As we all know there are now new driving laws out, which means that if you are found to be talking on your cell phone while driving, there will be heavy penalties to pay.

This new law has seen an increase on Bluetooth headset sales, especially from Plantronics, as drivers are going made trying to snap up one of these Bluetooth headsets, just to comply with the new laws which came into effect in California and Washington State on July 1.

As sales have now increased, Verizon Wireless store in San Mateo, Calif. has had to add a whole new section just for these headsets. Aari Jethmal, Verizon Wireless store manager has said ?The shelves have been cleared and restocked and cleared and restocked.?

The new law which stipulates if you drive while talking on your handheld cell phone, you will then face stiff penalties.

Plantronics along with other Bluetooth headset makers has welcomed this new law, this headsets used to be in low demand but it just shows how one law can change the fortunes of a gadget.

Source

Written by Peter for Product Reviews
In Sections: Bluetooth Gadgets, News
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After reports said that UK broadband ISP Virgin Media would become the recording industry's copyright cop, Virgin came out denying it, saying that kicking users off the internet was draconian. However, it later admitted that it would send warning letters to people, based on the flimsy evidence used by the recording industry. Now Virgin has started sending out those letters, claiming that it's just sending letters and that there is "absolutely no possibility" that it would ban file sharers from connecting to the internet. That must explain why it sent the first batch of warning letters to people in envelopes that read: "Important. If you don't read this, your broadband could be disconnected." Absolutely no possibility, huh? It's not necessarily bad that Virgin would let customers know that the recording industry had spotted their IP -- but it seems wrong to send out these messages that completely buy into the industry's spin on what that means. And, given how hard the recording industry is pushing governments to make "three strikes laws," that "absolutely no possibility" is looking less absolute and more possible every day.

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Your guide to the perfect navigator Business Standard, India - Jan 11, 2008 Want to install a GPS device in your car or mobile phone? Priyanka Joshi checks out some systems and has tips on what to look out for. …

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm
You’d think improved rhythm, a better singing voice and a killer guitar stance would be achievements enough for Rock Band players. But no! Apparently some people won’t be satisfied until their rocking is recognized by some arbitrary points system and broadcast to the world.
For those people, Da King 420 has revealed the Xbox 360 Achievements list for the eagerly-anticipated rhythm game. The bulk of the points (580 in all) come just from beating the career mode with each instrument and difficulty level, unlocking the game’s 16 locales along the way. Most of the rest comes from unlocking various extras or achieving certain scores on Expert songs.
We’re a little surprised that a game about that crazy, devil-may-care world of rock music has such a buttoned-down Achievements list. Then again, it would probably be hard to grant points for the ability to play behind your back or […]

Continue reading this post by: Kyle Orland …

The Vodafone Group said it had agreed to acquire a 70 percent stake in Ghana Telecom, the African country?s third-largest mobile phone operator, for $900 million.

This summer, a new generation of pocket-size gadgets offer anyone willing to spend $129.99 or more a way to use the Global Positioning System to track the people, pets and possessions they love.

As you may know, street demonstrations in South Korea, protesting the importation of US beef (and the government’s role in opening their market in this way), have been going on for weeks. Because the people at OhmyNews believe that these are smart mobs, and because my book is available in the Korean language, I was invited to make a video address to the Korean people. Here is the transcript.

Hello this is Howard Rheingold speaking to you from northern California.

I want to take this opportunity to speak to Korean people who are involved in the very exciting street demonstrations that bring together the power of technology and self-organization and political expression.

I want to pose an important question to you because I think that Korea has the opportunity to demonstrate to the world how we can evolve better forms of democracy that involve more people through the mediation of technology.

And the question I want to pose to you is this:

How can we make sure that smart mobs become smarter rather than more mob-like?

The order raised concerns that the online video viewing habits of tens of millions of people could be exposed.

Reuters - Three mobile phone operators in Spain
fixed tariffs in March 2007 to compensate for a new law banning
rounding up call periods, Spain’s Competition Commission said
on Thursday, citing initial findings of an investigation.

Original post by Reuters

Section: Gadgets / Other, Miscellaneous, Imaging

Those that have seen the Harry Potter movies may remember his magic cloak that enabled him to be invisible from those around him. Sounds a bit fantastical and far-fetched doesn’t it? Well, the future may be closer than you think.

The ability to hide something from sight, is usually accomplished by using what is known as a superlens. This type of lens contains a negative refraction index, the “refraction” part obviously meaning bending. In this case it allows it to bend electromagnetic waves back upon themselves. So, as a result, the object appears “invisible.” Voila! No bulky cloak even needed.

Although superlensing isn’t exactly yet feasible for making something huge like a military warship invisible, there is still promise for more standard large objects. This is being done using copper-based meta-materials to create a type of cloaking cylinder.  Work is also being done on the lenses by Graeme Millton, of the University of Utah, who is currently working in mathematical models for the superlenses. 

“We’ve seen it numerically—not in practice, but we’ve got a theoretical proof that collections of particles become invisible,” said Milton of their superlens work.

