Online Girlfriend Recruiting by Peter Chao

There is now a new way available for those that are single to broadcast their single status and find a partner on the internet. Peter Chao is now looking for a potential girlfriend of his dreams by posting a video on YouTube with a list of criteria that his “girlfriend-applicants” must satisfy. You are going to laugh your ass off listening to Peter.

China Mobile earnings stall as slow take up on 3G

China Mobile has reported a slower as expected 1.4% increase in its first half income, thanks to the economic slowdown, rising mobile penetration rate and increased competition. The world’s largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers recorded a net profit of $8.09 billion.

However, quarterly profit fell for the first time since it listed 12 years ago with net income at $4.42 billion.

Subs increased in the first half by 35.87 million to 493 million, but only signed up just under 1 million users on its TD-SCDMA 3G service.

Despite the declining subscriber growth and the slow uptake of 3G, China Mobile experienced strong growth in its VAS services, such as mobile music, mobile gaming and M2M, which contributed 28.1% of its total revenues.

The company expects rural areas and new VAS services, including its new Mobile Market app store, would continue to be the drivers for the growth forward.

China Mobile is expected to remain the dominant operator for the next five years, its biggest challenge is 3G. If it cannot make TD successful or quickly move to 4G networks, it is in danger of losing its high-end customers. China Mobile would need to pump in more funding for handset development as the initial funding of slightly less than $100 million is just too small to resolve the terminal issue.

The USAA Lets You Cash Cheques from Your iPhone

The USAA has created an iPhone app that eliminates the need for going to the bank to deposit your cheques.

The USAA iPhone app lets users snap a picture of the front and back of their cheque and deposit it into their account. While only currently in use for active-duty military personnel, this app is a cool step towards no bank lines. While definitely not an app for those who don’t trust technology, this seems like a cool new development in easy banking.

Apparently it's been downloaded 150,000 times since its launch earlier and processed over $1.5 million in deposits in its first three days.

Granted, any typical bank branch probably processes tens of millions of dollars in deposits each day. But it's still kind of cool that you can do it from your phone.

China Unicom orders 5m iPhones

China Unicom is banking on an iPhone frenzy this September, as the mobile service provider has bought five million of the handsets from Apple, according to IB Times. The $1.46 billion (about 10 billion yuan) inventory buy comes just about two weeks after the companies reportedly signed a three-year deal that gave China Unicom exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in China.

China Unicom will sell the 8G iPhone for about $350 (2,400 yuan) and the 16G for about $700 (4,800 yuan); IB Times’ source estimates that Apple will generate roughly $100 per unit in profit, a sharp contrast from the $400+ it has been estimated that Apple gets from AT&T.

But given the competition the iPhone will have in China from established smartphones, fake iPhone clones, and Dell’s rumored phone with China Mobile, Apple likely had to concede in some areas so that it could take its first crack at the Chinese market. Its certainly a handicapped iPhone taking into consideration that wifi will be excluded, even iTouch has wifi!

While full terms of the deal are still unclear, the consensus is that the China Unicom arrangement won’t be nearly as profitable for Apple as its partnerships with cell phone companies in other countries, since it doesn’t include sales subsidies. Without the subsidies thrown to the subscribers, I cant see what are the driving factors to own an iPhone, you are better off buying cracked iPhone with all the features included.

Sara's secret

This ad for Sara's secret made me laugh so hard.

The new Samsung Jet Interactive website

I like the website launched by Samsung to promote its latest Jet mobile phone model. Ready, Set, Jet is an interactive test that makes you discover the phone features. Good sound design, good pace, nice visuals. Check out out.

Samsung and LG gaining global handset market share

New data published today by Strategy Analytics reveals that global mobile phone shipments in the second-quarter declined 8 percent compared to a year ago. The research firm said that global shipments reached 273 million units in the quarter, down from 297 million units in 2Q08.

The decline marked the third consecutive quarter of market contraction, but was an improvement on the minus 14 percent recorded in 1Q09 (the industry's worst ever quarter of growth) and minus 11 percent in 4Q08.

The best performances in the study came from South Korean firms Samsung and LG, both registering their highest ever market shares, 19 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Their success was attributed to "robust demand" for their touchphones and QWERTY phones.

Samsung's market share has almost doubled in the last seven years (from 10 percent) in 2Q02, while LG now has a greater share than Motorola (5 percent) and Sony Ericsson (5 percent) combined. Meanwhile, market-leader Nokia shipped 103.2 million handsets in the quarter, down 15 percent from 122.0 million units a year ago, and its growth rate underperformed the industry average for the fourth quarter in a row. Its market share declined from 41 percent to 38 percent as shipments declined in all regions except China. Motorola and Sony Ericsson recorded the largest declines, down 47 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

Among the smaller vendors, Apple's global marketshare edged up to 1.9 percent in Q2 2009, from 1.6 percent in the previous quarter. The firm shipped 5.2 million iPhones worldwide in the quarter.

Jackie Chan Segways into Future in a Kaspersky Ad

Kaspersky’s Internet Security Solutions has a new ad campaign that is making waves around the world wide web. The video depicts Jackie Chan sporting a “Kaspersky” helmet, floating on a Segway towards what appears to be the future, and kicking the crap out of what must be computer viruses.