cell phones – News Stories About cell phones - Page 20

Dec 28, 2007 9:46 PM CST

Battery Ban Begins on Airlines

Most batteries in phones, laptops, will likely not violate rule

(Newser) - The Department of Transportation has banned certain kinds of lithium batteries from checked airline luggage, citing worries over short circuiting and fires. Lithium batteries installed inside of electronic devices will be permitted as carryon, but loose batteries, unless sealed inside a plastic bag, will no longer be permitted on board.

Nokia Divides Itself to Focus on Mobile Net

Dec 28, 2007 4:23 PM CST

Nokia Divides Itself to Focus on Mobile Net

New corporate structure emphasizes services and software

(Newser) - Furthering its plans to transform into a mobile Internet company, Nokia has announced a corporate reorganization into three divisions: devices, software and services, and markets. It’s the focus on software and services, Fortune writes, that’s exceptional for the world’s largest phone manufacturer, and signals the seriousness of...

Give Rescue Workers a Break: Just
Add ICE

Dec 27, 2007 5:53 PM CST

Give Rescue Workers a Break: Just Add ICE

Cell phone entry lets them know who to call

(Newser) - The practice of putting the letters ICE—short for "in case of emergency"—in front of a person's name in a cell phone seems to be catching on. The idea is to help paramedics or other emergency personnel zip through the phone and find the right person to...

Will Japan Flip for the iPhone?

Dec 21, 2007 11:36 AM CST

Will Japan Flip for the iPhone?

Tech-savvy nation may not be all that jazzed about Apple's bells and whistles

(Newser) - Japan’s tech-savvy market may be a tough sell for Apple’s iPhone, which will face more competition from handset makers there than it has anywhere else in the world, reports BusinessWeek. The market already has phones that send e-mail, browse the Internet, and, more important, are compatible with newer...

BlackBerry Maker On a Sales Roll

Dec 21, 2007 12:26 AM CST

BlackBerry Maker On a Sales Roll

Consumer demand means RIM ends 2007 on a revenue high

(Newser) - Blackberry maker Research in Motion is seeing its sales and profits soar, CNN reports. Third-quarter results show revenue has doubled from a year ago and the Canadian company looks set to end the year on a high. Much of the growth is credited to Blackberry use expanding beyond its corporate...

Teenagers
Still Addicted
to POTS

Dec 20, 2007 7:39 PM CST

Teenagers Still Addicted to POTS

Net-loving teens use plain old telephone service the most

(Newser) - Internet use among teenagers continues to rise—93% of teens have some sort of access, and 64% contribute some kind of content on a regular basis. But, despite the proliferation of cell phones and a myriad of bleeding-edge choices, the No.1 communications tool for teens remains the land line,...

Your Phone Knows Where You Sleep

Dec 20, 2007 12:17 PM CST

Your Phone Knows Where You Sleep

...And lots of other potentially useful things about the way we live

(Newser) - Your cell phone knows more than it lets on. Most can tell where they are, for starters, and how close other phones are. Since most of us tote them everywhere, our phones could track or analyze movement patterns for huge populations. “This is obviously sort of useful,” says...

UK Slaps Chatty Drivers With Jail

Dec 20, 2007 12:06 PM CST

UK Slaps Chatty Drivers With Jail

Texting, tinkering with gadgets could net 2 years in the pokey

(Newser) - Yakking on the phone while behind the wheel could fetch you a little quality time behind bars in the UK, reports the Daily Telegraph. A new law rewards chatty driving—or texting, or tinkering with a GPS unit or MP3 player— with jail terms of up to two years. The...

Android Bugs Developers

Dec 19, 2007 12:28 PM CST

Android Bugs Developers

Google's mobile phone software is proving to be tough to work with

(Newser) - Google may have millions of answers, but software developers say the company’s ballyhooed mobile phone software, Android, misses the mark. “It’s clearly not ready for primetime,” says one Seattle-based designer who’s struggled for weeks with bugs and poor documentation, reports the Wall Street Journal. He’...

Apple Plays the Field in Japan

Dec 18, 2007 10:34 PM CST

Apple Plays the Field in Japan

Seeks exclusive partner for iPhones

(Newser) - Apple wants to bring the iPhone to Japan to compete with some of the most futuristic phones around, but it's being choosy in its search for a partner, Reuters reports. Apple is in talks with DoCoMo and Softbank, the country's biggest and third-biggest mobile operators respectively, but they're both wary...

