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AOL Launches Free IM Telephone Service

Authored by dmw on May 16, 2006 - 12:57pm.
Dulles, Va. - Two weeks after first leaking the news, AOL on Tuesday officially launched a new service that will allow the 41 million users of its instant messenger to receive free incoming calls through their computers. Through its new AIM Phoneline service, the company said that IM users will be able to get free, local phone numbers to receive the calls, as well as free online voicemail. The company is offering an upgraded service, which allows users to make calls to anyone in the U.S. or 30 other countries, for $14.90 a month. "Our research shows that the need for a separate and confidential phone number is becoming as important to consumers as the need for multiple email addresses," said John McKinley, the president of AOL Digital Services.
tags: Launches | Internet | AIM | AOL | Tech Launches | IM | Phone |

Oscars Gift Bags to Feature Motorola PEBL Phones

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 15, 2006 - 9:13am.
Los Angeles - Motorola said on Wednesday that the gift bags for top directing and acting nominees at this year's Academy Awards will include a special edition Motorola PEBL mobile phone, along with its H700 Bluetooth headset and 3 months of T-Mobile wireless service.
tags: Motorola | Phone | PEBL | Oscars | Gift |

Motorola's Music Phones to Support Windows Media, Yahoo Music

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2006 - 11:30am.
Barcelona - Motorola announced on Monday that it plans to integrate Microsoft's Windows Media Audio (WMA) on a number of its music-playing cell phones. The collaboration will enable the phones to connect to Windows-based PCs to sync music from PC to phone, and also to play songs from Windows Media-based digital music subscription services and online music stores. Motorola said it will begin selling Windows Media-based music phones in the second half of 2006, and plans to enable over-the-air delivery in 2007. Separately, Motorola said that some of its phones will enable Yahoo Music users to drag-and-drop podcasts from their PCs directly onto their mobile phones through the Yahoo Music Engine. Over-the-air delivery of podcast downloads is also planned in the future.
tags: Music | Phone | Motorola's | Support | Yahoo Music |

NeoMedia Technologies Gets Patent on Camera Phone Bar Code Scanner

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 2, 2006 - 7:07am.
Ft. Myers, Fla. - NeoMedia Technologies, a developer of wireless services, has received a U.S. patent for its technology that covers the capture and processing of bar codes explicitly from camera cell phones. The patent describes NeoMedia's method of capturing the image of a bar code by the camera device on a web-enabled cell phone, and processing the bar code so as to deliver the appropriate URL -- or web-based information -- to the user's cell phone screen, the company said.
tags: Phone | NeoMedia | Scanner | Patent | Camera |

Cingular Releases Second Motorola iTunes Phone

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 31, 2006 - 7:21am.
Atlanta - Cingular Wireless on Tuesday began offering a thin new Motorola handset to its subscribers, the SLVR, which comes loaded with Apple's iTunes music playing software. Similar in size to Motorola's ROKR -- the first iTunes phone offered by Cingular -- the SLVR's features include a camera, video capture and 512MB of memory, or enough to hold about 100 songs transferred from a computer via an included USB cable. Cingular is offering the SLVR phone for $199 with the purchase of a two-year service contract.
tags: Cingular | Motorola | iTunes | Phone |

Study: Clarity of Internet Phone Audio Still Needs Improvement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 27, 2006 - 8:01am.
San Mateo, Calif. - While the reliability of Internet telephone services has generally improved over the past several months, the major providers still have plenty of room to improve in terms of audio clarity, according to a new study by Keynote Systems. The firm measured 11 service providers on several performance factors. Though the top providers had improved the quality of their call audio since Keynote's initial study in June, the firm said that it found no significant change in the amount of audio delay present in the calls -- a factor that it said "can lead to conversational disruption." Keynote, in fact, said that Internet phones continue to have up to twice as much audio delay as calls placed on traditional phones. Time Warner Digital Phone ranked first in both reliability and audio clarity in the studies conducted in November and December, edging out Vonage and AT&T CallVantage.
tags: Internet | Audio | Phone | Study | Clarity | Improvement |

MGA, Ztar Mobile Launch "Bratz"-branded Mobile Phone

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 26, 2006 - 8:26am.
Los Angeles - MGA Entertainment, maker of the popular Bratz fashion dolls and accessories, on Thursday shipped its Bratz-branded mobile phone to Wal-Mart retail locations. The $69 white and pink Sony Ericsson T290 handsets feature Bratz imagery, and come loaded with Bratz wallpapers, voice ringtones and screen savers. The company partnered with Ztar Mobile to offer 50 minutes of pre-paid airtime, renewable through a Bratz Mobile private branded wireless service.
tags: Mobile | Phone | MGA | Ztar Mobile | Bratz |

Actimagine Brings Full-Length Movies to 128MB Phone Memory Cards

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 29, 2005 - 9:40am.
Paris - Actimagine, a French developer of mobile video and digital rights management technology, said on Tuesday that its technology is being used by Sony Pictures Digital in the U.K. to release full-length feature films on 128MB memory cards for cell phones. The studio has thus far released films including "Spiderman 2," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Stuart Little," "Ghostbusters" and "Hitch" on memory cards. Actimagine's technology has also been utilized in Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and DS handheld game systems, and a Fisher Price portable media player for kids.
tags: Movies | Phone | Actimagine | Full-Length | 128MB | Memory Cards |

