MMS your pic to your online dating profile! EasyDate

The UK’s largest online dating service, EasyDate, boasting almost a million singles across its network of online dating sites, last month introduced a new facility to help their customer’s upload images of themselves direct from their mobile phones, via MMS, to their online dating profiles.

The idea has first been implemented on - youcangetme.com. Sean Wood, EasyDate’s Marketing Manager explains:

We realised by the number of photos we received in the post that not all our members had access to a scanner or a digital camera, so we looked at options that would give them the easiest possible method of completing their profile and increasing their chances of finding a date online. It occured to us that most mobile phones had integrated cameras so this was definitely the way to go.

Our initial trials have proven very successful so we are now implementing this technology across our network of sites.

Youcangetme.com also provides “SMS Text flirting” between it’s registered members, making further use of mobile technologies in the implementation of its matchmaking services.

I think this a great idea. Nearly all handsets have a built-in camera these days, and sending a pic by MMS is a snap. Camera’s in mobile phones are improving in quality every month. Mind you, it could work to your advantage having an older handset with a lower quality camera. A bit of low-light noise introduced into your dating profile pic maybe helps disguise some of the blemishes…!

If you are single and in need of a date - check out their services.

[Full details of EasyDate’s press release at PRWeb]

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]

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.

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]

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]

New system to deliver cell phone photos to 911 operators

There are over 370 million camera phones in use worldwide, and increasingly they are being used to communicate news as it breaks.

In July 06, the London bombings saw images of the devastation being uploaded from cell phones to blogs and sites like Flickr as the event unfolded, and many cell phone recorded video clips made the mainstream broadcast news.

PowerPhone who specialise in software and training for 911 operators, have developed a new system named Cell Phone Delivery (CPD) allowing callers to send photos from a camera equipped cell phone handset via email direct to the console of the 911 operator, providing the operator with far more accurate information from the scene of a crime or emergency than a mere verbal description might allow.

“Citizens are now the eyes and ears for our 9-1-1 operators — and camera phone photos are going to be an important part of improving safety and security.” Chris Salafia, PowerPhone’s president and CEO

[More from PRWeb]

Yet more iPhone speculation - could THIS be the one?

The web is abuzz once again with yet more dubious, ‘top-secret’ images of the much anticipated Apple cell phone. Just take a look at Flickr. More pictures of a new supposed, handset dubbed ‘iChat Mobile’ have surfaced along with a scratchy video on YouTube of someone supposedly wielding one.

These new images feature a phone sporting iPod shuffle like controls along with a keypad that would presumably have a similar feel to the click controls of a traditional iPod.

The thing that seems to have most people puzzled is the appearance of what looks to be an iSight camera on the rear in combination with the name iChat. The camera could either be a traditional camera, as we’ve come to expect in most handsets, OR maybe this is for a Wifi/VoIP/Skype like application (akin to iChat proper) offering video conferencing facilities and not a cell phone at all….but, then shouldn’t the camera be on the front so you can see the other caller while they see you?

While, I like really like the look of this thing, to me the corners look far too sharp to be slipped in and out of a pocket and the handset looks to be the size of a very large remote control. Apple’s specialty is designing functional, stylish and practical technology and this to me doesn’t fit the mould and the whole package just doesn’t add up.

As convincing as this unit looks, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that this is not THE cell phone we have all been expecting. We’re itching to see what Apple really has in store for us though. Roll on WWDC…

Diamond studded phone for $300k anyone? No thanks!

It’s probably just a little too late to start saving your pennies to be one of only 5 in the world to own Swiss VOIP company, VIPN’s ridiculously expensive Black Diamond handset, scheduled for launch early in ‘07.

Seriously, $300,000USD for a phone? Who has that kind of money to burn? Sure the styling is sleek (has that same piano gloss finish of the black iPod Nano) and yeah, it has a couple of big diamonds stuck on it and can operate using VOIP over regular Wi-fi, but the rest of the feature set is comparable to many regular ‘off the shelf’ PDAs or Smart Phones. Really nothing all that special at all.

And while we are at it, sure, there’s a language barrier to get through for those where English is not their native tongue, but come on, if you want to convince me to buy a phone worth the same amount of money as an average house, I’d probably be taking a closer look at the spelling and grammar on my site thankyou very much. Sheesh…

My advice, hold out for the Apple iPhone (if that’s what they are gonna call it), hope they sell them in black, and stick a big diamonte on the back - who’s gonna know the difference…?

[Take a look at VIPN.ch]