RM5 Handphone!!!

If you think this post was a joke, think again, UK cellular phone companies are now selling a handphone at 99pence (RM5 at current rate) with a condition that you have to buy a £10 (RM50) top up.
It may be good news to our Malaysian counterparts in UK if they wanted to get a second phone.

99p phone at The Carphone Warehouse

Cheap and cheerful

At a time when smartphone sales are soaring, The Carphone Warehouse is selling a 99p PAYG handset.

The Alcatel OT-209 is just 99p when purchased with a £10 PAYG Virgin top-up at the phone shop and may be perfect for older people who just want a phone for emergencies...or for Christmas grinches intent on disappointing their children/partner/parents who really wanted an iPhone.

The handset was previously on sale for £4.95 and The Carphone Warehouse describes it as: "a sleek, handy mobile that will fit comfortably in your hand and in your pocket."

While ‘sleek' may be a bit of stretch, the handset does have a colour screen, simple UI, large separated keys and an FM radio tuner. Bizarrely, it also boasts a fake incoming call function.

More usefully, the OT-209 offers 5 hours of talk time (although that might cost a bit on PAYG) a hefty 400 hours of standby power and weighs just 65g.

While not the hottest handset on the high street, it does appear to be the cheapest. Customers desperate to be on T-Mobile can splash £1.95 on the mobile, while it costs £2.95 on Orange and both require a £10 top up to be purchased at the same time as the handset.

Here's an image of the Alcatel handset.

http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27365

Helmet Phone Charger

If you are a forgetful person who forgets to charge your handphone and drives a motorcycle, this may very well be the solution to your problems.

Charging your phone from your helmet, now made possible

Two students from an Indian University went on to do something that may well solve more than a few problems in the gadget world. They have come out with some ingenious helmets that make use of solar and wind energy to charge a mobile phone in just 40 minutes. That’s a lot of power generated. The main aim of the students was to serve dual purposes. This move will encourage people to wear helmets and the same time, go on to charge their phones (and not answer it when it rings) while riding.

These will cost just about Rs. 1000 ($22). It comes straight from the Nirma University in Ahmedabad. Kudos to them!

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/charging_your_phone_from_your_helmet_now_made_possible.php

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

Rebates for new Sony Ericsson Phones

Get your hands on the latest Sony Ericsson handphones.


KUALA LUMPUR: Fifty lucky people will enjoy rebates of up to RM1,000 each on the long awaited Sony-Ericsson Satio, Aino and Yari mobile phones that will be launched this Thursday.

The rebates will apply to those who line up to buy the phones on launch day at the Kuala Lumpur Life Centre.

Sony-Ericsson Malaysia said the RM1,000 rebate will apply to the first, second, third, fourth and fifth customer in the line.

Those in the sixth to 50th places will enjoy rebates of between RM800 and RM400.

A spokesman for Sony-Ericsson told In.Tech the phones are expected to be on the market by end month. Prices have not been confirmed yet but are expected to be between RM1,100 and RM2,500.

The phone maker said its new line blends the best in communication, imaging, music, and gaming capabilities to offer unlimited mobile entertainment to users.

The gem among the trio is the Satio, which sports a 3.5in high-definition widescreen-format display and a 12.1-megapixel camera. It is also a fully touchscreen device that runs on the Symbian S60 operating system.

Next is the Aino which can access the Sony PlayStation3 console for games, pictures, movies and music. It also features an 8.1-megapixel camera and an intuitive, full-touch media menu.

The final phone in the trio, the Yari, features gesture-and-motion games and a 5-megapixel camera. You can also share music while talking on this phone using its Music Call feature.

“With the launch of the Satio, Aino and Yari, we hope to provide Malaysians with devices that not only bring together rich content and best-in-class integrated entertainment experiences but also allow them to share those experiences,” said Alex Wong, general manager of Sony-Ericsson Malaysia.

For more detailed product information, go to www.sonyericsson.com.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/10/20/technology/20091020101114&sec=technology

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: