Schneider says that schemed up and thrown-away as an idea in the same 5 minutes, this project is the straight-forward iteration of an idea about harnessing alternative power in interesting ways. It was originally submitted as a final project in Tom Igoe’s Sustainable Practices class.

“The specific suit being built is a bikini. I decided to go with a female suit because of the sleeker form. The demographic I can foresee actually becoming interested in such a thing are those who enjoy mobile culture, hanging out, music, and kitsch. A demographic not unlike that to which the Apple corporation seems to preach.”

The suit is worn like a regular bathing suit. Wear it to the beach, find a nice spot in the sun, get out your iPod and plug in to the retractable female USB connection sprouting discreetly from the hip. As soon as your phone is all charged up, cool that frosty beverage that’s been warming in your bag by plugging in the beverage cooler (peltier junction) to the same USB connection.

Source:cellular-news

“We will soon issue an official document to invite foreign companies to attend an international tender to provide consultation for our share-selling process in the coming months,” Minh said.

Foreign companies have to send their applications to MobiFone by May 16, Minh told Dow Jones Newswires in Hanoi.

He gave no further details about the share sale.

Currently, MobiFone has 8 million clients, up 33% from a year earlier, and the company targets to add 2.5 million new clients this year, company figures show.

State media reported MobiFone is expected to sell a stake to the public in the fourth quarter of this year but has no plans to list shares on the stock market so soon.

State-owned VinaPhone, Vietnam’s largest mobile phone operator with nearly 9 million clients, has plans to sell shares to the public in 2008, state media said.

Source:Cellular-news

Over the past couple of years the world’s population of hive bees has been decimated and massive numbers are dying out. If they do disappear the effect on the planet will be devastating with failed crops, lost harvests and consequent mass starvation, civil unrest and huge movements of populations to those areas where bees still exist and pollination of plants can take place.

The deaths of the bees has not been due to any known or new apian ailment and scientists are now urgently casting around to discover the cause of an epidemic the like of which has not been seen before.

The latest theory is that the radiation emitted by mobile phones and other RF-based handheld devices could be the cause of the mass extermination.

In the past mobile phone radiation has been blamed for a variety of ills and has been cited specifically as causing brain tumours in some particularly heavy users of cell phones and for low sperm counts in men.

A great deal of research has been undertaken to discover the truth behind such allegations with some research papers seeming to support them in some small measure and most utterly refuting them, but I suppose it is true to say that, given the comparatively short time that mobile phones have been around, the jury is still out on the matter.

The phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as it is being called, was first observed in the United States. It now affects half the country and the latest figures show that on the West Coast bee population figures are down by 60 per cent while on the East Coast 70 per cent of bees have disappeared.

In recent months CCD has spread to Europe with severe outbreaks reported in Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

At first glance it would be easy to dismiss speculation that the phenomenon has something to do with radiation from mobile handsets as hysterical nonsense, but ongoing research is now producing evidence that seems to support the claims.

In Germany a long-term and continuing study has already shown that the normal behaviour of bees is severely moderated when hives are placed in the radio frequency and electro-magnetic fields produced by powerlines.

Now, extrapolating from that clue, researchers at Landau University of Koblenz have proved that bees will not return to their hives when working mobile handsets or base stations are placed close by them.

It seems the RF emission interfere so badly with the bee’s navigation systems that they simply do not know where they are or how to get back home. As a result they run out of fuel, fall from flight and die in out there somewhere in the open.

The head of the the Koblenz research team, Dr. Jochen Kuhn, says the work done so far provides “a viable clue” as to the cause of CCD while Dr. George Carlo, the man who managed a huge investigation into the alleged hazards of cellphone radiation on behalf of the US government and the American mobile phone industry, has seen the German research in detail and says, “I am convinced that the possibility [that radiation is killing bees] is real.”

Of course there are many other theories that seek to explain the mass deaths including the effect of pesticides, a new and as yet unidentified disease and the good old standby’s of GM crops and global warming, but the fact is that nobody knows why CCD occurs.

If bees do die out we will be in dreadful, perhaps terminal, trouble. Remember it was Albert Einstein who said that if the bees disappear, mankind will inevitably follow. He wrote, “in a world without bees, mankind would have only four years of life left.” So, what are you planning for 2011?

Hang on a moment though. Pigeons also possess a magnetic compass to guide them around and, as a Londoner, I can l tell you that they don’t seem to be dropping out of the sky or wandering off to disappear over the ocean. If only they would.

The fact is that, as usual, places like Trafalgar Square are as thick with rats with wings as ever – as the heads and shoulders of many a tourist can testify.

Source:TELECOM TV

More information on mobileYouth

On Monday, Nokia said it plans to work with fellow handset maker Samsung to develop interoperable products based on the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast–Handheld) standard for mobile TV. Nokia and Motorola have also pledged to work together to build products that support DVB-H.

Handset makers, mobile operators, advertisers and TV broadcasters have viewed mobile TV as a huge opportunity. But today, several technologies used to broadcast TV to mobile handsets exist, which has fragmented the market.

