T-Mobile to offer all phones free for Valentine's Day

Good news, T-Mobile lovers! All T-Mobile phones will be offered for free at T-Mobile retail stores this Friday, February 11, and Saturday, February 12, just in time for Valentine's Day. Of course, you have to sign up for a new two-year contract, so it's not completely free. But it's still a great deal, especially if you want a fancy new HSPA+ phone like the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G. Do note that mail-in rebate cards might apply, and that the deal is only applicable in select locations.

Verizon and AT&T swap Apple iPhone ads aimed at each other's weak spots

Verizon has not missed a beat in deciding to use a television commercial to show how much better the carrier says that the Apple iPhone works on its own network as compared to the problems that AT&T customers have experienced over the years. But this is not a one-sided battle.

While many new and current Apple iPhone users have been looking forward to drop-free calls using Verizon's CDMA pipelines, there is the matter of simultaneous voice and data. Unless hooked up to Wi-Fi, Verizon customers cannot have the pleasure of  making a call and accessing data at the same time. It is just one of those things about CDMA networks that makes them different from GSM.

So if you're AT&T and worried about losing some customers, why not highlight this difference in a commercial that shows the dire consequences of not being able to use voice and data together?

will Apple Reinvent TV?

The brand Apple is already far greater than Steve Jobs, and there cannot be a better tribute to its founder. With one stunningly successful product after another for years, Apple has achieved an incredibly strong brand image as the world’s most inventive consumer technology company. What Apple did with the iPhone to cause a paradigm shift and set new standards for mobile phones, it is a perfectly logical extension to think that it may repeat the same feat in the HDTV market, and shatter the existing barriers of human imagination.

Market Analysts Following Apple’s Moves

Some of the Wall Street analysts who specialize in following Apple are increasingly convinced that Apple is going to take its competitors by surprise and enter the high definition television industry with a game-changing product. Apple’s obsession with secrecy about its new product development is well known. However, recently Apple’s Chief Operating Office Tim Cook gave an oblique hint to market analysts that the company had entered into long-term supply arrangements for one particular electronics component that was strategic to Apple’s product range.

Some keen market analysts have received indications from their sources in Asia, which is the manufacturing hub for television displays, that the component that Cook referred to is some sort of a display. If this tiny fragment of information is extrapolated, looking at the past patterns of how Apple carved a powerful niche for itself in the personal computer and cellular phone markets, it gets difficult to digest that Apple will not do the same in the world’s largest consumer electronics market of televisions.

Apple’s Exceptional Global Brand Equity
 Apple’s greatest strength is its extremely strong and unambiguous brand positioning in the minds of consumers as the world’s most inventive company with highly creative and original products. It enjoys this powerful image in both the developed world as well as the emerging markets of Asia, Latin America and Africa. This is what makes it a strong logical argument that there is simply no reason why Apple will not leverage this gigantic brand equity to carve a niche for itself in the global TV market.
Another key reasoning put forward by analysts is that the smooth integration of the TV and the PC has yet to be achieved, and nobody can do it better than Apple. The issue is not as much about the hardware any longer, with the full-backlit LED technology taking care of the hardware quality. The path-breaking difference to the television can be made by Apple software that will become the brain of the TV. If Apple really comes out with a full-fledged Apple TV as the analysts predict, it is going to be the technology story of the decade.

Becareful!!!! cell phone voice mail hacking

Sienna Miller, alleged celebrity victim of mobile phone voicemail hacking. - Sienna Miller photo by Maggie Jumps.

Police in the United Kingdom have launched a further investigation into celebrity allegations of mobile phone voicemail hacking by journalists at the News of the World newspaper, Britain's biggest selling Sunday newspaper.

Celebrities' Mobile Phone Voicemails Hacked

Scores of celebrities and public figures have come forward with allegations or concerns that their mobile phone voicemail services were hacked by News of the World reporters snooping to get gossip and information for news stories. BBC News reports that alleged victims of mobile phone voicemail hacking include: celebrity Sienna Miller, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, London Mayor Boris Johnson, comedian Lenny Henry, singer George Michael, Heather Mills and high-profile publicist Max Clifford.
The Metropolitan Police is investigating the allegations. This re-opens an inquiry four years ago that led to the imprisonment of News of the World Royal correspondent Clive Goodman in January 2007.

 

Goodman admitted to accessing the mobile voicemail messaging services of various Royal contacts and listening to private messages without authorisation. In the United Kingdom, this is a criminal offence.

More allegations were made against the News of the World in January 2011, prompting Scotland Yard to re-open its inquiry. The case threatens to extend beyond News of the World journalists. The problem of mobile phone voicemail hacking is suspected to involve journalists and news investigators from other newspapers in Britain.