The meta-material cylinder which is being worked on at Duke University is different from the lens at Utah in that it causes microwaves to be bent around itself rather than reflected. Its cylinder has patterns invisible to the naked eye on its surface, which act to redirect the waves striking it, instead of allowing them to bounce off.

The Duke cylinder still needs work because there is still distortion which is visible in microwave images, however there are clearly implications for some real applications. Initiate...Stealth Mode.

Via [DailyTech]

Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Kenny Howe from Ackerly,TX wrote:

Did anyone else see this article about iphone?

Meter helps rate radio pull (Poughkeepsie Journal)
"Forget the iPod. The Portable People Meter, another pocket-sized gadget, is about to change the broadcast radio industry forever. Arbitron, the company that tallies listeners so broadcasters can set advertising rates, is moving away from paper diaries."

Here's the full article

Fight fans rejoice! THQ has named the UFC-based fighting game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and mobile devices they've been developing.

According to the press release, the game will be called UFC 2009 Undisputed. It will supposedly have "an authentic and comprehensive UFC atmosphere" as well as an "extensive roster of the best mixed martial arts fighters in the world." Sounds good? Hell yeah! If they can pull it off that is.

UFC 2009 Undisputed is slated to ship to retailers by spring 2009 so we should be hearing more details about this video game before then. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates.

EMI, in the midst of its own management reorg, has settled its ringtone royalties lawsuit with Infospace, though the terms were not disclosed. It did disclose the settlement in an SEC filing late yesterday. Infospace was sued by the music label in early 2007, to the tune of $100 million for underpaying royalties on using its music for ringtones. At that time it alleged that Infospace and its then-subsidiaries Moviso and Premium Wireless Services had been underpaying royalties and selling ringtones for songs to which they held no licensing rights...EMI's publishing also alleged InfoSpace (NSDQ: INSP) was selling expressly restricted songs, such as John Lennon's "Imagine," and selling ringtones in worldwide markets where it had not been granted license. Since then Infospace has closed down or disposed off its mobile content related businesses.

EMI changed some parts of the lawsuit in August, and asked for lower damages. Infospace had filed a counterclaim. According to the SEC filing: "The EMI Parties charged that the Company breached two ringtone license agreements by underpaying royalties and infringed the EMI Parties' copyrights by making unlicensed use of the EMI Parties' works. The EMI Parties claimed in excess of $10 million in damages for the alleged breaches of contract, and claimed statutory damages for alleged copyright infringement of 'many millions' of dollars. The Company denied the EMI Parties' allegations and counterclaimed for no less than $1.5 million based upon the EMI Parties' alleged breach of contract and tortious interference."

As for the settlement: "The Settlement Agreement concludes the EMI Litigation, and InfoSpace does not expect that the settlement reached with the EMI Parties pursuant to the Settlement Agreement will materially and adversely affect the Company's business or results of operations."

Related

• EMI Modifies Ringtone Lawsuit Against Infospace; Asking For Lower Damages
• Infospace Protests On EMI's Auditors On $100 million Ringtones Lawsuit
• Infospace Responds To EMI's $100 Million Ringtones Lawsuit
• i>EMI Publishing Files $100 Million Lawsuit Against Infospace, Alleging Ringtone Abuse

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese private broadcaster TV Asahi Corp aims to ally with an information technology and telecoms firm by the end of the year and is open to a capital tie-up, its president said.

Want the hotly anticipated iPhone 3G for the bargain price of only $199 or $299 as originally promised? Only new customers can score that deal with AT&T. Current customers must shell out $399 or $499, the company announced on July 1, 2008 just 10 days before the public availability of the new mobile jewel.

I am pondering to close this MPF blog here and move my personal blogging to Blogger.com platform of Google. Good idea?

If you’ve been waiting for the Google phone, plan to wait a little bit longer.

The company recently announced that the Google phone release has been delayed until late 2008. The Google cell phone will operate on the open source Android platform.

Google spokesman Barry Schnitt said “We remain on schedule to deliver the first Android-based handset in the second half of 2008. We’re very excited to see the momentum continuing to build behind the Android platform among carriers, handset manufacturers, developers and consumers.”

It’s unlikely that the Google phone will have any impact in the global phone market until 2009.

We’re not sure why Philips’ e2e touchscreen X800 suddenly become one of the long-life 9@9 series, but I’m pretty happy about it. Touchscreen phone seem to be on a mad race to pack in the best features and the fancies GUIs. Philips, though, have something else in mind. The Xenium X800 will give you the best battery life for any touch screen phone with 850 hours of stand-by. The eight-hour talk time needs work though. Besides the amazing battery life and the e2e touchscreen, you get a 2MP camera and a minimalist set of features like no 3G or WiFi.

Via

This is a post from Cell Phones Etc. entitled:
Philips X800 Official With 35 Days of Stand-by | Add your Comments

The BlackBerry Kickstart is by far not RIM's best looking phone. But it is a real live BlackBerry and it will run a mere 50 bucks when it launches on T-Mobile in September.

