Mobile roaming gets cheaper, Snoop Dogg texts in, and mobile TV tunes out
Pocket Picks of the week
Apparently (whisper it) there are more things you can do with your mobile phone than play games. Yes, we know it's heresy, but nevertheless Pocket Gamer's younger sister site Pocket Picks continues to seek out ways to get more from your mobile.
We thought you might be interested to hear more, so we've digested the major facts, figures, and fibs from the last seven days and regurgitated them below.
It's been a rather good week for travelling types, particularly those who are on the Three network, which has announced it has ditched all roaming charges. Meanwhile, plans to utilise mobiles to speed airport check-in could be a boon to all with itchy feet – if you're lucky (or otherwise) you might even get invited to Jamiroquai's Gig In the Sky.
Fans of Snoop Dogg will also doubtless be wagging their tails at the prospect of getting text messages from the star. Meanwhile celebs and politicians wary of having their calls monitored by FBI (or the press) should be cheered by the prospect of a new 'anti-eavesdropping service' being trialled in Korea.
Not everyone is quite so concerned with civil liberties, as China ably demonstrated when the Beijing authorities threatened those spreading lies or rumour by text message with serious jail time. Naomi Campbell might have missed out on a similar punishment, but she will have to serve community service after hurling her mobile at a member of staff.
Mobile TV seems to be having a tough time too, with Virgin Mobile having to admit it has only sold 10,000 mobile TV handsets in the UK despite a concentrated marketing campaign, whilst a report from a US paper saying that less than 1% of Americans were tuning in to mobile video of any kind.
Samsung is undeterred for one, and announced it is to start building standard TV-tuner chips into its mobiles that offer free TV on the go.
Elsewhere on the handset front, our Sauron-like eye cast an envious gaze upon designer handsets, dual-screen DS style handsets, Bravia-branded TV handsets, and even scented handsets from the Far East. Whilst those of us outside Japan and Korea might not have any of those anytime soon, we could be getting our driving gloves upon a rather sharp looking McLaren Mercedes model from Sharp.
On a lighter note, last week saw us celebrate the advent of Flingtones (ringtones you can inflict on others!), Celebrity Big Brother on mobile (relive your favourite bullying, racist moments!), and Happy Kissing (the smoochy antithesis of happy slapping). No doubt the mobile attachment that tests your breath could come in handy with the latter.
And that about wraps things up... although anyone intrigued by Apple's new phone thingy might want to check out some American comedians take on the gadget, the announcement that iPhone could have video functionality by June, and a novel way to bring an iPhone style interface to your Windows MS smartphone.