Cell Bills Trump Land Line Charges for 1st Time

Dec 18, 2007 4:45 PM CST

Cell Bills Trump Land Line Charges for 1st Time

Americans have 250M mobiles, 170M home lines

(Newser) - US households racked up bigger cellphone than land line bills in 2007 for the first time ever, analysts say. Only 6 years ago, households spent three times more on residential phone bills than on mobiles, a disparity that shrank to an average difference of only $28 by 2006. Now, with...

India and China Drive Mobile Growth

Dec 12, 2007 12:20 PM CST

India and China Drive Mobile Growth

Big developing markets adopt most phones, text the most

(Newser) - Telecom companies must be brushing up on their Hindi. India doubled its cell phone user population in 2006, adding more subscribers than Britain had total, according to a new international communications report. The 150 million Indian phone-toters represent just 14% of the population. China meanwhile sent 429 billion text messages,...

Wireless Giants Blocking New Mobile Services

Dec 11, 2007 10:54 PM CST

Wireless Giants Blocking New Mobile Services

Verizon, AT&T, keep competitors away

(Newser) - Wireless service giants AT&T and Verizon may be blocking other companies' devices and applications to defeat potential competition. Business Week reports that a discount international cell phone service, a wireless banking service, and PayPal, trying to bring its online payment service to wireless, were all obstructed by one or...

Microsoft Launches Cell Phone Ad Sales

Dec 10, 2007 2:21 PM CST

Microsoft Launches Cell Phone Ad Sales

Graphic or text banners can be shown on MSN Mobile portal

(Newser) - Microsoft launched cell phone advertising in the US Monday, with banner ads displayed on MSN Mobile, a portal accessible from any mobile phone. The ads will be displayed as graphics or text, depending on the user's phone, reports AP. Competitors Yahoo, Google, and numerous smaller companies already sell mobile advertising,...

Perps Catch Themselves on Candid Camera

Dec 8, 2007 9:29 PM CST

Perps Catch Themselves on Candid Camera

DAs using criminals' own cellphone pics to put them away

(Newser) - Criminals may want to think twice the next time they feel like snapping photos of their exploits: authorities nationwide are using the indecent exposures as evidence against them, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We pray for those kinds of cases,” said an assistant state attorney, while a small-town...

Japan Hosts Camera Phone Film Festival

Dec 7, 2007 5:30 PM CST

Japan Hosts Camera Phone Film Festival

48 tiny videos yield intimate close-ups from around the world

(Newser) - Featuring 48 judge-selected short movies, each of them shot using a camera phone, Japan's Pocket Film Festival marks the dawning of a new era in amateur film making. Without special effects or fancy camera-work, the pocket-flicks, like winners "Thumb Girl" and "Walkers," are all close-up and intimate...

Nokia's New Portal Takes On Tech's Biggest

Dec 4, 2007 11:59 PM CST

Nokia's New Portal Takes On Tech's Biggest

New Ovi.com platform will go head-to-head with likes of Google

(Newser) - Nokia has announced bold plans to move beyond mobile phones and compete head-on with big tech and Internet names like Apple, Google and Microsoft, PC World reports. Its Ovi.com site will act as a gateway to all of its music, photo-sharing and games services: "Ovi" is the Finnish...

Deutsche Telekom Wins Back iPhone Locking Rights

Dec 4, 2007 2:40 PM CST

Deutsche Telekom Wins Back iPhone Locking Rights

German appeals court reverses Nov. injunction

(Newser) - T-Mobile regained the right to sell iPhones in Germany that use their network exclusively, in a reversal of an injunction last month that forced them to start selling an unlocked version, the AP reports. T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom, will link the phones to a two-year contract in an arrangement...

Use Your Cell Phone as a Boarding Pass

Dec 4, 2007 2:29 PM CST

Use Your Cell Phone as a Boarding Pass

Houston pilot program said to add security, save paper

(Newser) - Passengers flying Continental out of Houston today will be able to use their cellphone or PDA in lieu of a boarding pass as part of a three-month pilot program, USA Today reports. After checking in, an encrypted barcode is sent to passengers’ mobile handsets, which is scanned by a TSA...

AT&T Disconnects
Pay Phones

Dec 3, 2007 12:12 PM CST

AT&T Disconnects Pay Phones

Call a friend on your cell to report end of 129-year-old business

(Newser) - In 1878, one of AT&T’s ancestors introduced the first pay phone—an ordinary phone with an attendant nearby to take callers’ cash. Now the company is discontinuing its pay-phone operations, it announced today, 129 years later. With roughly 80% of Americans owning cellphones, pay phones had shrunk to...