"SuperMobile" made in China

A new Chinese phone, the CK800, can do more than just calling and texting. It can take a hot or cold shower and sometimes take a dive into a 20-foot pool with no water. Believe it or not? Believe it...

Apple Shares at US$200 a piece

Apple is now the third most valuable technology company, right behind Microsoft and Google. Its market capitalization is now around $174 billion having hit $200 briefly this week and in fact opened above $200 on Friday before closing at just under $200 for the week. This is some $100 billion more than last year. $100 billion increase in under 1 year is remarkable taking into consideration that 10 years ago, Apple was on the verge of going bust and thanks to Steve Jobs, the world now has access to great Macs, iPods and now iPhones.

Apple is definitely on a roll. Michael Dell actually commented during the Apple's turbulence years that Apple should liquidate all his assets and return whatever thats left on the table back to all the investors and shareholders. I m sure this comment must had been hard to swallow for Michael now that Apple has a market cap 3 times larger than Dell Computers.

2008 will surely be another exciting year for Apple as I m sure Steve Jobs and team must had prepared themselves for another exciting year and I m looking forward to MacWorld in Jan as Apple had just confirmed that they will be announcing a new Apple laptop. Viva Apple.

David Blaine Street Magic - Parody Version

I m sure most of you had seen the real version of David Blaine Street Magic but have you seen the parody version? Have a good laugh with the clip below how the AKA David Blaine's magic blows the minds of the Los Angeles idiots. I must say this is a good original production. Happy new year to all of you.

Here is the latest official 3rd installment.



and in case if you havent seen the earlier two parts, here is part 1 and 2.

The Reality of Life

My friend had just sent me an interesting email that coined out the reality of life. Truly meaningful and I m pretty sure you will agree. This is how it goes.

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Calling from the Airplane coming soon to Air France

I m sure many of you had been asking why it had taken so long for mobile service to be offered in the flying world. The first ever in-flight mobile service will finally make its debut as Air France and OnAir have teamed to offer the service on international flights.

Kicking off immediately, passengers will be able to send and receive sms and mms with the Mobile OnAir system, while those with mobile Internet access can receive and send emails.

“During the second half of the trial, passengers will be able to make and receive phone calls, with the service being regulated to maintain passengers’ comfort and well-being,” SlashPhone said. “At the end of the six-month trial, Air France will examine the feedback and comments made by customers to determine whether to launch this service on all its flights.”

As great as this is, imagine the frustration of people chattering on their phones. You thought it was bad on the bus? Frankly i would had preferred it to be limited to basic texting and emailing. Otherwise it would certainly had turned a good service into a service hated by many. While they maybe business travellers who may need this service, consideration should also be taken for those who are travelling on vacation where the last thing on earth they want to hear is having business travellers yakking on their mobile phones.

Aircraft is still the only safe haven from mobile till now. While there are some good of having mobile service on aircraft, there are still alot of other practical considerations that need to be taken into account. What do you think?

539 million mobile users in China

According to a report by the Ministry of Information Industry on 24th December 2007, by the end of November, China had added 78.3 million mobile users for 2007 averaging 7.1 million new mobile users each month for the entire year.

539 million mobile users is not an easy figure to comprehend as its a figure much larger than the population of most countries. With 40% mobile penetration, China still has alot of space for growth as most developed countries has 100% mobile penetration eg, Israel has 117% mobile penetration. If China ever achieved 100% penetration, that figure is going to be 1.35 Billion!

Text Messaging to Surpass 2 Trillion Messages in 2008

As the popularity of SMSs continue to grow, Gartner forecasts 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008, a 19.6 percent increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages.

Mobile messaging revenue across major markets will grow 15.7 percent in 2008 to $60.2 billion, up from $52 billion in 2007.

Asia/Pacific and Japan are the biggest consumers of mobile messaging. Gartner estimated that there were 1.5 trillion messages sent in 2007, and the number will grow to 1.7 trillion in 2008.

Gartner estimated that there were 189 billion mobile messages sent in 2007 in North America, and this is forecast to reach 301 billion in 2008.

Nick Ingelbrecht, Research Director of Gartner says sustaining growth over the next few years, carriers should look to social-networking applications to drive traffic, working where possible with popular established social-networking sites. Mobile search and advertising also offer attractive potential drivers for SMS traffic, although most carriers are poorly placed to support the end-to-end campaign management and reporting requirements of media buyers and advertisers but this is a small problem that i reckon carriers can work with experience mobile search and advertising solution providers to help them manage the mixing link.

Time Magazine awards Apple iPhone as the Top Gadget

Roughly a month ago Time magazine awarded Apple iPhone with its "Invention of the Year" title. Now they did it again — in their "Top 10 Gadgets" list, iPhone is listed as the number one gadget.

I wonder why the rest of the other top gadgets like the Nokia N95, LG Viewty and Samsung Blackjack are not listed, guess its another one of the American-centric thingy.

How China is coping with 70 million visitors for Olympic Beijing next year?

The answer is simple. China has decided to simplify the entry procedure from next month. The Guardian's Breaking News section has just announced that beginning next month visitors to China will no longer need to fill out health declaration forms to enter China. In addition to this, beginning on February 1, 2008, "people with no goods to declare will not have to fill in customs forms when either leaving or arriving."

Foreign passengers would still need to fill in the entry form but surely this is going to be a great news for everybody as immigration and custom clearance will be more efficient and faster.

The New Holidays in China

The Golden Holidays in China had been scrapped. No more 3 weeks of reprieve. From next year we will get an additional day off from 10 days to 11 days. I m not sure whether the rest will be happy with the extra day added but as for me I m not in favorable of the new holidays. Though holidays are longer by an additional day but its shorter in duration as the government had broken the 3 major golden holiday week into individual public holiday.

iPhone - Best Smartphone in the US according to Consumer Reports

Apple's iPhone topped the list of the best smartphones category with a rating of 64 according to Consumer Reports. It was followed by the Palm Treo 755p (63) and the Samsung BlackJack (62). iPhone sales in the US is only trailing Blackberry. Its only the 1st version and I m sure the next version will be a much improved iPhone and will surely give the other mobile device manufacturers a run for their money.

China's telecoms market opens up to foreign investment

The Chinese government has lifted geographic restrictions on foreign investment and increased the ceiling on asset ownership by overseas companies from 35 per cent to 49 per cent.

The opening up of China's domestic and international basic telecoms service this month, comes under its commitment to the World Trade Organisation, but also comes ahead of an expected change in the Chinese telecoms landscape next year.

The Chinese government is planning to shake up the local telecoms market as part of the licensing of 3G in country. One of the most likely scenarios would see second placed mobile operator, China Unicom, split up and sold to fixed-line giants China Telecom and China Netcom.

Unicom's operates a GSM and CDMA network and has dedicated engineering teams for each. So a separation of operations could make it easier for Unicom to find strategic investors for each of the businesses.

Speculation is rife that a merged Unicom CDMA and Netcom network will roll out CDMA2000, while China Telecom will launch WCDMA or TD-SCDMA using Unicom's GSM network.
Leading carrier China Mobile is widely expected to commercially introduce the homegrown Chinese-air-interface TD-SCDMA, but analysts are not ruling out the possibility that China Mobile will also pursue WCDMA.

However, it is likely that the allocation of 3G licences in China, whenever that happens, will be the only thing to put an end to the rumours, as it will likely be the catalyst for restructuring. The Beijing Olympics in August of next year are seen to be an attractive even to launch 3G services around.

Last month it emerged that Vodafone has plans to use the government led restructuring of the telecoms market to increase its presence in the country. The carrier intends to use its 3.3 per cent holding in China Mobile as leverage to extend its reach in the world's largest mobile markets.

Vodafone chief executive, Arun Sarin, said that that the Big V's $13bn stake in China Mobile could be used to take advantage of local opportunities. One of the likeliest options could potentially see Vodafone exchange its holding in Chain Mobile for a bigger stake another company.

First Daily Newspaper to offer mobile phone services

Sweden's daily morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter said Wednesday it had launched the world's first "newspaper" telephone: a mobile phone offering the daily's subscribers direct and free access to its website. The AFP reports.

"DN subscribers can purchase the Nokia 6120 third generation phone on the paper's website, and by signing up for a 199-kronor (31-dollar, 21-euro) monthly call plan can freely surf the daily's website by simply hitting a special "DN" button.

"Many people (in Sweden) think it's complicated (to Internet surf on their mobile phones) and they don't know how much it costs," the paper's head of marketing Johan Othelius told DN. "Now we're removing that obstacle," he added.

Pretty good move for the Daily Newspaper company as I m sure they can monetize the traffic via mobile advertising and subscription they are charging monthly. Thats definitely thinking out of the box.

Beer and Popcorns on Nokia N95

Not sure how these 2 tricks were set up but i m sure you will find it cool to show off your friends.

How about taking your lessons and exams on your mobile

If you're in Japan you not only have the choice of taking a class online, but you can also opt to view lectures on your cell phone! Cyber University as they call it, opened up in April and has just over 1800 students enrolled. Classes range from Chinese history, journalism, English lit, and more. The service only works on Softbank phones for now, but Cyber University is in talks to expand to more operators.

Japan, the country where you can earn your 4 year degree from a device that fits into your pocket. Amazing.

