Free calls with Jajah…now also on Blackberry

Jajah is a fantastic, powerful and convenient web-activated Internet telephony solution for cell phones and landlines alike. Their service allows you to make calls across the globe at the vastly reduced prices typically associated with VoIP providers and often calls are free!

To make a call you visit Jajah.com, enter the number where you are located, then the country, area code and number of the person you wish to call and click ‘call’. Within seconds, your phone will ring, you answer and then Jajah automagically connects you to the person you wanted to call, instantly across the Interweb.

Jajah offers free calling for landlines AND cell phones within certain locations, and really cheap rates for everyone else. This is a very neat, simple VoIP solution, devoid of fancy adaptors, contracts or special software. Jajah leverages the power of the Internet to connect you with your friends and loved ones locally or on the other side of the world… Give Jajah a try. They offer a 5 minute trial for free (landline numbers only for the trial). It really is quite amazing - it just works! Registration enables more advanced features such as conference calling.

BBCalls have recently released a Jajah tool for the Blackberry addicts among us, allowing ‘free’ calls to be established from within your Blackberry.

[Full details at Jajah and BBCalls]

OK. So we didn’t get an iPhone on Tuesday, but what about this?

So, Mr Jobs announced a selection of snazzy new iPods but no iPhone, at the special media event on Tuesday. It must be coming soon though. The buzz is alive and kicking once more with more speculation about what this new device might look like. MacRumors.com have a story purporting to contain info from a reliable source about yet another iPhone prototype.

This one looks pretty slick. Very Nano-esque, complete with click-wheel, and a slider to reveal a full size number pad. Take a look…

[More at Macrumors.com]

iPhone this time around? Perhaps something even better?

The web is humming once more with iPhone rumors in the lead up to Apple’s upcoming media event in California that coincides with the launch of Apple Expo in Paris on Tuesday 12 September.

With it’s media invitations issued under the teaser-title “It’s Showtime” many expect the rumored addition of feature films to the iTunes movie store. Additionally, commentators anticipate upgrades to Apple’s flagship laptop range and possibly a new iPod.

MacNN, however, has a load of intriguing information surround a patent application that Apple lodged in March and the details of which were published by the US Patent & Trademark Office just last week. Instead of a new iPod or iPhone, Apple MAY be set to release a feature-filled multi-function device which combines those two features but adds a whole lot more, including features such as a camera, GPS, PDA and more. We’ll see…roll on Tuesday!

[More from MacNN]

Cingular offers BlackBerry Connect for Palm Treo 650

This week saw the joint announcement by Cingular Wireless and RIM of the introduction of BlackBerry Connect for users of the Palm Treo 650. Push email services are critically important for many mobile professionals and this new service will be welcome news for all Treo 650 fans.

Among other things, BlackBerry Connect provides:

• Push Corporate Email Services
• Wireless Calendar Synchronization
• Attachment Viewing
• Remote Address Lookup

Tim Roper US Region Vice President of Palm said during the announcement:

“Treo 650 already is one of the most compelling mobile-computing devices available today for business users, and the BlackBerry Connect functionality gives Cingular customers another great reason to adopt Treo as a vital business-productivity tool.”

Cingular has unlimited BlackBerry Connect services starting at $44.99 per month. The Palm Treo 650 with Cingular can be bought on Amazon starting at $44.99 on a new plan. More information on the services are available from PalmOne and Cingular.

[Source Cingular Press Release]

10 cool things you can do with your cell phone

Nowadays cell phones can do almost anything, but now there is more to add to the list. Some of these cool features may not be available yet or are for specific models only, but rest assured with the increase in cellular technology it is on the way.

1. ID that song: Next time you hear a catchy song on the radio, you don’t have to try to memorize the lyrics so you can Google it when you get home. Now all you need to do is dial a code number, hold the phone to the speaker for a few seconds and within moments you’ll see the artist, title and album appear. This is only available with select models.
2. Have your phone wake you with music: Tired of your normal buzzer alarm clock from the 1980s? With some new models, including the LG Chocolate, you can select music as your alarm.
3. Text message a landline phone: Companies are now starting to offer text to landline messaging. Your text message is sent from your cell phone to a landline and is converted to a voice message that is played back on the landline.There is a small charge for this, but nonetheless interesting.
4. Scan in a business card: Ever wanted to get someone info off of their business card, but they only had one? Ok probably not, but some models have features where you can take a picture of a business card and have the picture trasferred to your phone book.
5. Have your text messages read back to you: Vemail Voice Email 2.0 (http://www.nch.com.au/vemail/index.html) enables usuers to read e-mail and easily reply by speaking. This application is $28 but can sure be useful for people on the go. More…

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Nokia’s ’special’ SMS tone is morse code for SMS. More Nokia facts…

Trawling around, looking for something completely different, I stumbled across this bunch of Trivia facts on Wikipedia about the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world - Nokia. Enjoy…

Apology: It has been brought to our attention that displaying the information we had gathered from Wikipedia’s article on Nokia may contravene Wikipedia’s usage policy and it appears we may have misunderstood this policy. For this we apologise. It was never our intention to display information that might breech any rules and so we have removed the full list. We apologise to those visitors who were expecting to find the full article here, but we had to do the right thing and remove it. Sorry. Thank’s to the Digg users for correcting us on this issue.