In the U.S. market, Qualcomm’s MediaFlo is already being adopted by the two largest operators, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Meanwhile in Europe, Nokia has been pushing DVB-H. The latest alliance with Samsung should help solidify the use of DVB-H in Europe for mobile broadcast TV. And Nokia said it hopes the partnership will also speed up deployment of the application.

Specifically, Nokia plans to work with Samsung to support a set of standards used for DVB-H called OMA BCAST, or Open Mobile Alliance Mobile Broadcast Services Enabler Suite. This suite, or profile of the standard, outlines ways for developing an advanced program guide, support for multiple broadcast technologies, and content and service protections using the SIM (subscriber identity module) card or digital rights management.

The purpose of the OMA BCAST specification is to help operators offer broadcast TV to mobile devices quickly and easily. It was defined and developed by the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum, and more than 12 major handset makers, technology developers and mobile operators already support the profile.

“Nokia warmly welcomes the collaboration in accelerating the adoption of DVB-H-based mobile TV services to the market,” Harri Mannisto, director of multimedia for Nokia, said in a statement. “We see that the OMA BCAST standard is essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale.”

Nokia said it is also promoting new applications to make surfing the mobile Internet as rich an experience as searching the Net from PCs. The company said Monday that it will provide a set of tools for third-party developers for its Symbian Series 60 smart phone to create widgets for mobile phones.

Widgets, which are lightweight Web applications, have been available on PCs for a long time. For example, they’ve been used for collecting data on such things as weather, stock quotes, flight schedules and more.

Widgets allow Web-based applications to be used without launching a browser. They reside as small icons on desktops and can be used to access real-time information. All of which make widgets an ideal technology for cell phones. Nokia said that, until now, no tools have been available for third-party developers to create widgets for smart phones. Apple’s iPhone, scheduled to be released in June, is expected to use widgets.

Nokia said it will offer widget support to all S60 licensees through Web Runtime. Developers can use standards-based Web technologies–such as Ajax, JavaScript, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and HTML–to create new widgets or migrate existing widgets from desktop computers to mobile devices using the S60 software.

The new tools will be available as part of the S60’s Third Edition Feature Pack 2, which will be available in the third quarter of 2007.

Source:ZD Net Asia

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The first Atlantic UK artists to use the service will be Funeral For A Friend, a five-piece Welsh post-hardcore band, and newly signed band Hadouken! 

The tie-up with Shozu coincides with the release of Funeral For A Friend’s new album, ‘Tales Don’t Tell Themselves’, on May 14th.

As with EMI, the bands will create their own behind-the-scenes photos and video clips with a  Shozu-enabled handset, add comments or captions and transmit the content to assorted web destinations. 

A range of Funeral For A Friend’s content shot using a Shozu phone can be viewed here. Atlantic will also be putting Shozu phones in the hands of Hard-Fi and James Blunt.

Jack Melhuish, digital manager at Atlantic UK, said: “We continue to explore new ways of connecting music fans with the bands they love. With Shozu, we can make it easy and fun for our artists to embrace the power of social networking sites and other Web 2.0 technologies and offer fans unique and exciting content.”

Source:Mobile Entertainment

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Source:Fierce Mobile Content

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Viewers will be able to watch shows like crime drama CSI, with free content supported by advertising revenues which will be split between CBS and partners.

CBS is the latest mainstream firm to join the trend for turning to the web to offer programmes and films.

Other companies involved in the online distribution deal are Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, AOL, Netvibes and CNET Networks.

However, while the proceeds from advertising on the CBS Interactive Audience Network will be split between CBS and its partners, details of the division in funds is not yet known.

According to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal, the broadcaster had wanted to keep 90% of the ad revenues generated by its shows.

As well as access to CSI and all of its offshoots – including CSI: Miami and CSI: NY – online viewers will be able to watch other shows such as Survivor, Late Night With David Letterman, news and sports.

News of the internet channel comes a month after Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and NBC Universal said they were joining forces to launch a new online venture aimed at challenging the popularity of video sharing site YouTube.

Source:BBC NEWS

Source:Fierce Mobile Content

“We have been impressed with Global Music International’s established relationships with major telecommunications players in China, and are extremely pleased to be entering into a licensing agreement with them to offer our unique music content for mobile distribution on their partners’ wireless networks,”  said Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s executive VP and COO, Asia, Kelvin Wadsworth in a prepared statement. “We see this agreement as an important part of our overall strategy to innovate, find new ways for our artists to connect with their fans, and develop new revenue streams.”

Source:Fierce Mobile Content

JumpTap’s search engine has been available on the Alltel deck since September 2006. It returns results for on and off portal sites along with targeted, paid search links and contextual display advertisements.

Wade McGill, senior VP of product management for Alltel Wireless, said. “We have successfully used dedicated keys in the past to provide content we wanted to make readily available, including games and ringtones. It’s been proven that the easier it is for subscribers to find applications, the more likely it is that they will be adopted”

Source:Mobile Entertainment