The World’s Toughest Mobile Phone

The "world's toughest phone" will take on Europe, starting with Stockholm. The new military-spec, Bluetooth, and push-to-talk GSM Sonim XP1 is engineered for outdoor sports enthusiasts and those who work in harsh environments, certified to withstand shock, water, wind, dust, dirt, and extreme temperatures, the U.S.-based mobile Sonim Technologies announced. And not that you'll need it, but there's also a three-year, unconditional warranty.

Well, the company is so confident that it’s invited bloggers and journalists across Europe to ‘torture-test’ the ‘indestructible’ mobile phone and publicize the results on its campaign blog. Check out the video below and you will agree that this is not your ordinary mobile phone.

New Improved iPhone AKA made in China

Not only that it looks like an iPhone, it even carries their tagline "think different" all over the tv commercial. Except that it comes with an improved "shaking" feature, the rest are pretty much copying the iPhone which the Chinese are really good at. I wonder why the local authorities in China are not taking any actions with such rampant infringement of intellectual property rights on mainstream tv broadcast channel considering these spots were broadcasted by state owned television company. Surely Apple would have a right to sue them or Apple is just too happy that they are providing Apple with free iPhone advertising.

Check out the video below to see what kind of tech you are getting for RMB 1990 (US$270), and check out the shaking feature to answer the call. It may seem to be a more advanced and cheaper knock-off but I m still going to stick with the original Apple iPhone.

China's 71 years old HIP HOP Granny

A 71-year old Chinese granny chooses hip hop dancing over traditional tai chi. Wu Ying's dancing raised eyebrows when she first started. But now she leads a class of over 30 people. She also wants to hip hop for the world at next year's Olympic games. A truly inspiring story for someone at that age and still possess so much charm and energy.

Perfect Christmas Present

Having trouble what to buy for your man this Christmas? Think no further, I m sure this unique "REMOTE" would be what every man would love to own. Quite similar to the one Adam Sandler was using on the blockbuster "Click" and I would definitely love to own one for myself too. Haha...

Chinese send 429 billion SMS and India doubled its mobile subscribers in 2006

In China, mobile users sent 429 billion text messages, an equivalent of 967 per user, more than any other country reported by Britain's media and telecommunications watchdog Ofcom. But these figures had not accounted for the spammed SMS that Chinese Mobile users get each day so in reality the number of SMS sent out is a whole lot less. But even if those figures were half, its still alot of SMS!

India had grown the fastest adding more mobile subscribers in the year than Britain had in total. Their number of new mobile subscriptions doubled to 150 million during the year -- an increase of more than Britain's total of 70 million mobile connections.

High Tech Alibaba relies low tech door-to-door sales channels

Great SF Chronicle article about Alibaba, the largest internet company in China, best known for their web service that connects manufacturers from China with customers around the world.

Do you know how they get manufacturers in middle-of-nowhere China aboard and online?
"Beneath its high-tech sheen, the success of Alibaba.com relies on the old-fashioned shoe leather method of door-to-door salesmen. The company employs an army of foot soldiers stationed throughout China and other parts of the globe who call on local businesses and teach their owners how to upload product photos, manage customer inquiries and maintain their online presence.

Because labor in China is cheap, Alibaba.com can afford to deploy a field sales staff of about 1,900 people to recruit new factories to join the Internet revolution." Maybe its old-fashioned and low tech but it works in China. The recipe to China isnt just about high technology, its the local understanding of the market and being able to be there at the right time to seize the opportunity like Alibaba.

FREE Music Downloads for 1 year when you buy a Nokia Mobile Phone

Nokia has thrown down the gauntlet to Big Music with a new service that bundles a year’s free tunes with the purchase of each new Nokia mobile device.

During his keynote address at the annual Nokia World conference, Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced Nokia Comes With Music, a new program enabling consumers to have access to a year of unlimited free music downloads via mobile handsets bundled with its Ovi web services platform. And guess what, at the end of the 12-month cycle users may keep all the music they download even if they choose against continuing their premium subscription.

Comes With Music will initially launch with Universal Music Group International as Nokia had indicated that they are in the midst of negotiating with other major record labels.

Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan said in a blog that the offering “puts Nokia exactly where they should be: at the forefront of innovation in the mobile music space.”

“Due to their scale and newly acquired aggressive Internet strategy, Nokia are in a unique position to turn the mobile music market on its head,” he wrote.

As for consumers, its going to be a great news, FREE music for 1 year, unbelievable right? Believe it. Nokia isnt going to stop at connecting people, it will go beyond that by bringing the world of entertainment down to a click of a button from your mobile phone.

