No more festival queuing to charge your mobile phone

Many of us have been there at some point in our lives. We go to a music festival like Leeds or Glastonbury and have to wait in a long line of people or we won’t have any battery left to find out where our mates’ have got to. Now, all that could be over with this impressive offering from Orange.

The leading UK mobile phone provider have now revealed a pair of environmentally-friendly wellington boots that allow their wearers to get their mobile charged, by simply making use of the heat energy generated from walking (and dancing).

Thanks to Orange you can now bounce up and down to your favourite bands, while your mobile is on charge. These new ‘Power Wellies’ certainly sound impressive – and a godsend to festival goers!

The ease of switching mobile operators

These days it is quite easy to move between mobile phone networks to get the best deals as you just have to ring up the company you are leaving and, should your account be in order, they should offer you the PAC within just a few days.

The Porting Authorisation Code allows you to keep your old mobile phone number when you shift network providers and it is free.

When you decide to put the instructions in motion, it does not take long before you have your existing number to pass on to your new mobile operators. Therefore, it won’t be long before you are away and able to enjoy using an updated mobile phone and you won’t have the hassle of having to send out a new number to all your friends!

New mobile phone designed for the elderly

A new handset has been released that has a ringtone that reaches up to 100 decibels, larger buttons and an increased screen size to appeal to older users.

The Geemarc Clearsound CL8200 as it is called has been made by a Hertfordshire-based company to fill the gap in the market for a mobile phone that is easier to use for those who are short-sighted and hard of hearing.

You can now buy this hearing aid compatible phone online and so far it has been well received by consumers.

A spokesman for Geemarc said:

“There is a real need for a phone that doesn’t look like a disability phone, but which is really simple to use. There are a lot of elderly people frustrated at iPhones, and smart phones which can practically boil a kettle but are very difficult to use if you are hard of hearing or short sighted.”

Why not plug your iPod into your clothes to charge?

A new discovery regarding transforming everyday objects like clothes and paper into batteries has been made by engineers at Stanford University. By placing a special ink on the clothes that contain tin tubes of carbon, the fabric can then be used to store small amounts of energy without compromising the flexibility of the fabric.

The technology will use electronic build up energy rather than the chemical energy that traditional batteries use. So, in the same way static energy builds up, so can this special carbon tube energy storage. This could pave the way for low-cost energy charging for everyday devices like MP3 players and mobile phones, which is available almost all the time.

iPhone and iPad software to reach ‘new platforms’

Apple has a new job listing on their employment website that specifies that the company wants to bring someone in to manage porting over the iPhone OS to other ‘new platforms’.

The section of the listing that relates to this says that Apple “is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms”.

We already know the same OS is to be utilised on the upcoming iPad device, offering many of the popular features that can be seen on the iPhone using the same slick interface. But at this time there is no mention on what these new iPhone OS platforms might be.

Is it a projector or is it a phone? The Samsung Beam

The Samsung Halo has been an eagerly awaited little device indeed. It has had the usual rigmarole of rumours and hype, but it has now finally been officially unveiled by Samsung.

The device itself is a smartphone that runs on the Android OS software platform and the name itself it turns out was just a codename (no shock there), with the official name instead being ‘Beam’.

What makes the Samsung Beam so special is it is not just another smartphone, this little beautie has a trick up its sleeve – or in its casing we should say. The Samsung Beam has a built-in pico projector, which is capable of a meagre 6 lumens, but is an impressive feat nonetheless. The projector displays the image of the camera, which is a rather average 5 megapixel resolution.

Own your own mech walker – The LANDWALKER

The Landwalker is a real life, working mechwalker, similar to the ED-209 ‘chicken walker’ from Robocop. This mechanical behemoth stands at 11ft tall and weighs in at 1,000 kg.

You can get your hands on this beauty at www.sakakibara-kikai.co.jp, but as you can guess the website is in Japanese. I have listed a run down of the specifications.

  • Height: 3m 40cm
  • 1000kg Total weight
  • Occupancy of one
  • Engine power (250cc)
  • Movement speed of 1.5km/h
  • Air guns equipped with two guns (ball cushion)

There is one pretty big drawback to all of this however; the price. If you want to get your hands on the LANDWALKER, you might need to remortgage your home, because one of these beauties will set you back £220,000.

Virgin Media to offer free landline to mobile calls

Virgin Media, the television, phone and broadband provider, is to offer free calls for people using their landline service to Virgin Mobile phones.

For customers who get free calls on their Virgin Media phone tariff, these free calls will include calls made to Virgin Mobile customers from April 1st 2010.

The same free call ‘rules’ apply, where the first hour (60 minutes) of a phone call are free and any time after that will be charged. However, phone users are allowed to hang up and redial to restart their 60 minutes, as it is simply designed to prevent abuse of the phone system (e.g. leaving a phone call active for several hours without using it).

Unlock phones do not always include 3G

A lot of people now use the 3G network including Video Calling so many of these people buy old phones thinking to themselves they can use their usual 3G Sim card in them when unlocked for a small fee.

This is not so. Old phones were not catered for 3G because at the time of the production, there was no 3G!

If you are a 3G user yourself, be sure you get a compatible phone and not just any old one lying around in the garage. This is more important when you plan to use the second phone for emergencies only.

Portable unlocking systems for mobile phones

Know what a portable unlocking systems is for mobile phones? Many people have made a mint and become almost millionaires by using certain devices that can unlock hundreds of phones on the street in a matter of minutes.

If you have the right contacts, you can get you hands on a device that can fit into your pocket and isn’t too expensive. People found these for a very check price (we’re talking about under £100) and started to offer a phone unlock service for £10 while you wait. Within hours, they made hundreds of pounds!

Please note, I’m just giving you information and not telling you to do this. It’s illegal so don’t.

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