode, Microsoft integrated its Live search into Facebook, and more. On the trends side, we looked at Google stats from recent political debates, investigated the trend of social shopping, and explored the latest in the Mobile Web world - including a RWW Live podcast on the topic, plus an in-depth look at mobile social networks. We also brought you the latest from our new Enterprise Channel.

Sponsor

Web Trends

Google Has Changed Political Debate Forever

When Sarah Palin and Joe Biden debated in front of one of the largest TV audiences in US election history recently, the two candidates might not have been Googling for facts during the debate, but millions of people watching the debate were. This week Google released some information about what kinds of things viewers were searching for as that debate unfolded, minute by minute. It is amazing both that viewers were able to do such a thing, in real time, and that we're able to watch what people are searching for. The internet in general, and Google in particular, has substantially augmented this important part of public life. Social Media and Shopping: A Growing Trend

Social media is evolving. What began as a way to "hang out" with friends online has morphed into an entirely new platform for communication, information sharing, and marketing. Businesses are quickly discovering that if they want to reach the youngest demographic, Generation Y (born after 1979), they had best get online. But maintaining a web presence alone isn't enough anymore. According to new research from August 2008, web retailers are now actually trying to engage that demographic segment using social media. And The Top Mobile Social Networks Are...

MySpace and Facebook, as it turns out. Despite the land grab by numerous startups looking to become the number one social network for mobile devices, it's becoming apparent that mobile social networking isn't necessarily going to be the new frontier that everyone thought it would be. Instead, as consumers surf the "real internet" on their mobile devices, they're also interacting with "real" social networks like MySpace and Facebook. Could it be that consumers don't want new and separate social networks just for the mobile phone? RWW Live: Mobile Web Development

This week's episode of RWW Live, our live podcast show, was on the topic of Mobile Web Development. We had special guests from Microsoft, Pandora and DevelopmentNow. The show covered the state of the mobile application development market, focusing on Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and more. Here is the audio:

Download MP3 Will Google Use Chrome to Index Password Protected Web?

It's now over a month since Google released its open source web browser, Chrome. An interesting theory we heard recently is that Google will use Chrome to index the password protected Web - a.k.a. the 'dark web'. Right now the Chrome Terms of Service (TOS) prevents Google from indexing private data. But when you consider that Chrome was initially presented as a browser for applications, instead of just web pages, this theory begins to make more sense. 5 Great Books to Build Your Character

Tough economic times and startups have at least onething in common - you need character and determination to survive. Character is what it takes to win,to believe and to persuade others. It's a mix of passion, determination, sleepless hours,hard work.Character is about crossing the finish line, about achieving dreams and goals. In this post, we look at five very different books that share a common theme - remarkable people. SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

A Word from Our Sponsors

We'd like to thank ReadWriteWeb's sponsors, without whom we couldn't bring you all these stories every week!

FreshBooks offers professional online invoicing.
SocialText provides an enterprise wiki platform.
WildApricot is Membership Management Software.
E.Factor is an online community for entrepreneurs.
Strands provides real-time recommendations of products.
Calais brings semantic functionality into your site.
MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
The Web 3.0 Conference is on October 16 - 17 in Santa Clara.
Direct Media Exchange is a solution for managing ad networks.
Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
The Defrag conference is on November 3-4 in Denver.
Quintura is a visual-based search engine.
Eurekster is a custom social search portal.
SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.

Web Products

Microsoft Stake in Facebook Begins to Bear Fruit

Almost exactly one year ago, Facebook and Microsoft were in the headlines when the Redmond, Washington-based software giant outlasted Google in a bidding war to garner a $240 million stake in Facebook. It was that investment that pegged Facebook's valuation at a whopping $15 billion. In July of this year—following a generous amount of speculation on how the two companies would collaborate—Microsoft revealed plans for an integrated search and advertising deal that would incorporate Microsoft Live Search and advertising into the Facebook platform by fall. This week, we saw the first step in that integration with the release of Microsoft Live Search on Facebook. Finally! Google to Offer RSS Feeds for Web Search Results

A rumor that's been floating around the web lately is that Google will offer RSS feeds for new results in basic web search. This week Search Engine Land confirmed that Google will "soon" offer this functionality. Why is this big news? Because there's no better way to keep track of new mentions of a company, person or concept online than through RSS. Google is the only major web search engine to not offer feeds for basic web search, as they do in blog search and news. We'd previously recommended Live.com for web search feeds, but who really cares about Live.com search results? They're terrible. Google feeds are good news. Yahoo Announces Major Update to Yahoo Calendar: Leverages Zimbra Technology

