Charge Your Mobile With An Orange T-Shirt At Glastonbury
Festival goers at Glastonbury, which starts on Friday, will be able to charge their mobile phones using a prototype T-Shirt unveiled by Orange.
The Orange Sound Charge T-Shirt charges mobile phones when a user plugs their phone into the T-Shirt using noise-responsive technology. It means the louder the music the quicker the phone charges.
If sound levels are higher than 80 decibels it will generate six watts of electricity which enough to charge a smartphone over the weekend. So if there are more people than normal pushing their way to the front at Glastonbury they may be trying to charge their phones!
The T-Shirt uses piezoelectric film which absorbs sound waves which are then converted into an electrical charge. This is transferred from its battery into a lead which goes into the phone. It was designed with the help of experts from GotWind.
Orange is testing the T-Shirt at Glastonbury around the Spirit Of 71 stage. It will then be able to say which groups are best for charging!
The co-producer of the Spirit Of 71, Tony Andrews, said “Sound vibrations, particularly bass frequencies, will create enough shaking to produce electricity from a material as simple as piezoelectric film. It looks like it could provide a real solution to mobile charging and I’m interested to see how the Orange Sound Charge performs in a live testing environment such as Glastonbury”.
The head of sponsorship at Orange UK, Andrew Pearcey said “In a vibrant festival environment such as Glastonbury, sound is such an obvious medium that it seemed like a natural fit to use it in the development of this year’s prototype”.
Fortunately the electronics of the T-Shirt are removable allowing the garment to be washed after a weekend of festival wearing!
Related Posts:
Break-In At Vodafone Facility Overnight Results In Network Issues Today
The mobile phone company, Vodafone, is suffering from network issues today after a break-in last night.
Vodafone announced on Twitter that a break-in at one of their technical facilities had resulted in damage done to some of their equipment.
The break-in at Vodafone’s Basingstoke exchange centre has resulted in some customers experiencing technical problems including temporary loss of voice, sms and internet services. Vodafone said on Twitter that they were working as quickly as possible to restore these services and that they would have everything back to normal as soon as possible.
While engineers are trying to fix the problems customers are reporting their loss of service on Twitter but it’s not known yet how many people have been affected.
Vodafone added on its Twitter statement that the break-in had not impacted on the privacy of customer’s data.
Related Posts:
Users Locked Into Long Mobile Phone Contracts
Research has found that people are being locked into long mobile phone contracts which they can only get out of if they pay a large buy out fee.
Three year contracts are now seen as the best option for customers who want a smartphone but also want cheap monthly payments. However, problems arise when customers find they need to change to another deal halfway through.
There are many reasons for having to change or come out of a contract e.g. redundancy or reduced wages while others want to come out of a contract in order to upgrade their phone. But it’s not easy to get out of a long contract because of their expensive buy out clauses. It means that there are lots of people with mobile phones that they don’t want and perhaps can’t afford.
Many people want smartphones which is why mobile phone companies tie them into long contracts. They have to find a way of making some money back on these expensive devices if the customer can’t buy the phone themselves.
Long contracts have become more common compared with six years ago when most phone sales were on a 12 month contract. uSwitch found there were just 279 12 month contracts available but the number of 24 month deals has gone up to 939,000. There are 3,300 three year deals available.
While people in the past would have preferred a 12 month contract, these have now been made unattractive for most, with the result that they are forced to take 24 month or 36 month deals. With technology changing so quickly anyone in a 36 month contract could be left with an outdated phone for quite some time before they are allowed to update their phone.
Long contracts will soon be a thing of the past however. New European Union rules will come into effect in May and this will mean the end of 36 month contracts. The rules will also mean that mobile phone companies will have to give customers the option of signing a 12 month contract.
Related Posts:
HTC Introduces The Facebook ChaCha And Salsa Mobile Phones
HTC, the mobile phone manufacturer has said it is making phones with a dedicated Facebook button, the ChaCha and the Salsa – the first phones to feature such a service.
HTC says it’s going to launch two new phones with a dedicated Facebook button. The phones, called ChaCha and Salsa, will allow instant access to Facebook.
HTC and Facebook have worked closely together on developing these new phones. The Salsa is a touchscreen phone and the ChaCha also includes a keyboard.
The chief executive officer of HTC, Peter Chou said “We wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal”.
Meanwhile the head of mobile business for Facebook, Henri Moissinac, said “We have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices and HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage”.
The Facebook button will allow users to share photographs and music via the phone and if the phone knows that a caller is a Facebook friend it will show status updates and information for that caller. HTC is marketing the phones at users who use Facebook to organise their diary rather than email.
HTC has also announced it’s bringing out a new 7” tablet called the Flyer. It has a pen and can combine recording sound with taking notes. It means that students could use it in lectures – recording the lecture and adding their own notes.
The new HTC products will be available towards the middle of this year.
Related Posts:
Sony Ericsson & Samsung Launch New Devices At Mobile World Congress In Barcelona
The Mobile World Congress has started in Barcelona with a number of mobile companies launching new devices.
Mobile businesses have arrived at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and are using the occasion to launch new devices, many of which are using the Google Android operating system.
Sony Ericsson has launched a smartphone which is also a gaming device called Xperia Play while Samsung has brought out a new tablet called the Galaxy 10.
The Sony Ericsson phone has been nicknamed the PlayStation phone and its launch attracted a large crowd at the exhibition. The gadget has a pull-out control pad with a number of games and the hope is that it will appeal to a wider mobile gaming market. It will be available in the UK from March on all mobile operators.
