Cellular

Texting with Bono

He's opaque in Apple Computer ads; had a sleepover at Bill Gates' place. Now U2 lead singer Bono is text messaging against AIDS and poverty in Africa, and helping Sun potentially dig up new business.

For about five minutes every show, Bono asks concertgoers to show support for certain causes by cell phone text messaging the word "unite" to a particular telephone number. Ten seconds later, their names appear on a giant screen behind the stage, and they get a "thank you" text message from Bono. Sun Microsystems works all the magic.

AIDS and poverty … Read more

Foxification

Are you a blue cell phoner, or a red one?

Fox's cheeky, take-no-prisoners and decidedly right-leaning attitude helped outline U.S. states in liberal blue and conservative red, and changed TV news forever in doing so.

Now Rupert Murdoch's media company is Fox-ifying cell phone TV news. Its latest step is to make Fox News Channel available to Sprint cell phones for $10 a month. This is Fox live and continuous, not the "mobisodes" of popular Fox programming specifically-designed to watch on the small cell phone screen, and sold on-demand style.

Great. The same talking heads … Read more

Keep on rockin' with your cell phone

Some 40 years ago, Bob Dylan warned us that "The times they are a changin'." That prediction is certainly coming true at rock concerts. While drunken howls for "Free Bird" can still be heard, the yellow flame of the Bic lighter is taking a backseat to the blue-gray glow of the camera cell phone screen.

During Saturday's U2 concert at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif., the ubiquitous phones outnumbered lighters by about 1,000 to 1 as concert-goers jockeyed for the best position to capture low-resolution images of Bono or The Edge. And … Read more

Can cell phones contribute to infertility?

A study by the University of Newcastle provides a preliminary indication that radio waves of a similar frequency to those associated with mobile phones can damage the DNA in the sperm of mice. In the study, faculty members John Aitken and Bruce King exposed mice to a particular frequency of electromagnetic radiation that is similar to waves people receive when answering a mobile phone. Initial results found that there was more DNA damage in the exposed sperm than in sperm from the control groups.

??Clearly further research needs to be done before we are able to establish an impact of … Read more

Tower of Babble

In his April Fools' Day newsletter, Mobile Ecosystem Managing Director Mark Lowenstein conjures up Babble, a cell phone service for people under the age of two.

Babble has free calling between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. and family push to talk baby monitors. The phones have no keys, are dialed by voice activation and come with outer shells that include "Teething," which is a "solid plastic outer layer that can be safely put in the mouth." Disney and BlackBerry maker RIM are working together on a Pooh-Berry phone.

It's an obvious prank, which … Read more