Asian mobile users receptive to mobile marketing

I just got back from Hong Kong having attended the Mobile Marketing Forum and the regular Board of Directors Meeting for APAC. In that meeting, we were presented with the findings conducted by Synovate and sponsored by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

The survey found that Asia Pacific mobile users are very receptive to mobile marketing especially with mobile coupons and status alerts over purchases. The high usage of smartphones in Asia, especially in China and India, gives mobile marketers more options for executing campaigns, concluded the survey.

The survey said half of those interviewed expressed at least moderate interest in mobile marketing, while 13% indicated high interest for reasons of immediacy and convenience.

Mobile users are more likely to have experience with sweepstakes/voting and receiving information about new products than with other mobile marketing applications. The study said they were most interested in mobile coupons, status alerts about accounts or purchases, alerts on special sales and sweepstakes.

The greatest potential was seen in India and China, followed by Hong Kong, where mobile users already have participated in such programs.

Not surprisingly text message usage is high, accounting for more than 60% of the region's users. This translated into a large addressable audience for SMS-based marketing, the study noted.

The findings were based on a survey of 1,901 mobile users in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Korea.

If you would like to get a copy of this report, please visit MMA's website at http://www.mmaglobal.com/ to find out information about how you can become a member of MMA as this report is exclusively distributed to MMA's members only.

Try getting a mobile phone into a Beer Bottle

Getting a spoon into the Beer Bottle is a near impossible, how about a mobile phone? This is what Chris magically did. He just smacked the mobile phone on the bottle and it went straight in. Truly Amazing and unbelievable....

High Tech "Transfomers" Fashion

Who said that fashion cant go high tech. Guess they must had picked up the idea from the movie Transformers. Stunning models with stunning high tech dresses. Check out the clip to see how those dresses were transformed.

New version of Google Maps simulating GPS on Mobile

A new version of Google Maps introduced this week includes a beta feature dubbed My Location that was designed to simulate the GPS experience on mobile phones and handheld devices that do not include GPS hardware, inclduding Apple's iPhone.

My Location feature takes information broadcast from mobile towers near non-GPS equipped mobile phones to approximate the device's current location on the map down to about 10 city blocks.

"It's not GPS, but it comes pretty close (approximately 1000m close, on average)," the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant explained on its website. "We're still in beta, but we're excited to launch this feature and are constantly working to improve our coverage and accuracy."

The My Location feature is currently available for most web-enabled mobile phones, including Java, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Nokia/Symbian devices. However, it is not yet compatible with Apple's iPhone.

For a more detailed explanation of My Location and a visual demonstration, please check out the video below.

Global mobile phone penetration hits 50%

Figures released by industry analyst Informa Telecoms & Media reveal that worldwide mobile penetration will hit 50 per cent - or around 3.3 billion subscriptions - on Thursday, just over 26 years since the first cellular network was launched.

Since its birth in 1981, when the first mobile telephony network was switched on in Scandinavia, the mobile phone has become one of the world's great success stories.

As of the end of September there were operational networks in 224 countries around the globe, a figure that has increased from 192 in 1997 and 35 in 1987.

It is difficult to imagine how a modern economy could function without mobile telephony and a number of recent studies have shown that the mobile phone is having a hugely positive impact on the economies of emerging markets. Even young kids have mobile these days.

Informa estimates that mobile networks covered 90 per cent of the global population by mid-2007. This means that some 40 per cent of the world's inhabitants are covered by a network, but not connected, and leaves just 10 per cent with neither coverage nor connection.
Although global mobile penetration - the number of mobile subscriptions worldwide - has reached 50 per cent, this does not mean that half of the 6.6 billion or so people in the world now have a mobile phone.

A large number of more mature markets worldwide already have in excess of 100 per cent mobile penetration, as users increasingly sign up for more than one subscription, while emerging markets increasingly provide the bulk of new additions.

As of the end of September, 59 countries had mobile penetration of over 100 per cent, while almost half that figure, 27, had penetration under 10 per cent.

The economic difference between the more mature markets and those in developing countries is highlighted by the vast differences in operator ARPU (Average Revenue per User). Kuwaiti operator MTC brings in the highest ARPU in the world at the equivalent of $71 per month. But it is followed closely by Hutchison Whampoa's 3 UK operation with an ARPU of $70.55 and Qatar operator Q-Tel with $69. Japanese operator KDDI brings in $67.65 per user per month, while Hutchison's Austrian operation records and ARPU of $66.84.

But at the other end of the scale, Hutchison's Sri Lankan operator only counts revenues of $2.83 per user per month, beaten narrowly by Bangladesh's PBTL, which operates under the CityCell brand and has an ARPU of $2.98. Ukrainian operator Astelit counts user revenues of $3, as does Pakistan's CMPak, while another Bangladeshi operator, Sheba Telecom, reports an ARPU of $3.1.