FCC Rules Internet Phone Providers Not Subject to State Regulations

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 10, 2004 - 7:46am.
Washington, D.C. -- In a victory for Internet telephone providers, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to keep the companies under federal jurisdiction, exempting them from several key state regulations. The ruling came at the behest of New Jersey-based Vonage, which has been battling officials in Minnesota who had hoped to regulate its rates and subject it to other state rules. The ruling applies to all companies offering Internet phone -- or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) -- services. "To subject a global network to disparate local regulatory treatment by 51 different jurisdictions would be to destroy the very qualities that embody the technological marvel that is the Internet," said FCC Chairman Michael Powell in a statement. The FCC, however, has not yet ruled on a request by Vonage to declare such companies as information services instead of telecom providers, shielding them from several fees and taxes. There are more than 600,000 subscribers to VoIP services in the U.S. -- up more than four-fold from a year ago -- according to The Yankee Group.
tags: Internet | FCC | Phone | Regulations |

Nokia Launches Cheaper N-Gage QD Gaming Phone in Europe, Elsewhere

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 26, 2004 - 7:16am.
Espoo, Finland -- Cell phone maker Nokia on Wednesday launched its re-designed N-Gage QD hybrid cell phone/mobile game deck in European, African and Asia Pacific markets. The company added that the device will sell for as little as $60 in those regions after rebates; U.S. retailers taking pre-orders for the device are currently charging around $200. The N-Gage's new design was launched after widespread criticisms of the original model, including an awkward means of exchanging games and angle the device must be held at while talking. Games available at launch will include "The Sims Bustin' Out," "Crash Nitro Kart" and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004."
tags: Games | Europe | Nokia | Phone | N-Gage QD |

Samsung to Release Satellite TV Phone in Korea in Third Quarter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 17, 2004 - 1:46am.
Seoul, South Korea -- Korean consumer electronics firm Samsung plans to release a cell phone capable of receiving satellite TV broadcasts in Korea during the third quarter of 2004, CNET News.com reported. The company announced in February that it had developed a satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) chip for mobile phones, and plans to introduce a service that includes 40 TV stations alongside the launch of the phones. Although phones capable of receiving full-length TV programs have been available in Korea since 2002, delivering a 90-minute soccer game using a traditional cellular network can cost up to $260, News.com reported.
tags: TV | Korea | Samsung | Phone | Satellite | release |

House Judiciary Passes Bill Criminalizing Voyeur Camera Phone Photos

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 14, 2004 - 1:58am.
Washington -- The U.S. House Judiciary Committee this week approved a bill that would prohibit taking voyeuristic photos with camera phones and other devices in locker rooms and other places where there exists a reasonable expectation of privacy. The Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, which was introduced in light of a growing number of reports of people using their camera phones to take "upskirt" pictures of unassuming women and men at the gym and other locations, also passed in the Senate in September 2003. If convicted under the proposed legislation, violators would face up to a year in prison.
tags: Photos | Phone | Camera | House Judiciary | Voyeur |

Nokia Releases Jay-Z Phone Embedded With Rapper's New Album

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 16, 2003 - 4:52am.
Irving, Texas -- Cell phone maker Nokia announced on Tuesday that it partnered with hip-hop artist Jay-Z to create a special edition of the Nokia 3300 music phone called the Black Phone. The handset will come loaded with a multimedia card containing Jay-Z's recently released Black Album. The $124 music phone will also feature Jay-Z-themed ringtones and wallpapers, and will be sold at music retailers including Sam Goody and Media Play.
tags: Nokia | Phone | Jay-Z | Rapper | New Album |

Hackers Claim Nokia N-Gage Gaming Phone Security Broken

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 11, 2003 - 7:56am.
Stockholm -- Hackers on Tuesday claimed to have broken the security technology on Nokia's N-Gage hybrid cell phone/video game, allowing games created for the device to be played on other phones that use the same operating system, The Associated Press reported. Several websites reported that already, versions of games originally created for the N-Gage were appearing for other phones running the Series 60 OS, such as the Siemens SX1. "We are taking a look to see what has happened," Nokia spokesman Damian Stathonikos told AP. "We take it very seriously and we are definitely investigating this."
tags: Nokia | Phone | Hackers | N-Gage |

Samsung to Release Camcorder Phone With 2-Hour Recording Capacity

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2003 - 8:07am.
Seoul, Korea -- Consumer electronics firm Samsung announced that next week it will release its SCH-V410, a cell phone capable of recording and editing up to two hours of video. The camcorder phone can also hold up to 30 downloaded songs, in addition to functioning as a remote control that can change channels or adjust volume on a TV, DVD player, VCR, karaoke machine or set-top box. Korea-based Samsung said it will also release a PCS version of the phone, and that the camcorder phone will retail for under $600.
tags: Samsung | Phone | Releases | Camcorder | Recording Capacity |