hello andy

No network coverage? Dropped calls? Here’s your lifeline.

The Telegraph reports on the launch of Vodafone Sure Signal – a mobile phone signal booster for Vodafone customers. All one needs is a broadband connection and a 3G phone.

Talk, uninterrupted.

The Sure Signal box is a femtocell, a technology pioneered by a British company, Picochip. They are simple black boxes, the size of a paperback book, which plug into the back of a customer’s broadband hub via an Ethernet cable.

Femtocells not only should improve mobile phone coverage, but they also allow smart phone customers such as iPhone users to download far more data to their devices.

High street, meet value street.

With a 12-month contract and a £20 per month tariff offer for the iPhone 3G 8GB handset, The Times reports that Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket has aggressively moved to undercut its rivals O2 and Orange, the only other companies selling the phone in the UK.

But it comes with a high upfront tag of £222.

Will customers bite?

“We needed to learn a new type of selling where we stand face-to-face and talk people through the different options they have got,” he says. And we had to do it in such a way that fits within the context of a weekly grocery shop.”

After successful trials, Tesco, he says, is ready for action and consumers do not have to take his word for it. Its telecoms unit has just received a huge endorsement — a deal with Apple, the consumer electronics group, to sell the iPhone.

The supermarket beat some of the best-known names in the telecoms world, including Vodafone, in the race to sell the sought-after gadget. From today, shoppers will be able to pop one into their trolleys alongside their groceries.

They wouldn’t be caught dead with a mobile phone – meet some of the people who have so far withstood the call of the mobile phone, literally. The NYT reports they border on the insignificant, but form an interesting percentage.

The march of the phone meanwhile continues, undeterred.

Though many cellphone owners express growing displeasure about cellphones’ intrusions into their lives, according to Pew, a tiny and most likely shrinking number actually manage to resist them completely.

“Ambivalent networkers bristle at all their gadget-facilitated connectivity, but don’t give it up,” Mr. Horrigan said. “The cell refuseniks are making a statement that they control their availability.”

With an erratic supply of power to contend with, mobile phone users in emerging markets are turning their phones skywards – CNN reports that Safaricom has launched Kenya’s first solar charged phone.

Despite the limited availability of power, Kenya has one of the most vibrant cell phone markets in Africa, analysts say. An estimated 17 million Kenyans use mobile phones.

Some charge phones on bicycle-run generators, Joseph said. Or like, Gathungu, they pay businesses in major cities to charge their phones, sometimes waiting an entire day.

“There’s an enormous need for a device like this,” Joseph said of the solar phone, which can charge during talk time, as long as there are rays. “They will continue to charge on natural light, even on cloudy days,” he added.

What you get is more than what you see – welcome to the world of augmented reality (AR), coming soon to your mobile. The BBC reports that augmented reality based services are in the offing for mobile phones.

Using a heady combination of GPS, Internet and the mobile camera, these services will display vital information on your surroundings, enhancing your perception of the real world.

Well, one thing’s for sure, the new reality will definitely augment the dumbness quotient of our race.

Call it Terminator Vision – a view of the world tagged with rich, location-relevant information whilst your gaze flickers here and there.

Using the phone’s built-in GPS, Sekai calculates your position. The viewfinder for the camera then displays location-specific information graphically on top of your real-world view.

Perhaps the most advanced service is SPRXmobile’s Layar service. Launched this June in Amsterdam, residents and visitors can now see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs on offer in the area, and a list of local doctors and ATMs by scanning the landscape with the software.

Break free from wires – The Guardian reports that Nokia is testing a mobile phone prototype that charges itself, by harvesting ambient radio waves from the environment.

The Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge estimates it will take three to five years to develop the technology, before the phone hits the market.

Standby mode is often accused of being the scourge of the planet, insidiously draining resources while offering little benefit other than a small red light and extra convenience for couch potatoes. But now Nokia reckons a mobile phone that is always left in standby mode could be just what the environment needs.

A new prototype charging system from the company is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radio waves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us. The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains.

An acute drop in grammatical standards due to rampant texting may not be the only cause of worry for parents and teachers – NYT reports that going overboard with texting has serious psychological implications for teenagers, and it’s beginning to take a toll on their health.

Texting seems to show no signs of stagnation, in fact it has doubled over the past year, fuelled primarily by the rise in the number of unlimited texting plans.

Parents, you might want to take a closer look at your teen’s phone bill.

Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults, Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ”

Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm.

It’s a move that will be welcomed by consumers and environmentalists alike. The Guardian reports that the GSM Association has announced an initiative to introduce a universal mobile charger, which would also meet higher energy efficiency standards.

It’s likely to be based on the micro-USB connection, found on devices like the new BlackBerry Storm.

Still on the drawing board, it’s expected to be a standard by around 2012.

The mobile phone industry plans to introduce a universal charger as part of a drive to improve its previously patchy environmental record.

Not only will it mean phone users no longer have to hunt for the right charger, but the specifications for the new device include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption.