Email to SMS is becoming a great new service

Ever been writing an urgent email and wanting to send it to your pal, who you know isn’t near his computer and isn’t going to be for a few hours. Well the solution is here, and it looks to have a great outlook.

Recently domain and web hosting providers have been offering a new service free of charge to anyone using their primary services. One is VoxDomains.com and another is Bonphire.com, both of which seem to work the exact same way. When you are composing your email, you can choose whether you want the email to go to email only, SMS / text messaging only, or both. From there you can enter the email addresses and/or phone numbers. There’s also a function that allows users to keep the email within the 160 character limit for text messages.

[To check out more on this, take a look at VoxDomains.com and Bonphire.com]

Ever want to just scream after you’ve ‘lost’ your phone? Now the phone will scream for you!

Did you know that approximately 10,000 mobile phones are stolen every month? Perhaps you have been one of the unlucky victims of phone theft, and yes, it sucks. All of the data remaining on the phone is now in the hands of someone that wants to use it for everything he or she can. To top it off, studies show that on average, it takes 30 seconds for someone to notice that their phone is missing. Ahhh!!

Well, Synchronia has released a mobile phone software that will do just that, SCREAM! With Mobile Manager from Synchronia you can remotely turn on a scream feature, which will release an annoying and embarrassing high pitched noise from the phone. The software however can go far beyond a scream. With it you can remotely lock and wipe the data from the phone. It can also be used for business to update and remotely install software on company smartphones.

[To learn more about the software, visit Synchronia.com]

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…

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]

Franklin helps fill the gap with new CDU-550 USB EV-DO Modem

Wireless broadband manufacturer, Franklin Wireless, anounced on Friday the launch of their new USB 1x EV-DO modem, the CDU-550, a first for the industry.

This new modem released under a partnership with Sprint, who now have the largest mobile network in the US (Sprint Power Vision Network), offers high speed wireless internet access to laptops that do not have PCMCIA card slots, offering instead a USB interface. The card will have immediate benefit for those with new MacBook Pro laptops where a PCMCIA slot was dropped in favour of the incoming ExpressCard/34 format interface.

The Sprint Power Vision Network now covers 153 million people and services customers in 220 major metropolitan areas as well as 470 airports across the nation, the most of any carrier.

[Press release from Franklin-Wireless]

More ways to pay, the cell phone way…

A few days ago we reported on the new mobile based serviced ‘Paypal Mobile‘ that helps facilitate settling the check with your friends after a great dinner by allowing payments to be sent to your friends and other services via a text message from your phone. Well, it turns out there are many ways of using your phone for bill settlement and instant payments, Textpayme and Obopay can also help out when your wallet is devoid of the folding stuff.

Oh, and thats not all - how about using your phone to save money? Turns out downloadable coupons for your phone are making the scene and becoming increasingly popular. Dry Cleaning, video rentals, you name it. Pizza anyone?

[More from SmartMoney.com]

Send and receive money, purchase items, all from your cell phone

Don’t you hate it when you are eating out with friends and the waiter brings one tab for all of you, and worst of all you have no cash? Paypal has introduced a new method to pay your friends instantly using your cell phone without having to go to the ATM. Paypal’s Text2Buy offers just that, and much more. Not only can you send money to your friends, you can also order CDs, buy movie tickets, order books and many other items wherever you see the Text2Buy logo.

[Read more]

Live Traffic Maps on Cell Phones via Google

Google today announced that it has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with “live” traffic data.

After downloading Google Maps for mobile through their mobile phone’s web browser, users simply move to the desired location within the application and select “show traffic” in the menu. The most up-to-date traffic information will be sent directly to the users’ mobile device, and will highlight the conditions on the covered commuter routes using red, yellow, and green overlays.

In addition, when mobile phone users search for driving directions, they will now see the expected drive time as well as any unexpected traffic delays, making travel planning much easier and more effective. And another new feature - the ability to store their favorite searches and driving directions - will allow users to access frequently used routes and compare traffic conditions on them.

To download Google Maps for mobile, users simply visit http://www.google.com/gmm from their phone’s web browser.