Yahoo this week announced a closed beta of a major update to its online calendaring application, which will feature a tighter integration with Yahoo Mail and other Yahoo properties. The new calendar is based on the Zimbra platform, which Yahoo acquired in 2007, and will support both the iCalendar and CalDAV standards for exchanging information with other calendaring services. Among the new features are the ability to enhance your calendar with photos from Flickr, a built-in to-do list, and support for drag and drop. Yahoo Calendar can now also send out reminders for important events by email, IM, or SMS. Does Your Browser Know Where You Are? With Mozilla Geode, It Might

Today, the old real estate adage 'location, location, location' could just as easily be applied to the Web, where it seems that "where you are" is becoming as important as the information you're seeking. Nowhere is that more apparent than with GPS-enabled mobile platforms that use location-specific information to simplify the way people access and share content on a daily basis. This week Mozilla released Geode, a Firefox geolocation add-on which will enable localized content. Mufin: Better Music Recommendations through Algorithms?

Music discovery is clearly a hot topic these days, with large companies like Apple and Microsoft competing with smaller services like imeem, Pandora, and Last.fm. With the exception of Pandora, these services typically rely on the listening habits and recommendations of other users. Mufin.com, however, which launched this week, uses a fully automated system that only takes the actual sounds of a song into consideration. In our tests, Mufin often returned good results, but the fact that it doesn't take genres or the quality of a song into account can make for a frustrating experience at times. SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

RWW Enterprise Channel

Why Some Traditional Enterprise IT Vendors Are Scared of SaaS

Some traditional enterprise IT vendors are selling the line that SaaS is a passing phase, that it is "old wine in new bottles". They are telling their market that SaaS is really no different from the discredited Web 1.0 Application Service Provider (ASP) model or even that it is simply the ghost of the ancient mainframe Service Bureau come back to haunt us all. This post shows why their analysis is wrong. It also shows why some traditional enterprise IT vendors feel so threatened by SaaS and why the economic downturn just made this a major issue. Email us if you're interested in writing for ReadWriteWeb's Enterprise Channel. SEE MORE ENTERPRISE COVERAGE IN OUR ENTERPRISE CHANNEL That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.Discuss

Kenya's elephants send text messages to rangers (AP)
Yahoo! | World News 11 10 2008

Ranger Richard Lesowapir looks on as an elephant passes by, Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 in the Ol Pejeta conservancy near Mt. Kenya. Save the Elephants has set up a project where they placed a mobile phone SIM card in an elephants collar, then set up a virtual 'geofence' using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) NO IONLN

AP - The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.

And then there were twelve...
Megite Technology News 11 10 2008

EQO (pronounced “echo”) is a FREE application that brings free instant messaging, cheap calling and cheap texting to your mobile phone. Chat on the go using MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, QQ (NEW!), ICQ and Jabber, or call and text anyone in the world at super-low rates. Invite your friends to join your EQO network and you can use EQO ... (Read on Source)

Mobile phone news roundup
Megite Technology News 11 10 2008

It's Friday and a lot of interesting mobile phone news has been flying around and it seemed a good idea to round it all up for you. WiMAX and HTC Word has appeared of a WiMA-enabled Touch Pro-like phone from HTC that will be released in Russia. The HTC T8290... (Read on Source)

Robert Fisk's World: 'Collateral damage' or targeted killing, the effect is much the same
The Independent | Commentators 11 10 2008 All kinds of horrors flop on to my Beirut doormat. There's The Independent's mobile phone bill, a slew of blood-soaked local Lebanese newspapers – "Saleh Aridi's blood consolidates [Druze] reconciliation", was among the goriest of the past few days – and then there are files from the dark memory lane through which all Middle East history has to pass.

Zambia: The community call box
Pambazuka News 11 10 2008 2008-10-10A pilot project to introduce payphones, connected to satellite networks, is providing telephone services to remote communities and helping to develop the telecoms market in Zambia. The unprecedented success of mobile phones across Africa is well documented and clear for anyone to see. But leave the cities and main roads, and the mobile phone is quickly transformed from an economic success-making tool into an interesting but essentially useless accessory.

Nigeria: VoIP in the wilderness
Pambazuka News 11 10 2008 2008-10-10With no fixed-line service and mobile phone operators reluctant to invest in rural areas, the Fantsuam Foundation decided to provide VoIP to customers on its wireless network in northern Nigeria.