Prevent Mobile Phone Voicemail Hacking

You don't need to be a celebrity or politician to get your phone hacked by journalists. Everyone is vulnerable to snoopers and eavesdroppers. Would you want your ex-partner or boss listening into your mobile phone voicemail messages? The answer is probably a vocal "no!"

So what steps can you take to protect your mobile phone and keep those voicemail messages private?
Always enable a security pin-code on your mobile phone voicemail service. Many people don't bother, leaving the code as the default code supplied with the phone. That makes your phone extremely vulnerable to snoopers and hackers. If they know your pin code, they can access your mobile phone messages. And finding the default pin-code for a specific mobile phone brand or mobile phone network is extremely easy.

Mobile Phone Voicemail Hacking Security Tips

Choose a pin-code that is hard to guess. Lots of people choose their birthdate or postal code. These will be the first numbers hackers try, so make it difficult to crack.
If you don't know how to set up a security pin-code on your mobile phone then contact your mobile phone operator's customer services number or visit their website.
Always delete voicemail messages from your mobile phone after you've listened to them. Leaving old messages hanging around on the system is asking for trouble from snoopers, hackers and maybe even nosey journalists.

BlackBerry Empathy is the next generation biometric cell phone

As the name suggests, BlackBerry Empathy will communicate emotions, feelings and moods via your cell phone. This is the next conceptual stage in communication technology that aims to deliver more than just voice and digital data.
It is a biometric device that comes with a “mood ring” which the user wears while using the phone. The ring allows the person on the other end of the phone to receive your emotions and feelings, and get an idea of your emotional state.

Biometric Phone

BlackBerry Empathy is designed to transform the future of US cellular phones forever. It will allow the users to share their feelings through this biometric cell phone device. The device will include proximity sensors that even allow the user to assess the feelings of the people in the immediate environment.

This will be displayed through an “Emotions Chart” with a visual timeline. The timeline will be able to track the emotions of the users and their contacts over a period of time. The users will also be able to evaluate their change in mood after a particular call.

Technical Features of BlackBerry Empathy

This mobile phone will make use of movable keys along with a tactile translucent keyboard that changes color according to the emotional state of the user during or after a phone call or message. It will include flexible O-LED display along with a Heads-up Display (HUD).
The BlackBerry Empathy initial design is marked by a standard QWERTY design portrait at one side, and a touch screen on the reverse. This conceptual phone will have a social mapping feature that will indicate the mood of not only the user, but also the person on the other end of the phone.

Read on 

• Promises to End Noisy Conversations
• iPhone Flaws and Criticisms
• Mobile Biometric Fingerprinting Scanners

Social Networking and Other Benefits

The future of US cellular phones is inseparable from the future of social networking. BlackBerry Empathy is being designed specifically with an aim to enhance the capabilities of social networking through this biometric phone. This phone can transmit real-time emotions directly to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. It facilitates the integration of human feelings with social networks to add a lot more value to social online communication.
The phone displays all connections of the user graphically to show who is connected to whom. A contact’s mood can be measured after a call has been made with the particular contact. The other advantages include an “Emotional Health Tracking System” that constantly monitors the user’s emotional health condition.
The BlackBerry Empathy is being designed as a collaborative effort between the manufacturer and the Art Center College of Design. If it succeeds in all that it is aiming for, it may change the face of virtual communication forever.

cell phone joke 2

Lincoln, a young man, wanted to get his beautiful blonde wife, Lucy something nice for their fifth wedding anniversary. So, he decides to buy her a cell phone. She is all excited, she loves her phone and he explains all the features on the phone.
The next day, Lucy goes shopping. Her phone rings and its Lincoln: "Hi honey", he says "how do you like your new phone?"
And she replies: "I just love it, it's so small and your voice is clear as a bell but there's one thing I don't understand though".
"What's that, baby?" asks the husband.
"How did you know I was at Wal Mart?" asked Lucy.

cell phone joke 1

Jackson was moving towards California. On his way to the city, he stopped at a local market and went to the washroom. The first stall was taken, so he went in the second stall.
Soon, he heard a voice from the next stall... "Hi there, how is it going?"
That was okay, but Jackson was not a person to strike conversations with strangers in washrooms on the side of the road.
He did not know what to say, but he awkwardly said, "Not bad..."
Then the voice said: "So, what are you doing?"
Jackson thought that a bit weird, but said, "Well, I'm going back to California..."
Then, he heard the person say: "Look I'll call you back. Every time I ask you a question, this idiot in the next stall answers me