The Centro has proven that a cheap smartphone can sell like hotcakes. Granted the Centro is cute, the Kickstart is not. But $50 (with a two-year contract, natch) puts it in the same mass market as the crappier LGs and Sammys. It's a crazy way to hook the kids, but it might just work. (It'd work better if the phone wasn't so ugly.) [Crackberry via Silicon Alley Insider]

CTIA 2007 -- During a keynote speech at CTIA, an AT&T executive noted announced that it has collected information from a million people who want to be contacted when the Apple iPhone begins...

[Thanks to dozens of spam sites using the full text of our RSS content, the feed is now only a summary. Click through to see the full story.)

Fourth-ranked search engine completes its acquisition of the parent company of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com.

The insightory is an open place designed to “share management insights.” It offers Shared Insights in categories of Featured, Recent, and Popular. As its About section explains, it is a linking of insights among doers, thinkers, and learners:

Insightory is a platform for management professionals, academicians and graduate business students to share their knowledge and insights with the corporate world, solve management issues collaboratively, and network with peers who have similar professional interests.

Our goal is to do for management knowledge what Wikipedia has done for general knowledge i.e. put it out on the “open” web, so that those who have expertise can add to it, and those who need the expertise can tap into it. In doing so, we will create powerful networks, with rich opportunities for “providers” as well as “seekers” of management knowledge.

The E.P.A. expects to introduce its first Energy Star rating for servers by the end of the year, although a more comprehensive system that measures actual workloads will take longer to develop.

Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) officially confirmed it will acquire rival MVNO Helio from SK Telecom and EarthLink.

The acquisition will cost Virgin Mobile $39 million, paid in limited partnership units equivalent to 13 million of its shares, currently valued at $2.99. Parent firm Virgin Group and SK Telecom will also invest $25 million each of equity capital in the post-merger Virgin Mobile USA.

Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile USA, said, "We believe that the acquisition of Helio and the related strategic investments by SK Telecom and Virgin Group are of enormous benefit to our business, both financially and strategically. The reduction of our long-term debt and the increase to our revolver will realign our capital structure, providing us with greater liquidity and increased flexibility to grow our business. At the same time, we will acquire an asset which will add to our scale, allowing us to reduce our network costs and assure that Helio's customers are immediately profitable when brought on to our cost structure. We expect the combined elements of this deal will drive increased Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow."

$39M for Helio is laughable when you consider both Earthlink (NSDQ: ELNK) and SK Telecom have invested around $600 million in this venture over the last three years.

Note to readers: Don't work for, or invest in, MVNO's.

To get more detail on the merger, click here.

A forum poster over at Macrumors has posted photos of a fake iPhone that's close enough to the real hardware that you might believe it at first glance. Its proportions are off, the screen's not wide-sized and there's a mini-USB connector instead of an iPod dock one, but even the packaging is mocked-up to look Appleish. The UI is glossed-up to look very real, with some differences of course. And sure, you can imagine it would be not so sweet to operate... but you can't argue with the look of the thing. Steve's famous "start your photocopiers" call has gone a lot further than Redmond. Wonder how soon we'll see photocopy iPhone 3Gs? [Macrumors]

galleryPost('fakeiphone', 3, '');

Karion / RADAR:
GAWKER CUTS STAFF PAY RATE FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE QUARTER  —  Who ever said the future of media was going to feel great?  With the current traffic success of Gawker—70+ posts a day, amazing SEO results, and relentlessly hammered-home top stories to maximize numbers—comes a downside.

Motorola will discuss Open Source Development Model Implementation at the upcoming 2008 Wireless & Mobile Expo and Conference, scheduled on July 15 & 16, 2008 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada

Sprint is ready to launch their Airave signal booster on July 15^th.  The Airrave will plug into your broadband router to provide you with better reception.  Like T-Mobile’s @Home, the Airave is target towards people, like me, who live out in the boondocks and drop a call every time they step into their house.

So what’s the difference between this and T-Mobile’s @home service? Well, the Sprint Airave broadcast an actual cell signal and should work with all handset not just Wi-Fi equipped handsets.  Which is a really cool feature for family’s that does not want to upgrade everyone’s phone in the household.

You will be able to pick up the Airave signal booster on July 15^th at your local Sprint store for $99. The service itself will only run you $15 a month on an individual plan, but the rumor is that it might require you to have an unlimited calling plan to function.  A little more than T-Mobiles @Home but a very reasonable price for everything the Sprint Airave signal booster is offering.

[via boy genius report]

More good news for the Canadians, Bell today announced it will introduce the Samsung Instinct in Canada on August 8.Read our review of the Samsung Instinct for Sprint here:http://www.mobiletechreview.com/phones/Samsung-Instinct.htmMore on Bell today's announcement: Already a hot seller in the ...

Karion / RADAR:
GAWKER CUTS STAFF PAY RATE FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE QUARTER  —  Who ever said the future of media was going to feel great?  With the current traffic success of Gawker—70+ posts a day, amazing SEO results, and relentlessly hammered-home top stories to maximize numbers—comes a downside.