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]

Theoretically related Articles

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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!

Nokia buys Loudeye for mobile music

Today Nokia released that is has reached a $60 million agreement with Loudeye, the #1 supplier across Europe of music platforms, hoping to gain an edge on mobile-music. With the purchase of Loudeye, Nokia can offer a full-scale mobile music experience, ranging from handset to applications.

Loudeye is currently in over 20 countries and has 60 services across Europe, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Loudeye also aggregates rights and content from both major and independent labels, and offers over 1.6 million tracks.

“This is an entry to a new business for us, so far Nokia has sold mostly devices,” said Nokia’s Tuutti.

[Read more]

Nokia takes out honors for most stolen phone brand

According to a recent study, of the 112,093 mobile phone thefts report in London last year, nearly 50% of all handsets stolen were manufactured by Nokia.

The Samsung D500 featured second and the Motorola RAZR took out the bronze. 7 of the top 10 were Nokia handsets.
Most stolen makes:

1. Nokia, 55,783 (49%)
2. Samsung, 15,524 (13.6%)
3. Sony Ericsson, 15,090 (13.3%)
4. Motorola, 12,947 (11.4%)
5. Others, 14,451 (12.7%)

Most of them have no doubt made an appearance here.

[Read More]

Struggling for cell signal, do what this guy did

Graeme over at Earth: Mostly Harmless devised an ingenious way of extending cell phone coverage to the darkest corners of his home…MacGyver style. That’s right, from a few bits and pieces retrieved from some Wi-fi equipment, some wire, a few clips and some mesh a signal boosting antenna was born, extending the reach of T-Mobile’s cell signal to the areas that were once in shadow.

Where there’s a will there’s a way…Nice work.

[Read more]