So, instead, here are a couple of trivia highlights from the wikipedia entry on Nokia, and we encourage people to take a look at the full contents of the article, which can be found here :

*The “Special” tone available to users of Nokia phones when receiving SMS messages is actually Morse code for “SMS”. Similarly, the “Ascending” SMS tone is Morse code for “Connecting People,” Nokia’s slogan. The “Standard” SMS tone is Morse code for “M” (Message).
* Nokia is currently the world’s largest digital camera manufacturer, as the sales of its camera-equipped mobile phones have exceeded those of any conventional camera manufacturer.
* Unlike other modern day handsets, Nokia phones do not automatically start the call timer when the call is connected, but start it when the call is initiated. (Except for Series 60 based handsets like the Nokia 6600)

[Extract from Nokia trivia on Wikipedia]

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7th International Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships

Saturday 26 August saw the 7th International Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships wrap up 340km north of Helsinki in Savonlinna, Finland and this year the Gold was taken out by a Finn. Finland is of course the home of Nokia, the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones, and so it is only fitting that such an important event also be held there.

The new champion is Lassi Etelätalo, Finland with result 89,00 m. In the Original individual category, second was last year’s champion Mikko Lampi with 87,17 meters and the third was Tomi Kurvi with a result of 80,20 meters.

The new world champion in the Women’s category is Eija Laakso with a new world record of 50.83 meters. The men’s world record of 94.97 meters (more than 100 yards), set by Mikko Lampi from Vilppula, Finland during the 2005 World championships remains unbroken.

There are officially two categories in the Mobile Phone Throwing. Traditional style ie. over the shoulder throw, where the length of the throw is crucial. In Freestyle the style is free and the contestant gets points for aesthetics and creative choreographics from 4 to 10. In both categories the contestant with the highest score wins.

Mobile Phone Throwing is light and modern Finnish sport that suits for people of all ages. It combines recycling philosophy and fun spirit in active sport. A part of the philosophy is also a spiritual freedom from being available all the time.

Feeling inspired, but a bit out of shape? Not to worry, you have a year to prepare. The next championships will be held on the 25th of August next year - expect registrations to open around April.

Interesting fact about Nokia: In addition to being the world’s largest cell phone manuacturer, Nokia also takes out the honors as the world’s largest digital camera manufacturer on account of the number of cell phones they sell equipped with cameras, outselling any other traditional camera manufacturer.

[Get all the latest mobile phone throwing world championships news direct from savonlinnafestivals.com]

Cell phone emergency tricks and tips

Blogcritics.org has a short list of interesting things that cell phones are (apparently) capable of doing.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a lifesaver or an emergency tool for survival.

In no particular order…

1. Dialing 112 will contact emergency services in ANY country around the world.
2. Unlock your car with your keys over the phone (er…what? Seriously??)
3. Release extra battery power (at the expense of call quality)
4. IMEI code can be used to disable a stolen phone (Nokia handsets only apparently)

Full details available at Blogcritics.org.  I’m highly skeptical of point 2 (I mean, c’mon…) - but if you’ve tried it and know it to work (or otherwise!) post a comment here and let us know!

Samsung ‘Super music phone’ SCH-B570 - released in Korea

Korean electronics manufacturer, Samsung today announced the launch of it’s feature packed ‘Super Music Phone’ the SCH-B570. Complete with advanced audio, picture in picture video and multimedia support the B570 also sports *ahem* Golf Manager (?) a tool for managing golf scores and driving distances on Korean golf courses (using its built-in GPS).

With a whopping 8Gb of memory, this has to be the largest built-in storage facility on any cell phone to date. Samsung claims the massive drive can hold:

• 1,600 mp3 files (at 4Mb per song) or
• 16 Personal Media Player (at 400Mb per movie)
• or more than 20,000 x 300kb digital photos

Specifications:

• 1xEV-DO Mobile broadband
• 2 Megapixel Camera
• 1.98“ Display 240×320 resolution, 262K Color
• Size: 112 x 48 x 19.9 mm
• Weight: 130 g

The phone sports a myriad of other features including:

8GB Hard drive disk, Satellite DMB / Picture In Picture / Personal Media Player, Motion Recognition Technology, GPS, VOD/MOD, MP3, Document Viewer, Mobile printing and TV out.

And if Golf Manager wasn’t enough, Samsung’s also revealed another curious feature:

Samsung also presented the ‘motion recognition capability’ by introducing the new ‘morning call motion detector snooze alarm’. When the alarm clock rings, users can turn it off simply by shaking the phone, then alarm will automatically alert again a few minutes later.

Other features aside, it’s hard to believe that this device doesn’t have Apple’s rumored iPod/Phone in its sights, and maybe THIS will be just the device to rattle Apple’s cage and make them announce something. Just how much storage will the new iPhone have?

