Don’t get charged double or triple per SMS!

A man in Finland discovered that he was sometimes getting charged double, and even sometimes triple, for a text message that he sent. He noticed it after sending a single text message under 160 characters, that his bill recorded him sending two or three messages.

The problem: His provider treats an unusual character as a seperate message. Luckily, in Finland, this character is not a common one for the language.

To read more, check out: hs.fi

Just a number? Lucky Japanese cell phone numbers worth Millions!

Many of us take our cell phone numbers for granted. Sure, it’s nice to get an easy-to-remember number, or something with a nice flow to it, but in Japan, it seems that a cell phone number is a lot more than JUST a number. It can also be worth a LOT of money.

In fact, cell phone numbers containing special sequences of numbers like “123…”, sequences of numbers considered lucky to the Japanese, or cell numbers with repeating digits in the last 4 to 8 numbers are highly desirable and are often sought by company bosses and business people as a status symbol akin to an expensive watch, a flash sports car or… a yacht!?

…and they are selling for a fortune online, typically for 10’s of thousands of Yen (10,000 Yen = USD85 approx), but sometimes for hundreds of millions (100,000,000 Yen = USD854,000 approx)!.

Cell numbers containing the number 7 are thought to be very lucky, since the Japanese have the Seven Gods of Good luck, Shichifukujin. The number 8 is also favored as it is associated with good fortune. The tetraphobic Japanese regard sequences of the numeral 4 as not so lucky, however, since it is widely associated with death (“shi” in Japanese is a close homonym for the word for death).

The buying/selling of these ‘lucky’ numbers on all of Japan’s carriers has accelerated in recent times - MSN/Mainichi reports:

The prices of both au and Vodafone phone numbers have reportedly risen to two or three times the normal price recently. It is thought that people are buying the numbers before the number portability system is introduced in October, aiming to switch the numbers to NTT DoCoMo phones after the system is introduced so the price of the numbers rises even further.

“The really good numbers could sell for prices in the range of 1 billion yen,”

NTT DoCoMo, who holds more than half of Japan’s cellular market with more than 50 million customers has the numbers that are most sought after.

1 Billion Yen, eh? That’s more than 8.5 Million USD! Next time you sign up for a new cell service, take your time and choose your number wisely….you never know, this may just catch on!

[Source MSN/Mainichi]

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]

Welsh shop worker fired by SMS

21 yr old Kate Tanner, a shop worker at Blue Banana (a clothing store) in Cardiff, Wales was recently fired from her job by SMS.

The company defended the decision by saying that they had tried to call Ms Tanner several times before texting to say that since her performance hadn’t been up to scratch they had to let her go. Although not their general policy the company explained that it was an appropriate last resort method of communicating their decision given the circumstances and because SMS messaging is considered such a large part of “youth culture”.

The terminating text:

“Hi katy its alex from the shop. Sorry 2 do this by text but ive been trying to call u + ur phones been switched off. Ive had a meeting with jon + ian and weve reviewed your sales figures and they’re not really up to the level we need. As a result we will not require your services any more. You will receive your last pay packet on friday 28th july. Thank you for your time with us”

What next? Your boss putting comments on your Blog or your MySpace profile? How about a slightly more personal message from your boss on YouTube?

[Full story from icWales]

SMS RCRD BRKN - 2 QIK 4 ME - 42.22SEC

“The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”

A phrase we all use every day I’m sure, but no-one is quicker than Provo, UT teenager, Ben Cook at sending this “oh so common” bit of prose to his closest friends to reclaim his own Guinness World Record on Friday from a twenty-something Singaporean woman.

160 Characters. 42.22 seconds. Amazing!

[More from CNN.com]

Need to feel popular or get out of something awkward? No one ringing your new cell??

Here’s a new and really fun idea for those wanting to feel popular and important. Or for those needing to get out of a sticky situation and need saving “by the bell…”

The folks over at PopularityDialer have set up a service which enables your cell phone to be called at a time you specify. Their system then delivers you one half of a conversation for you to adlib along with.

At this point there are four voices and scenarios to choose from;

• Popularity call - a Male voice
• Popularity call II - a Female voice
• Affirmation - a guy telling you how great he and his friends think you are (?)
• The Boss - a call about urgent repairs needed to the office copier

Program the type of call you want to receive and the time and date you want to receive, the system does the rest.

Take a listen. US Cell phone numbers only.

[PopularityDialer]

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]

Phones so small they fit in your throat?

Well maybe not to eat it, but at least one known person has had one down their throat.

An ex-boyfriend shoved a phone down a womans throat after she demanded her cell phone. I guess that is one good reason not to own a small sleek phone.

[Read more]