CSL DS110 Review

When we hear of Malaysian made products, we usually think it is not that good in quality compared to products from overseas.

Nevertheless, I was eager to try out whether the statement holds true for Malaysian made mobile phones by CSL.

I bought a DS110 about a month ago and after using it for that period, there are some pros and cons to it.

Pros

The phone has quite a nice and simple design.

With buttons comfortable for people with big hands and a screen (2.2”) with large enough fonts, this phone seems good enough to cater for beginners and senior citizens.

The phone supports Chinese, English and Malay languages.

Battery life is not an issue here.

On normal usage, just taking calls and SMS, it took about a week to finish the battery.

However, it took me three days with intensive music usage using the supplied handsfree set.

The speakers were of decent quality and loud enough (or maybe too loud at times) and the sound recorder is quite clear too.

It also has an FM radio if you get bored with songs stored on your microSD card.

Not forgetting to mention that you can change songs by shaking your phone when playing MP3s and also Bluetooth connectivity.

There are also Islamic features which I don’t use at all.

Strangely enough, there is also a dice game where you shake the phone to shake the dice and also a lottery result subscription from the CSL fun club section.

The web browser on the phone uses GPRS and is quite simple to use although don’t expect heavy sites to load on this phone.

On another note, the phone supports dual SIM which is ideal during roaming so that you won’t have to carry 2 phones to travel in which you can disable the SIM that you are not using from the phone menu.

There is also a Facebook shortcut if you ever find the need to update your status.

Cons

If you expect heavy image and video usage, DO NOT consider this phone.

The camera resolution on the phone is very low (352X288=0.1megapixels) and the shutter sound CANNOT be disabled (and freaking loud) and you have to hold the camera for 3 seconds AFTER the shutter sound to get a good image.

The video payer is even worst, the video taken is much more blury and slow and the sound recorded is not as good as the one from the sound recorder feature.

The phone only has one port for charging and handfree in which the supplied charger connects to a USB port but CANNOT transfer any files which is very weird.

If you like to swap memory cards often, SKIP this phone too as you need to take out your battery to remove it.

Conclusion

This phone is good for those who are starting to use mobile phones like small kid and senior citizens due to its easy menu navigation and large screen and buttons.

However, for the experienced user, this phone fails miserably at the camera and video recording section and you can’t even transfer using USB. Thank god there is Bluetooth.

Consider this phone if you go overseas for dual SIM and also due to its simple design, most people would not think of stealing from you.

Overall verdict: 3 out of 5 for basic usage, MP3 functions and Dual SIM.

No link between cell phones and brain cancer

Good news for hand phone users as their is no direct correlation between cell phone and brain tumours, at least in this study.

Study: No link between cell phones and brain cancer

LOS ANGELES: A latest study by Nordic researchers, found that there is no apparent link between cell phones and brain cancer, China's Xinhua news agency reported, citing the online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology at the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen based their conclusion on a 30-year examination of the incidents of brain tumors in Scandinavia.

For the study, the researchers collected data on 60,000 people diagnosed with glioma and meningioma (types of brain tumours) in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden between 1974 and 2003, Xinhua said.

The researchers found that the incidence of brain tumors over this 30-year period were stable, starting before cell phones became popular.

In addition, there was no change in the incidence of brain tumors between 1998 and 2003, a period of rapid increase in cell phone usage, the researchers noted.

"If mobile phones were to cause brain tumors, we would expect to see a sudden rise in the number of brain tumors at some point in time, and we don't see it," said lead researcher Isabelle Deltour.

However, Deltour leaves the door open to the possibility that widespread cell phone use has not been around long enough to see an increase in brain tumors.

"Either it means that mobile phones don't cause brain tumors or it means that we don't see it yet or we don't see it because the increase is too small to be observed in this population, or it is a risk that is limited to a small subgroup of the population," she said.

Despite new findings, doubts linger about whether cell phones cause brain cancer.

Commenting on that study, Dr. Deepa Subramaniam, director of the Brain Tumor Center at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C., said: "We cannot make any definitive conclusions about this.

“But this study, in addition to all the previous studies, continues to leave lingering doubt as to the potential for increased risk. So, one more time, after all these years, we don't have a clearcut answer." Deltour said her team would continue to look at the rates of brain tumors in the study group. - Bernama

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/4/nation/20091204160648&sec=nation

Malaysia has finally reached saturation point for handphone ownership. If only we could say the same for broadband ownership which is only 30%.

At least one cell phone for every Malaysian

BUTTERWORTH: Malaysia has joined Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand in achieving 100 per cent cell phone ownership for its 27 million population.

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission statistics, based on the 28.9 million registered users in the first quarter of this year, suggested that each Malaysian owned at least one cell phone.

