The Wirelessinfo Blog

Black Friday is almost here and cell phone deals are already popping up. Check out our round-up, updated daily, of the best finds for every carrier and unlocked phones. Now is the perfect time to shop for a cell phone for that special someone on your gift list, or for yourself - we won't tell anyone! Go ahead, click on and start shopping!

Black Friday is almost here and cell phone deals are already popping up. Check out our round-up, updated daily, of the best finds for every carrier and unlocked phones. Now is the perfect time to shop for a cell phone for that special someone on your gift list, or for yourself - we won't tell anyone! Go ahead, click on and start shopping!

Some people over at the University of California, Berkeley have come up with a way for you to bring your microscope with you wherever you go. They developed a 60x microscope attachment for a cell phone that will allow users to take a closer look at things while their out in the field with their cell. Ideas for use of the device include diagnosing Malaria while on the road. Pick one up now for $75.

[via EngadgetMobile]

China’s Qiao Xing Mobile has launched a new cell phone that monitors your heart as well as your phone calls. The phone can perform a basic cardiograph and can send doctors a MMS letting them know how your ticker is doing. Doctors can view the cardiograph and send a txt message response to the patient, or call them directly if they foresee an issue.

Soon you could get contact lenses that project the name of a cell phone caller in front of you. The contact lenses would incorporate electronic circuits that would project and image directly in front of the eyeball. "Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

A new study by Informa indicates that there are 3.3 billion cell phone subscribers in the world. Accounting for almost half the world’s population that study found 59 countries with a cell phone penetration of over 100%, meaning that people with multiple cell phone accounts are pushing the numbers up a bit.

Activision and Hands On Mobile today announced that the hit game "Guitar Hero" will soon be available on a mobile phone near you.  The game "Guitar Hero" allows anyone to be a "rock star" in their own home, with their own gaming platform. A big hit for the Playstation 2 and Xbox, this innovative new game is sure to be a hit in the mobile arena.   From the press release:

   "The lifestyle of music is strongly immersed into our everyday culture, and having Guitar Hero on mobile platforms will now allow our dedicated fans the opportunity to passionately feel the music, anytime and anywhere,” said Dusty Welch, head of publishing at RedOctane. “Hands-On Mobile has extensive experience and success in bringing established franchises to mobile devices, and we greatly look forward to extending the Guitar Hero brand to mobile users."    

This game is truly awesome, we can hardly wait for it to go mobile!  No dates as to availability are currently public, stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Students at Park University will soon be offered mobile phones preloaded with academic applications, thanks to a new partnership by Sprint Nextel and Rave wireless.  Planned for roll out in time for the Fall semester, this new program will feature class information, safety information, school email, and mobile learning applications designed specifically for the University.

This plan is expected to help keep students "wired" in to the campus, and will also feature special calling rates for students who sign up. 

A new rumor is circulating on the web that Apple will be releasing the iPhone on June 11th to coincide with their Worldwide Developers Conference start date.

From CNET News:

Now Cingular is confirming that the release date will be June 11. A customer service manager at Cingular (we called 800-947-5096 and were transferred to sales) gave us that date late Thursday, but, alas, said he didn't have any additional information beyond that.

Although tons of tech bloggers have picked up the CNET information, we were unable to find any firm confirmation of this date. Both Cingular and Apple were contacted, and refused to comment until the release date.  It does make sense that the release would be scheduled to coincide with the conference, however.  And Jobs did say June during MacWorld!

This week at the CTIA show in Florida, Sprint revealed the new Samsung Upstage - a music phone designed to "upstage" its rivals in the increasingly competitive music phone arena. 

The actual design of the phone is highly unusual - on one side it is a typical cell phone with a typical ho-hum 1.4" LCD screen.  Flip it over, and it is a media player with a 2.1" LCD display and controls.  It is designed to be an "i-Phone killer", with enhanced media features such as Bluetooth caller ID where the phone announces the name of the caller over the music you are playing.  This allows you to decide whether the call you are receiving is important enough to interrupt your listening pleasure.  It also supports Sprint TV which now has 50 channels of mobile entertainment.  Also included are a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a MicroSD card slot plus included 64 MB card.  This phone does ship with Sprint music software, and will allow music to be purchased from Sprint's online music store - which is the first ever service to allow music to be downloaded directly to a phone. 

Per Phone News - Sprint has released pricing on their website of $149.99 for new and qualified upgrade customers, and $299.99 retail.  Along with one commenter to the Phone News post , I was also unable to see this post on the Sprint site to verify.

Business travelers have long been hampered by the inability to use their cell phones in-flight, or even when sitting on the tarmack waiting for the flight to take off.  According to Business Week, it looks like this is not about to change anytime soon, although a proposal has been in play that would drop this requirement. 

From Business Week:

FCC Chair Kevin Martin told reporters after a board meeting Thursday that the wireless telecommunications industry indicated in recent comments to the FCC that mobile phone calls in flying planes would interfere with their networks on the ground.

This proposal has been in play since 2004, and would require the approval of both the FCC and the Wireless Telecommunications industry to lift the ban. 

Readers of comedy magazine The Onion had some interesting comments to share: 

 From Brenda Ellis-Lee,Salesperson
"I don't know. Last year, the airlines lifted the ban on seat-kicking and look what happened."

On a serious note, USA Today conducted a survey in 2005 that showed that 68% of respondents favor the ban for possible safety issues.

[Photo via Flickr]

A Vermont teen who has been arrested for allegedly stealing guns, jewelry, and a laptop computer was tracked down easily due to one oversight on his part - he left his cell phone at the scene of the crime. A trooper pulled the teen over based on a description of the car seen near the crime scene, and when he showed Christopher Lackard, 18, the phone - he claimed it as his.  He has been charged with possession of stolen property as the laptop was found in his car, and burglary. 

Obviously this teen is forgetting what they teach in Burglary 101 - don't leave anything that is traceable to you at the scene of the crime, and if you do, DON'T claim it when the police show it to you!

Perhaps he didn't realize that mobile phones can be easily traced back to their owners?

[Photo Via Digital Battle]