Africa: New technology sweeps continent
Pambazuka News 11 10 2008 2008-10-10African farmers of the 21st century can decide what crops to plant by checking prices at local markets using their cell phones. Physicians can help nurses in rural clinics diagnose patients by “telemedicine.” In Nigeria, new subscribers are signing up with mobile phone services at a rate of almost one every second. In Kenya, they can transfer money, get exam results and even find dates using their phones.

ICT Update on Rural Telephony
iConnect online | News 11 10 2008 However fast mobile phone coverage and internet access is spreading throughout the world, there are still millions of people in ACP countries who live beyond the reach of cellular coverage and who have no fixed-line telephones. Telecommunications companies find it too expensive to extend their networks to rural areas where low population numbers mean they are unlikely to see a quick return on their investment. But several initiatives are now making the prospect of telephone communication in rural communities a real possibility. And making it affordable.

And then there were twelve...
Megite Technology News 10 10 2008

'World's first' WiMax mobile phone spied
The Register | News 10 10 2008

HTC planning Russian WiMax launch?

Mobile phone connections over 3G are like so yesterday. HTC obviously knows this and so has developed what could well be the world’s first WiMax-capable phone.…

South Africa: Govt Agrees to Big Sale of Mobile Phone Firm
AllAfrica | ICT and Telecom | News 10 10 2008 SA's largest cellular operator, Vodacom, will soon be under British ownership, with the government agreeing that Telkom should divest from the business.

Mobile Speed Trap App, Trapster, Now Available For iPhone
Read/WriteWeb | Weblog 10 10 2008

Trapster is a new mobile application that lets you see and share the location of speed traps right on your mobile phone or GPS device. Once installed, the app uses a combination of your device's internal GPS capabilities, geocoding techniques, and voice transcription to alert you in real-time to any reported speed traps in your area. Of course we know we're not supposed to be speeding in the first place, but a little heads up never hurt anyone. Besides, who can afford a ticket these days?

Sponsor
I actually got to see Trapster in action at this year's DEMO conference when I met with CEO Pete Tenereillo, a conference attendee. He had the app running on his iPhone at the time before it was made publicly available in the App Store. There was a genuine air of excitement as people crowded around him to get a better look at Trapster in action. The app doesn't just run on iPhones, though. It also runs on navigation devices like Garmin, TomTom, and Dash Express as well as on all sorts of mobile devices including Blackberry, Nokia s60 and n95, Windows Mobile, and other Java/J2ME devices. Although you may have heard about Trapster before, the iPhone application was only approved for inclusion in the iTunes App Store this week. It is now available for download to the iPhone.

How It Works

Using Trapster is easy. Speed traps are reported by the app's community of users either by pressing a button on the phone or device to add a marker or by calling a toll-free number. When reporting a speed trap, you specify whether they are live police traps (where police are hiding with radar or laser guns), red light cameras, speed cameras, or just typical police hiding spots. As you approach the reported traps, the app will alert you to upcoming hotspots by way of audio alerts or, optionally, via text messages. To see the exact location of the trap, just click on the trap icon on the screen. You can also set up and join Trusted Groups via the Trapster web site. These groups are private speed trap sharing communities where traps can be shared either publicly or privately. In an area where there are a lot of Trapster users submitting numerous alerts, using a Trusted Group could cut down on the noise as you can configure the app to only alert you of traps that the other members in your group have reported. They could also be used by a small group of friends, co-workers, or family members to just share traps that are relevant to them and their daily commutes.

How Accurate Are The Traps?

The beauty of Trapster is that is goes beyond being a simple reporting system. Measuring the accuracy of the speed traps is a function that has also been crowd-sourced to the user community. When you report a trap, others can rate that trap which makes your "karma score" go up. Based on the accuracy of the user ratings, traps are color-coded as green, yellow, or red, with red being the most certain.

Live Police Speed Traps Never Get Stale

The live speed traps on the service never get stale, either. The live traps will only live in the system for one hour after the last corroboration unless someone rates it or the user who reported it chooses to delete it. So, for example, if you reported a particular trap and no one else reported it after you, the trap would disappear after an hour. If 10 minutes later a second person reported it, the trap would continue to live in the system for another hour past the time of the second report. The confidence of the trap would also increase to "2." If, instead, a second user comes in behind you and puts in "I do not agree," the trap disappears.

Is This...Legal?