The SCH-B570 will be released in Korea for around USD800 in the next few days.

Sprint’s Palm Treo 700wx with GPS - Vodafone/Cingular Treo 750 on the way?

Sprint are expected to release the new Palm Treo 700wx next week with a host of great new features included double the RAM from the 700w and built-in GPS. sprintusers.com has what looks to be an official specs sheet. This new PDA will operate on the Sprint EV-DO Mobile Broadband network and have access to Sprints Power Vision network services.

The 700wx is expected to be released to business customers from 27 August with an offering at retail sales outlets from 3 September.

Treo 750…

In other Treo news, the Treo 750 is expected to be released in just two weeks time 12 September for the European market on Vodafone’s 3G network. As expected, the 750 will run Windows Mobile 5.0. While no official details have been released, it is hoped that the 750 will be an antenna-less design and have built-in wifi - something that has been lacking from all Treo handsets to date.

Reuters reports:

Palm is to launch the new handset to Vodafone customers in a number of European countries including the U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy and Netherlands as it attempts to win back the confidence of a market it once dominated with its Palm Pilot device.

PDAStreet is speculating that shortly after it’s release, Cingular users should expect a US version…

Phone Friday! News & reviews on some phones

HTC release the Excalibur, better than the Q?

The Excalibur is HTC’s version of the Q, but appears to blow the Q out of the water. This thin smart phone comes with Windows Mobile and a full QWERTY keybaord. It also will have Mi-FI and Bluetooth, and like the Q it will have a method for one handed navigation. The Excalibur will have a touch sensitive scroll pad including home and back keys as well.
The Excalibur is rumored to launch with Sprint in the US by the end of the year, but no word on an exact date or price.

[Thanks for Geek.com for the pictures, and check out HTC’s website for more of their sleek phones.]

LG releases some white chocolate

Although this may not be the Chocolate, the LF1300 certianly has some flavor. The LF1300 comes with a 2-inch QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel camer, SD expansion, Bluetooth, and of course, an MP3 Player.

This slider measures 98 x 48 x 16.9mm and will be available through CYON. The LF1300 is said to be released only in Korea, and no word on pricing as of now.

[Picture and story from I4U.com]

Milk chocolate from Sony Ericsson?

Well this also isn’t the Chocolate, but Sony Ericsson has released a milk chocolate colored phone, calling it the K800i. It comes with a brilliant 3.2 megapixel camera, UMTS high-speed data, and and MP3/MPEG4 player.

The K800i will be released in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

[Picture from Gizmodo.com]

How does your provider and brand score?

Forrester Research released a recent survey asking how much they trust their provider, and their handset brand. Forrester Research asked 4,700 consumers across the USA and compiled all of the information and gave the major providers and brands grades.

Lets get right to the report cards, first the providers:

• Verizon: C
• Cingular: C-
• Sprint: D-

Now for the mobile brands:

• Palm: B+
• Motorola: B
• LG Electronics: C-
• Samsung: D-

[To read more, check out Yahoo!]

Bluetooth watches, what next?

Chronotech may make everyones dream come true on November 8, 2006, they will be releasing a watch that doubles as a bluetooth headset. Ok maybe not everyones dream, or even anyones dream, but Chronotech hopes that their product will be the next big hit to consumers.

The bluetooth watches will be available in analog and digital, retailing for $127.95 USD and $119.95 USD, respectively. They will come in a combination of colors as well, black, black/white, gray, navy, green sparkle, white sparkle, blue and pink.

[Check out Bluetooth Watches for more info]

Picture-in-picture . . . on your phone?

Samsung has released another new phone today that is capable of picture-in-picture. Yes, two pictures of completely different screens, on a phone.

The SCH-B470 also comes with a somewhat standard 2-megapixel camera as well as a music player. So now you won’t miss your favorite TV show while your friend is embarrassing himself in front of hundreds of spectators.

There is no word on the release date or price, but it is speculated that it will be released in Korea only.

Blackberry’s Precious Pearl - 8100, no longer just a number

Employees at RIM have let details slip of the soon to be released Blackberry 8100 a.k.a Blackberry Pearl. The Pearl has a number of features that people have been longing to have included in their Blackberry’s - a camera, external storage and other multimedia goodies - the perfect mix of business and pleasure.

Features include:

• EDGE mobile broadband data services
• Bluetooth
• microSD card support
• Camera with built-in flash

Engadget has scooped the leaked RIM internal release (officially under embargo until 18 September) and has the full details. Here’s a snippet describing the new unit:

The BlackBerry Pearl is a very cool, incredibly small, easy-to-use smartphone. It comes complete with digital camera, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory. And it, of course, offers the full BlackBerry experience – including email, phone, web browser, text messaging, organizer applications and much more. This year, give your loved one the gift of freedom – with the BlackBerry Pearl they can do all the things they “have to do” and more of the things they “want to do.”

This adds just a few more reasons that will prevent “crackberries” from kicking the habit!

Due for release next month through T-Mobile first and then presumably Cingular some time later, the Pearl will have a retail tag of US$199.

[More from Engadget]