- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Staffwriter

T-Mobile, EMI Sign Broad-Reaching European Agreement

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:45:44 +0000

EMI Music announced a pan-European deal with T-Mobile that will make thousands of tracks and music videos available across multiple formats. This follows a promotional campaign which involves mega-superstar Robbie Williams and T-Mobile made an exclusive first-listen preview of the “Tripping” single available to European subscribers.

T-Mobile customers can download ring tones, wallpapers and videos for several Robbie Williams tracks. It also allows T-Mobile subscribers to get hold of downloads and multimedia assets from a number of EMI artists, including Athlete, Bebe, Coldplay, Faith Evans, Tiziano Ferro, Gorillaz, Norah Jones, Kylie Minogue, Raphael and Joss Stone.

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The Fastest Cars of America

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:19:42 +0000

Forbes has released a list of the fastest cars on the American roads. Topping the chart is the SSC Ultimate Aero, with an estimated top speed of 273 mph.

Here is a listing of the speediest cars on road in America.

1. SSC Ultimate Aero

2. Saleen S7 Twin Turbo

3. Evans 387 & 487

4. Ford GT

5. Chevrolet Corvette Z06

6. Dodge Viper SRT-10

7. Mullen M-11 V-8

8. Panoz Esperante GTLM

9. Chrysler 300C SRT8; Dodge Charger SRT8, Magnum SRT8

10. Cadillac CTS-V

Via

10 Cars praised for Safety by Insurers

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:02:44 +0000

Ten passenger cars that offer top protection to the passengers in front, side and rear crashes have won praise from the insurance company Sunday.

A new award called the Top Safety Pick award has been announced by the Institute for Highway Safety which was based on the performance of the vehicles in their crash tests.

The winners of the gold award include the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego; the Saab 9-3; the Subaru Legacy; and the Honda Civic four-door. The Ford Five Hundred and Montego were considered the same car for award purposes. They topped the scores in frontal offset and side impact tests, and a test that reviews seat and head restraints in their rear crashes.

The silver award went to the Audi A6, Audi A3 and Audi A4; the Chevrolet Malibu with optional side air bags; and the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat. They were recognized as vehicles that won in front and side crash tests, in addition to the second-highest mark in seat and head restraint ratings.

The awards, which consider a vehicle’s overall safety as the main criteria, replaced the the previous practice of providing “best pick” designations for vehicles in each of the three tests.

These awards provide a better picture for the consumers to compare vehicles without reviewing multiple sets of tests.

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Creative's SoundBlaster X-Fi

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 06:00:04 +0000

Creative Technology has come out with the first new sound processor in years. If it has been a long time since you’ve worked on upgrading your system, then it is the right time to pick up SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

The product is being suggested because of its attention to detail and the clean sound, not to mention its low CPU utilization. It also offers a multitude of audio settings.

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A few Cell Phone Etiquettes

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:48:38 +0000

Owning a cell phone nowadays is not that big a thing as it used to be years back. What is important these days is having some proper cell phone etiquettes to go with it.

What is happening nowadays is that people who own cell phones are do tend to behave rudely or inconsiderately with others. It is indeed good to take your phone along with you when you are in a business setting but it is not nice when you are in some social setting.

While watching a movie, your ringing cell phone is not going to be appreciated to during the course of the movie. People would be definitely be annoyed if you answer it and talk during the movie. Even at a restaurant while you are having dinner someone sitting at a close table can ruin your mood by constantly answering the phone. At places like a church, people do tend to answer their phones during the services.

Sometimes it is necessary to have your cell phone when you are in a restaurant, theater, concert hall, or meeting. But in these places you can put your phone on the vibrating mode. If the phone rings, then you can quietly check who the caller is and go to a quiet place and answer the call.

Wireless phone jamming devices have been installed in some public places around the world in order to stop the phone from functioning. There are also signs put across in many places and buildings telling people to switch off their cell phones.

A fine has also been kept in some places. In New York, $50 is fined for breaking a bylaw that prohibits the use of cell phones at all indoor performances.

Becoming the part of the problem or the solution is solely the person’s choice. If people themselves become considerate enough than there would be no jamming devices, no more “no cell phone” signs, and thus we can see more laws being passed to punish the users who do not obey the rules.