According to Trapster's lawyers, the app is legal to use. Apparently, Apple must think so too since they've decided to allow it into their App Store. Some police even like the idea because it will get people to slow down. But really, for anyone who drives, it's hard to not like an app like Trapster. No tickets, no insurance increases, no worries. See a demo of Trapster or download the app here. Discuss

Ericsson Crosses Mobile Phone Tower With Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
Treehugger | Green products and services 09 10 2008 Ericsson Vertical Turbine on a Cell Tower photo

Ericsson Vertical Turbine on a Cell Tower photo

The mainstream wind establishment has a hard time getting excited about vertical turbines - they've been around for too long without a major market breakthrough. But right now it's a bit of the big wind versus little wind question. Vertical wind turbines can have some noise-cutting, cost-cutting and reliability advantages over traditional spinning windmills and may be perfect for in-city wind electricity generation, as well as personal backyard installations. And

KDDI's First 3D Mobile Phone LCD Screen
PhysOrg.com | Science and technology | news 09 10 2008 KDDI Corporation has released a prototype of the world's first 3D LCD display, designed for mobile phones.

Africa: New Technology Sweeps Continent
AllAfrica News | Africa 09 10 2008 African farmers of the 21st century can decide what crops to plant by checking prices at local markets using their cell phones. Physicians can help nurses in rural clinics diagnose patients by “telemedicine.” In Nigeria, new subscribers are signing up with mobile phone services at a rate of almost one every second. In Kenya, they can transfer money, get exam results and even find dates using their phones.

Africa: New Technology Sweeps Continent
AllAfrica | ICT and Telecom | News 09 10 2008 African farmers of the 21st century can decide what crops to plant by checking prices at local markets using their cell phones. Physicians can help nurses in rural clinics diagnose patients by “telemedicine.” In Nigeria, new subscribers are signing up with mobile phone services at a rate of almost one every second. In Kenya, they can transfer money, get exam results and even find dates using their phones.

Kenya: Orange Mobile Introduces Sh1 Tariff
AllAfrica | ICT and Telecom | News 09 10 2008 Orange Mobile, the cellphone service provider, has sweetened the mobile phone pricing war by introducing a one shilling per minute tariff within its network, the lowest ever in Kenya's telecommunication history.

The Mobile Web: Limited But Getting Better
MobileActive.org | News 09 10 2008 Brough Turner is a renowned telcom industry professional with a passion for mobile and a very smart guy. We recently interviewed him about the mobile web for a paper on cell phones in citizen media. What he said is useful for thinking about this in the context for social benefit, so we post it here for you, before the release of our report. We will also have a workshop on the role of the mobile web for social development at MobileActive08. You asked me to elaborate on today's mobile web and how it will change with the advent of 3G networks. Here we go: Mobile phone networks provide the best telephony coverage in the world and, for more than a decade, mobile operators have had a "data" story. Unfortunately, the data side of mobile telephony has been slow, expensive and limited in what it can access. Read More>> read more

Orange Reduces Intra-Network Call Costs
CIO.com | News 09 10 2008 Kenya's newest mobile-phone service provider, Orange, is keeping up the tradition of reducing the cost of intra-network calls.

Phone Headset Curbs Sounds of the City [The Mossberg Solution]
All Things Digital 08 10 2008 Wireless headsets can be a real boon to mobile-phone users, especially for chatty folks who often have their hands full. In recent years, these headsets have bolstered their noise-canceling technology, making it easier to conduct conversations even while walking on noisy city streets.

Mail Goggles or Beer Googles: an end to drunken typing?
Mousetrap Technology | Times Online | Web log 08 10 2008 A few years ago, LG did its bit for lovelorn drunkards by fitting a mobile phone with a breathalyser. Primarily designed to warn drivers if they were over the limit, the handset would also block certain phone numbers in the...

Touchscreen BlackBerry launched to take on the Apple iPhone
Telegraph | Connected | Features 08 10 2008 The mobile phone wars entered a new phase today with the launch of the first touchscreen BlackBerry phone.

Phone Headset Curbs Sounds of the City
All Things Digital 08 10 2008 Wireless headsets can be a real boon to mobile-phone users, especially for chatty folks who often have their hands full. In recent years, these headsets have bolstered their noise-canceling technology, making it easier to conduct conversations even while walking on noisy city streets.Today, Motorola is unveiling its $100 Motopure H15 Universal Bluetooth Headset. It’s available [...]

1-25 > Next 25

Latest News | Login: Users

© 2008 CTA | Disclaimer

Website by Maarten van den Berg | RISQ Consultancy

Powered by MyHeadlines © 2004-2006 Mike Agar.
Page generation: 2.04 Seconds