Many believe that Xperia Play will prove to be a positive challenge to Apple. An analyst from the research firm Forrester, Ian Fogg, said of the Xperia Play, “It is an extremely competitive device and shows that Apple will not be the only player in the mobile gaming market”.
Meanwhile the head of branded devices at the mobile phone operator Three, Sylvia Chind, said the Xperia Play was a “step change in the way in which consumers use data, merging mobile communications and entertainment”.
As Sony Ericsson has made significant changes to its phones, experts believe that other mobile phone manufacturers will follow suit. Ian Fogg said “Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and Google also have other assets they could bring to the mobile experience”.
Meanwhile, the new Samsung Galaxy 10 runs Honeycomb, the latest version of the Android OS which is also the power behind LG’s new 3D tablet and phone. Users of both of these devices are able to shoot and upload 3D images and video straight to YouTube.
Related Posts:
Nokia Teams Up With Microsoft To Challenge Google And Apple
After reporting earlier in the week that Nokia’s boss had warned staff that the company was in crisis it seems Nokia has now teamed up with Microsoft to challenge Google and Apple.
The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft will see Nokia using the Windows phone operating system on its smartphones and consequently its own operating systems will be marginalised.
The chief executive of Nokia, Stephen Elop, warned that there would be a number of job losses around the world as a result of this collaboration. However, he added that Nokia would remain a Finnish company.
Mr Elop said “the game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems”. He added “An ecosystem with Microsoft and Nokia has unrivalled scale around the globe”.
Stephen Elop worked at Microsoft before he took over as CEO of Nokia. He said that together they would be able to be more innovative which was important for developing hardware, software and services.
It seems the deal with Microsoft has moved quickly because discussions between the two companies only began in November.
With job losses inevitable it will be Mr Elop’s job to persuade some people to stay despite his comments in a memo earlier this week that Nokia was at crisis point.
Related Posts:
Will Apple Release An iPhone Nano?
There are reports that Apple could release an iPhone Nano which would be a smaller and cheaper version of the iPhone.
Reports suggest that Apple is developing a cheaper version of the iPhone in order to prepare for further challenges from Google.
The new iPhone 5 is due out soon and reports from Bloomberg suggest the cheaper iPhone model could be sold alongside the updated iPhone. Bloomberg says it has spoken to people who say Apple is looking at releasing the new phone towards the middle of the year.
The new model is believed to be two thirds the size of the previous iPhone and that in order to save money Apple will use hardware such as the processor from the iPhone 4.
As with all new Apple products the only information we have is from leaks but it’s thought that an iPhone Nano would go on sale for around £125.
Apple must be keen to introduce another element to its iPhone brand as it’s facing challenges from Google Android products which are cheaper than those from Apple.
Related Posts:
Nokia Boss Sends Memo Suggesting Mobile Phone Company Is In Crisis
The chief executive of the mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, Stephen Elop, has sent a memo to his staff which suggests that Nokia is in crisis.
The leaked memo sent by Nokia’s boss, Stephen Elop, warns staff that the mobile phone company is in crisis with more pioneering rivals taking its share of the mobile phone market.
Mr Elop told staff that Google’s success with its Android operating system had been a surprise while the Apple iPhone had also caught them out.
Mr Elop said Nokia still didn’t have a product to rival the first iPhone let alone the iPhone 4. He admitted that despite only arriving on the market two years ago Android had overtaken Nokia in terms of smartphone volumes.
Nokia however does still lead the smartphone market as far as the number of handsets sold but its market share is falling. This is something of a concern for Nokia when competitors such as Apple and HTC have seen their share go up.
An analyst at the research firm CCS Insight, Ben Woods, told the BBC that the memo “shows that he has inherited an organisation that is in much worse shape than he anticipated and the work that will be required to get it back on track should not be underestimated”.
Nokia also faces competition from the growing number of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers which are both fast and cheap. Stephen Elop has quite a job on his hands trying to get Nokia back up and competing again with the likes of Apple and Google.
Related Posts:
Pre-order your iPad now
The wait is nearly over… Apple’s iPad – the tablet computer designed and marketed by Apple for internet browsing, media consumption, gaming, and light content creation, is now available for pre-order online in nine international countries; Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Both the WiFi-only and 3G versions will officially go on sale from May 28, 2010 plus Apple has confirmed that its iBooks e-books store will also launch in these countries on the same day. This will be followed with the release of the iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July, says Apple.
And importantly, Apple has confirmed the UK pricing for the device (supported by network operators Orange, O2 and Vodafone);
The Wi-Fi only iPad will cost £429 for the 16GB version, £499 for the 32GB version, and £599 for the 64GB version. With, 3G-enabled models priced at £529, £599 and £699 respectively.
Source: GSMA Mobile Business Briefing
This business mobile story was brought to you by Utility Exchange. Saving Time, Money and Energy for your Business.
Related Posts:
Nokia Sues Apple Over iPad 3G
Nokia is suing Apple again saying the firm has infringed five patents with the Apple iPad 3G, reports BBC News Online. The world’s biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia, said the patent infringements involve technology which is used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations for compact devices.
The two companies are already involved in another dispute over infringed patents relating to the iPhone. And Apple has counter sued Nokia over claims that its smartphones infringe Apple patents.
Apple is also involved in a dispute with HTC of Taiwan which makes the Google Nexus One phone. Apple is accusing HTC of infringing patented technology.
This business mobile story was brought to you by Utility Exchange. Saving Time, Money and Energy for your Business.
Source: BBC News Online