One more thing that you can do is to activate the voice mail option in your phone. People can leave a message for you when you do not answer the phone. Do return the call. It is inconsiderate not to return the call the same as it is to take a call public place.

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Special Task Force for Cell Phone Stealers

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:45:41 +0000

The special task force set up to take on the cell phone snatchers in Karachi, called by Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier this year, has failed to meet the expectations for which it was specifically set up.

The task force which was set up on the 11th of July earlier of year has failed to stop the incidents of cell phone snatching as on an average 77 people are deprived of their cell phones everyday.

According to the sources, 25,700 cell phones have either been snatched or stolen since January this year.

Around 10,000 cell phones were snatched at gunpoint across the city while around 16,000 cell phones have been reported to be stolen. In the last half of November, more than 1500 cell phones have been snatched or stolen.

But the police spokesman has given a different picture of the situation altogether. According to them only 251 cellphones were snatched during the period, out of which 91 had been recovered.

The duty assigned to the task force was to carry out a survey of the markets where the stolen phones were sold or purchased. The task force gathers information about the persons involved in the racket including snatchers, middle-men, shopkeepers, and then carry out raids to arrest suspects red-handedly.

Sources have revealed that some suspects have been arrested resulting in the recovery of more than 100 cell phones. Indeed, a depressing performance by the special task force.

The sale of stolen cell phones is carried in various markets in the city and the security features of these mobile phones are also altered in some specified shops of the city.

Source

New Removable lenses for camera phones

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:42:53 +0000

Nowadays, camera functions are loaded onto most types of portable camera phones. When it becomes zoom function and macro function, the digital camera must has to be used and sometimes a lens is needed.

A magnetic type conversion lens for the portable telephone camera has been introduced. As for the lenses, telephoto K501, a wide K701 and macro K042 lenses have been designed. The three lenses which can be attached with a magnet does ensure making the most of a decent 1 mega pixel camera in you phone.

This convertible lens can be bought for approximately $57.

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SPH-A900 from Samsung to compete with RAZR

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:40:09 +0000

Samsung has designed a new phone: A900, to compete with the year old Motorola’s RAZR. The phone has been named Blade, and is being referred to as a straight hit at Motorola RAZR, which is still a hot selling phone and is the world’s slimmest phone.

The Samsung A900 features Bluetooth wireless connectivity, high speed connection via Sprint for Internet browsing, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, a stereo speakerphone and an advanced voice recognition system.

The A900 has almost three hours of battery life. The phone has a 240×320 main display with 262K colors, and external display specifications of 96×96 with support for 65K colors.

The price of the A900 has not been out yet but it has to be reasonably priced in order to give Motorola RAZR a run for the money.

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Handset prices to go down with a new W-CDMA Chip

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:36:45 +0000

Texas Instruments have made a high-speed wireless chip for mobile handset makers. The chip is based on W-CDMA technology which supports mobile video and web based services. The introduction of the chip has made the company rivals against Qualcomm and Freescale Semiconductor.

Texas Instruments has developed the chip in collaboration with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. The new product is known as the OMAPV2230, representing a move ahead of the normal chips that they make for their major customers, including Ericsson and Nokia.

This move by the company of making the W-CDMA chips would help in the reduction of the W-CDMA based mobile phones, also known as the 3G phones. The chip controls wireless communication and multimedia functions such as still and video camera recording and video chat.

Other cell phone making giants like Sanyo Electric, Sony, LG Electronics, Pantech, Ningbo Bird and TCL Communication Technology Holdings are also being termed as the potential customers for the new chip.

The new chip also works on GSM and GPRS networks, which are widely set up in Europe and Asia. Some of the manufacturers have already started designing phones for the new chips, and the handsets with the new chips are expected to hit the market next year.

Source

Winzz announces iFace

Staff — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:33:34 +0000

iFace is an interchangeable iPod case. It allows the users to easily change the outside cover style without having to buy a completely new case. iFace consists of a black nylon case with a micro-suede interior.

It comes with one basic cover in your choice of black leather, pink canvas, and white canvas, patent yellow or blue denim. The case costs $25 and is available in 3 models- iFace v1.0 (1G-4G iPods), iFace v1.1 (5G iPod) and iFace nano v1.0 (iPod nano). Winzz has released its first collection of interchangeable covers. The Hot Wave Series has 20 different music-themed cover designs priced at $20.

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