Intel Inside

Intel plans on developing chips for cellular phones. As cellphones become more and more like PDAs, this is no big surprise.

“Surendra Arora, Director, Customer Solutions Group (South Asia), Intel, says: “Intel has had a number of successful design wins in the handset market over the last year and is committed to helping our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners to promote and market their handsets. We are exploring marketing collaboration opportunities with OEMs around the world. However, we do not have any further details to share at this stage.??”

Quote from Intel plans to get inside mobile phones

“Swedish researchers now say the use of mobile phones over a long period of time can increase the risk of brain tumors.”

From Study: Cell Phone Use Increases Risk Of Cancer

No surprise here. Don’t abuse and you’ll be fine. Pretty much anything will get you cancer anyway.

“Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said in a recent interview that his company is looking into the possibility of creating its own Apple iPod like device, and possibly combining it with a cell phone.”

From Microsoft Plans Converged Cell Phone and iPod Competitor

“The FCC has said it could allow the service as early as next year. The Federal Aviation Administration has signaled that as long as airlines are confident it poses no safety threat, it would be in favor of lifting the ban as well.

Yet those who cherish cellphone-free flying sanctuaries still have hope. A study published this month found that - counter to what many Americans believe - cellphone radio signals do “present a clear and present danger” by interfering with sensitive navigational equipment.”

From Cellphone chats at 35,000 feet? US considers legalizing them on airline flights.

It’s about time they consider this. If cell phones or electronic devices posed such a threat to navigational equipment, they would probably enforce a much more serious ban.

Why pay for both your phone line at home and your cellular phone? Why not keep just your cell phone? This is something I’m considering doing, and there is a good article on that subject over there: Should I ditch my land-based home phone?. Here are the pros and the cons of dropping your land-based phone line. Most are taken from the article, but I added a few on my own:

Pros:

1. Save money. This one is pretty obvious. Most cell plans have free long-distance plans, caller id and voicemail. Why pay for an extra phone line with additional fees for those options when you already have your cell phone.
2. Only one phone number. One number where you can always be reached. You don’t have to pay additional fees for redirection services.

Cons:

1. Must keep the phone charged. If you don’t you might miss important calls.
2. Less security. In the case of an emergency, 911 services cannot located you as easily.
3. Reception and quality issues. The voice quality in general on a cell phone is not very good when compared to land-based lines.
4. Need multiple cell phones if you don’t live alone. What about your wife and your kids? They’ll need cell phones too.

As for me, I live alone, I barely use my land phone line and most of my calls are long-distance calls. I will make the jump soon :)

“Its new Vizrea Snap service can automatically move pictures among a phone, PC and the Web. No heavy lifting required. You just need to load software on a computer and compatible phone.

Images from the phone show up on your PC and the Net. And you can use your phone to peek at pictures stored on your hard drive.

Vizrea also organizes pictures, audio and video clips and blog text into “collections” that can be shared. Under that scenario, Vizrea has copied images onto its own servers.”

Article at: Cell-phone photos in your PC

Vizrea Snap is free during the trial phase. Check it out if you have a compatible phone. I don’t see cellular phones as big competitors to digital cameras though. The quality just isn’t there yet, and as digital cameras are becoming cheaper and cheaper, I’d think people would use the digital camera on their phone only to send a quick snapshot to another phone.

Sony has filed a patent for a cellphone attachment to their PlayStation Portable handheld systems.

“In two filings dated November 10, 2004 (and made public in late February 2006 and only three days ago, respectively), a gaggle of Sony designers submitted applications for both “ornamental design[s]” for a keyboard and phone add-on for the PSP.”

Quote from PSP keyboard and cellphone attachments on USPTO

The attachment looks a bit awkward. I see no reason why I would attach a cell phone to a PSP, except maybe to provide wireless connectivity from anywhere in order to send email.

“Israeli customers of mobile operator Orange who have 3G phones will soon be able to kiss their bills goodbye — if they`re willing to watch a few commercials instead.”

“‘This isn`t a long term model that would make sense, since most consumers don`t want to spend hours watching ads on their phones,’ marketing expert Weingarten wrote to UPI.

‘But it might work well in targeted demographics such as teens who don`t have the money to pay the bill, but will become effective brand evangelists after viewing endless loops of … ads. At least, that`s what the advertisers are hoping for,’ Weingarten continued.”

From: Pay your cell-phone bill by watching ads

It kind of reminds me of a free dial-up internet access promotion that was running here a few years ago. Basically, you would use the Internet Service Provider’s dial-up software and it would display ads while you surfed the web. It was not very lucrative and the promotion lasted only a few months. I wonder how it will turn out.