MCMC Technology, Standards and Network Division deputy director Rizal Abdul Malek said with the figure, Malaysia had become among the first Asian countries to achieve 100 per cent cell phone penetration .

Rizal said the figure could be higher if cell phone ownership among children was included. Some children use the gadget only for entertainment such as an audio player and for games, without registering pre-paid or post-paid services.

Last year, 87.9 percent of Malaysians owned cell phones.

Rizal said among factors that contributed to the increase was the fact that cell phones had become a need rather than a luxury item nowadays.

"Stiff competition among telecommunications companies has pushed the cost of services down, in particular SMS text message charges," he said after delivering a paper titled "Communications Industry Development Impacts" at a seminar in Seberang Jaya here yesterday.

Rizal said broadband penetration in Malaysia stood at 30 per cent and the government had taken aggressive steps such as the High Speed Broadband project being carried out by Telekom Malaysia Bhd to achieve the target of 50 per cent penetration by next year.

http://www.nst.com.my/articles/9pho/Article/index_html

LG BL40 Touch Chocolate

The LG BL 40 Chocolate is one of those phones that try to beat the iPhone 3G in terms of design and usability.

As I did not have the money, I did not have the chance to sample both but the specifications seems promising.

Now the question is....

Would you buy the phone if there are beautiful Korean models?

(scroll down for pic)

General

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 

3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
 

Size

Dimensions 128 x 51 x 10.9 mm 

Weight 129 g

Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size

345 x 800 pixels, 4.01 inches

- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- S-Class Touch UI
- Multi-touch input method
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Gesture controls

Sound

Alert types

Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone  Yes

- 3.5 mm audio jack
- Dolby Mobile sound enhancement

Memory Phonebook 1000 entries, Photo call

Call records Yes

Internal 1.1 GB storage

Card slot microSD (TransFlash) up to 32GB,  

Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

HSCSD Yes

EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps

3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps

WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA

Bluetooth Yes v2.1 with A2DP 

USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Camera

Primary 5 MP, 2560 x 1920 pixels, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, autofocus, LED flash

Features Geo-tagging, face, smile and blink detection

Video Yes, VGA@30fps (MP4)

Secondary Yes

Features Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, IM

Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML

Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter

Games 7 + Downloadable

Colors Black

GPS Yes, with A-GPS support

Java Yes, MIDP 2.0

- MP4/DivX/XviD/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- 3D image gallery
- Document viewer
- Organiser
- TV out
- T9

Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh

Stand-by Up to 400 h (2G) / Up to 370 h (3G)

Talk time Up to 6 h (2G) / Up to 5 h (3G)

Specs taken from

http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_bl40_new_chocolate-2916.php

http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-18991-LG+BL40+Touch+Chocolate+Promo+Babes.html

Nang it!

Solar Powered Cell Phones

Do you want one of them?

Kenya's biggest mobile phone company, Safaricom Limited, has introduced the nation's first solar-charged cell phone to avoid the hassle of electric-charged mobile devices. There are many factors that Kenyans go through in order to communicate with others. People in small towns or villages have to walk miles to a mall to charge their cell phones because the electricity is non-existent in some parts of Kenya. Secondly, landline communications are not dependable and often become dysfunctional.

Safricom Ltd. saw an opening and immediately jumped on it. Kenya’s biggest cell phone company will release a solar-charged phone in Kenya, which also includes an electric-charger, for $35. Each handset device will come with solar panels, which charges the phone by using the sun’s rays.

Each device was manufactured by a Chinese company called ZTE corp. The Kenyan company will introduce an initial supply of 100,000 mobile phones in the market.

Safricom’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph told CNN, in a telephone interview, “People are excited about these phones. I expect it to be sold out in a week. The power crisis here has been going on for ages. Safaricom phone's solar panel is small and portable, unlike charging devices some Kenyans now use. There's an enormous need for a device like this. They will continue to charge on natural light, even on cloudy days.”

Kenya does have limited ability when it comes to power however; the nation has one of the largest cell phone markets in all of Africa with an estimated 17 million Kenyans using a mobile device.

Safricom is not the only company who is introducing this eco-friendly device. At global trade shows, several companies have touted their solar cell phones such as Samsung, who unveiled a solar-charged cell phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. They also showed a sun-powered mobile device in India in June.

After successful runs, Samsung plans to launch similar handset devices in other Asian countries, Europe and Latin America.

Charging a phone can cost 70 cents per week (50 shillings) and now the solar-charged cell phone will pay for itself.

Taken from:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/278002
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I guess it would be be pretty good as a second phone and maybe used for camping, assuming that there is coverage at the campsite.

Maybe we can make it a "One orang Asli, one mobile phone".

Hey, it may be possible. USD35 is about RM140.

Here is the video: