Beginning Monday, customers can allow music in the MP3 format, which will play on practically any music gadget, including iPods. Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc., all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it fastidious to legally stimulate music between devices.

Rhapsody is a union plunge of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary. Apart from its music sales and fee service, Rhapsody provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several Web sites, through "music finding service" iLike Inc. Those clips will now be expanded to full tracks, and surfers can pay attention to up to 25 of them per month without a Rhapsody subscription.

The MP3s without copy protection will confer to RealNetworks' existing relationship with Verizon Wireless. Previously, a user who bought and downloaded an distinctive song on a Verizon VCast handset got another copy of the song for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3. The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format.

"We're winsome this one step at a time," said Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' cicerone of digital music. There's a concern, he said, that allowing unprotected downloads unswervingly to cell phones could encourage piracy. Songs downloaded through the brand-new $15 unlimited service on Verizon phones will still come with DRM. The process requires users to secure their phones to a Windows PC running Rhapsody's software. There is no Macintosh version.

Verizon Wireless claims to be the second-largest U.S. distributor of music downloads, after iTunes.

That's counting sales of ringtones as well as quite tracks.

With respect to article: read

1. Sudah punya koneksi yang lengkap walau masih GPRS aja. Tapi Bluetooth dan IR nya tidak mengecewakan. Jadi modem ok, jadi telepon juga ok.
2. Browsing dan baca blog dari hape aja. Soalnya sudah support Java. Sehingga saya bisa install applikasi java apa saja, hihi..
3. Banyak tersedia aplikasi java dan non java yang keren-keren!
4. Akses push email yang keren. Sehingga walau di luar kantor pun, masih bisa update hihi..

Nah, barusan upgrade si WM 2003 SE punya nya si Xphone II jadi WM 6.1 untuk feeler (code name untuk si Xphone II. Diluar negeri namanya bisa iMate SP3i atau Qtek 8020) hasil mod nya si Aleut. Lihat disini ya kalau mau tau.

Waaah, Xpone II saya jadi kereeen. Walau agak-agak lelet ya. Mwahaha.. Tapi, tampilannya lebih crisp. Suaranya jadi lebih ok. Menunya lebih interaktif, ga terlalu katro gitu deh. Pokoknya ini bakal jadi pengalaman baru ber Xphone II haha. Hape jadul rasa baru neh... Semoga awet hihihi..

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Canicula :: Oprek teruuussss....

As many people are protesting against Rogers about their recently-unveiled cell phone plan structure for their highly anticipated iPhone, another competitor Bell decides to fight off against the iPhone by unveiling a new cell phone called the Samsung Instinct. The good things about the Samsung Instinct is that the plan includes totally unlimited data usuage as opposed to the 400MB data usage imposed by Rogers. Telus, another company is also launching a new cell phone and just like Bell, the plan includes totally unlimited data usage.

The phone that Bell will be releasing is the Samsung Instinct. Telus on the other hand will be releasing the HTC Touch Diamond.

Bell's unlimited internet access plan will cost $10 CDN per month and the Samsung Instinct will be selling for less that $150. Telus on the other hand will be offering the same thing, just like Bell - with a few differences:

Telus will offer an unlimited e-mail plan for $15 CDN per month or $30 CDN per month for e-mail, internet and instant messaging.

In other news, a website called oilchange.com has somewhat acquired the highly popular website ruinediphone.com. No word on why and how the ruinediphone website has been acquired. As for the recently concluded wireless spectrum auction in Canada, it is expect by next year, new carriers will be up and running and the competition will be invigoriously increased to reduce cell phone rates in half. Will it work? We'll see.

Remember in my last posting that what if Paul Gigliotti & Dave Thomson (of the now defunct band called "Wave") along with Lee Alsop and Ben Dunk (their friends) were to get the iPhone and wonder if they don't understand about Rogers (or Fido's) data plans were. Chances are they would end up like the guy who has a whopping $85,000CDN phone bill! As the old saying goes, things happen. The same thing will go for my friends Tarin, Laura, Jenny, Stacy P., Meghan and my trusted friend Bobby F. They will weigh in with the iPhone.

I guess their future won't be friendly after all.

References:

"Bell Mobility may offer cheaper less complex phone device." eCanadaNow.com. 4 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.ecanadanow.com/news/technology/bell-canada--fights-back-with-own-phone-20080704.html>

"Telus is Next to Launch Touch-Screen Phone with Unlimited Data." Marketnews.ca. 4 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=3872>

"What happened to ruinediphone.com?." National Post. 2 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/07/02/what-happened-to-ruinediphone-com.aspx>

"iPhone 3G in Canada: Apple Doing to Rogers What Rogers Did to Consumers?." 6 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2008/07/06/iphone-3g-in-canada-apple-doing-to-rogers-what-rogers-did-to-consumers/>

"Customer Backlash on iPhone Rate Plans, Launch Approaches" Macrumors.com. 6 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/06/customer-backlash-on-iphone-rate-plan-pricing-launch-approaches/>

"Bell to offer smartphone with unlimited data plan." CBC.ca 3 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/03/bell-instinct.html>

"Solution to high iPhone prices is not to buy one." Vancouver Sun. 4 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=0def1ab0-a015-4125-8015-b57b21c1c823>

"Canada gets unlimited mobile browsing – but not for iPhone." itwire.com. 4 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19233/1103/>

"Bell first in Canada to launch the hot Samsung Instinct(TM)." Stockhouse.com 3 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.stockhouse.com/News/USReleasesDetail.aspx?n=6962181>

"Is Samsung Instinct really an iPhone killer?." itbusiness.ca. 2 July 2008. 6 July 2008. <http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=49004>

Voice over internet protocol or VoIP, the breakthrough technology that allows people to make broadband phone calls possible is now being geared up to take over the future of internet communication and people connectivity. More and more companies are seeing the potential of this new technology and have started to plunge onto the bandwagon and offer broadband phone services to people all around the world.

The popularity can be attributed in part to the ease of use of these phones. The phones actually work like a normal landline or mobile. When the phone rings, you pick it up as you would any other phone. The advantage lies in the savings you make on your call costs. Because these phones run thru your internet or broadband line you normally get minimal line rental if any and cheaper national and international call rates.

There are several things to consider though before getting a broadband phone. Most broadband phone systems have no complicated switches or plugs or voice converters. These are all usually integrated into the system. A phone bundle would have hardware and software coming with it. Hardware for broadband phones systems use an adapter to make your old landline phone unit useable for the system.

The hardware is connected to a router that is found in your network or through the USB 2.0 port in your computer. Usually, hardware connected via a router use the ethernet connection thru a plug and play installation. The software is simply a bridge between your computer and the hardware.

Broadband phones or IP phones use a technology called voice over internet protocol or commonly termed VoIP. This is simply a way to transmit voice data signals thru the internet rather than thru your normal telephone copper line. The systems converts your analog voice signal into digital packets and converts it back into analog signals as they reach the receiving phone on the other end. This happens whether you are connecting to a landline number or a mobile phone.
Since there is a fair amount to data conversion happening in the background what you will need is a high speed internet connection. The faster your internet connection, the better.

Keep in mind that broadband connections normally pass thru checkpoints called nodes. When these checkpoints are overloaded or choked this would affect the quality of your phone connection. Having a good quality internet provider helps in this situation.

With a high quality internet provider and easy installation there should be no reason not to enjoy cheaper call rates thru broadband phones.

Thanks for reading 'So You Wanna Purchase an IP Phone?'

As for what cell phone I bought? I got onto T-Mobile's website and for a scant $50 picked up a lovely Nokia 5310 (I got the purple one). It's quite sleek and sexy, takes good pictures, and has external controls for the music player! No real complaints about it at all, actually.

In fact, I'm so pleased by it, and cell phone technology in general, that it got me thinking. Virtually everyone I know has a cell phone, and almost all of them have only a cell phone; no home land-line. So the question becomes: how much longer will phone companies continue to provide residential land-line service?

This isn't a small question. To the phone companies the current system represents a huge infrastructure that they have to support and maintain. My mother, grandfather, wicked step-father, and a couple other family members all worked for AT&T/Pacific Northwest Bell/US West back in the day, so I have some idea of what's involved. Why should the phone companies continue to support a massive network of wires when instead they can just install cell phone towers?

Sure, they're going to continue to provide land-line services for businesses. Multi-line cell phones do not exist, as far as I'm aware. At least not in the, "This is Company X, how may I direct your call?" kind of way. But it doesn't make any sense to continue to have the current phone network when people are using cell phones more and more.

This is especially true in developing countries that don't have a large land-line network. It's my understanding, and I don't have sources on this cause I don't remember where I read it, that several African countries are forgoing installing large phone networks and simply putting in a series of cell phone towers. I know in parts of Europe cell phones are used far more widely than regular phones, and so I wouldn't be surprised to see the companies there beginging to end residential land-line services.

When do I think it will happen here in the USA? Dunno. I don't think we'll see it happen within the next ten years, but I don't see there being residential land-lines after the next twenty years. The average there would give us a guesstimate of 2023 for the end of residential land-lines. To me, though, that seems a little far away, so I'm going to make the completely arbritrary guess of 2020 for the end of residential land-lines.

What do the rest of you think?

Tracklist for tonights show.... ENJOY!!

1. Pacific - Run Away To Elsewhere (Breakbot Remix)

2. Ercola - Follow Me (Lifelike Remix)

3. Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning (Cut Copy Remix)

4. Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Laidback Luke Remix)

5. Pin Me Down - Cryptic (Phones Remix)

6. Tenderloins - Going Back To Cali

7. Jay-Z - 99 Problems (Tenderloins Remix)

8. Tenderloins - Pump Up The Jam

9. Namie Amuro - What A Feeling (Shinichi Osawa Remix)

10. Yo Majesty - Club Action (Billion DJs Spring Break Remix)

11. Destroy Disco - But I Aint

12. Proxy - Dance In Dark

Listen to the mix: [audio http://www.zshare.net/audio/147902174b9bb00d]

Or Download it....

Audio Response can be heard every Sunday night at 10pm in Northern NSW on Bay FM 99.9 and online at www.bayfm.org.

Okay so i have to admit its been a slow week musically but i have a few highlights to share from this weeks show. The Laidback Luke remix of Fancy Footwork was quite a surprise and not what i expected at all and i'm a relative late comer to the work of Shinichi Osawa but everything i've got of his lately just makes me go 'fuck that sounds good.....'

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Laidback Luke Remix)

Proxy - Dance In Dark

Namie Amuro - What A Feeling (Shinichi Osawa Remix)

Pin Me Down - Cryptic (Phones Remix)

Moreover, it is only better over the old iPhone. iPhone 3G is coming out soon and will have many new features. In the next iPhone update coming on July 11, phones will get BlackBerry-like "push" email, calendar, and contact access through Microsoft's ActiveSync software; Cisco VPN support; more wi-fi security options; and the ability to "wipe" an iPhone -- get rid of all its data -- remotely, an important security feature. Let's wait to see how things turn out...

Beginning Monday, customers can buy off music in the MP3 format, which will monkey business on practically any music gadget, including iPods. Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc., all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it baffling to legally ruffle music between devices.

Rhapsody is a intersection venture of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary. Apart from its music sales and underwriting service, Rhapsody provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several Web sites, through "music determining service" iLike Inc. Those clips will now be expanded to packed tracks, and surfers can listen to up to 25 of them per month without a Rhapsody subscription.

The MP3s without copy blackmail will extend to RealNetworks' existing relationship with Verizon Wireless. Previously, a alcohol who bought and downloaded an individual song on a Verizon VCast handset got another copy of the song for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3.

The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format. "We're intriguing this one step dow a resign at a time," said Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' director of digital music. There's a concern, he said, that allowing unprotected downloads undeviatingly to cell phones could help piracy.

Songs downloaded through the new $15 unlimited service on Verizon phones will still come with DRM. The procedure requires users to connect their phones to a Windows PC running Rhapsody's software. There is no Macintosh version. Verizon Wireless claims to be the second-largest U.S. distributor of music downloads, after iTunes.

That's counting sales of ringtones as well as rich tracks.

Originally posted post: read here

The project will be called BONDI and will be supported by a number of OMTP members: 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefónica, Telecom Italia, and Vodafone. The group plans to "harmonize the various open and proprietary ongoing initiatives and this cooperative work will minimise the potential for technology fragmentation," and will provide a secure web services interface for developers to use when creating mobile sites. "The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorized access to functions or sensitive personal information," says OMTP. (link)

Beginning Monday, customers can buy music in the MP3 format, which will rival on practically any music gadget, including iPods. Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc., all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it stubborn to legally ruse music between devices.

Rhapsody is a combined venture of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary. Apart from its music sales and dues service, Rhapsody provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several Web sites, through "music revelation service" iLike Inc. Those clips will now be expanded to intact tracks, and surfers can listen to up to 25 of them per month without a Rhapsody subscription.

The MP3s without copy shelter will extend to RealNetworks' existing relationship with Verizon Wireless. Previously, a narcotic addict who bought and downloaded an individual song on a Verizon VCast handset got another copy of the ditty for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3. The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format. "We're entrancing this one step at a time," said Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' commander of digital music.

There's a concern, he said, that allowing unprotected downloads precisely to cell phones could encourage piracy. Songs downloaded through the new $15 unlimited checking on Verizon phones will still come with DRM. The process requires users to connect their phones to a Windows PC management Rhapsody's software. There is no Macintosh version.

Verizon Wireless claims to be the second-largest U.S. distributor of music downloads, after iTunes.

That's counting sales of ringtones as well as chuck-full tracks.

Valued friend link: link

Beginning Monday, customers can procure music in the MP3 format, which will join on practically any music gadget, including iPods. Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc., all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it fastidious to legally get under way music between devices.

Rhapsody is a connection venture of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary. Apart from its music sales and investment service, Rhapsody provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several Web sites, through "music determining service" iLike Inc. Those clips will now be expanded to unshaded tracks, and surfers can listen to up to 25 of them per month without a Rhapsody subscription.

The MP3s without copy screen will extend to RealNetworks' existing relationship with Verizon Wireless. Previously, a operator who bought and downloaded an individual song on a Verizon VCast handset got another copy of the song for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3. The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format.

"We're fascinating this one mark at a time," said Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' director of digital music. There's a concern, he said, that allowing unprotected downloads soon to cell phones could urge piracy. Songs downloaded through the new $15 unlimited service on Verizon phones will still come with DRM. The treat requires users to connect their phones to a Windows PC running Rhapsody's software. There is no Macintosh version.

Verizon Wireless claims to be the second-largest U.S. distributor of music downloads, after iTunes.

That's counting sales of ringtones as well as bright tracks.

I feel reverence to site: read more

So, I finally saw the ATT pricing/plans today. This is… Disheartening. Why oh why did Steve Jobs go with ATT of all companies. Heck, Verizon would have been a better choice at this point.

Today we’ll cover…

Purchasing The Phone
Residential Plans
Enterprise Plans

lets do it...

Purchasing The Phone

Straight from ATT

8 Gig 16 Gig
New to ATT $199 $299
Current ATT Customer (Available Upgrade) $199 $299
Current ATT Customer (Early Upgrade) $399!?!?!?!? $499!?!?!?!?
“No Commitment Option” – “Avail Soon” $599!?!?!?!? $699!?!?!?!?

I did call and talk to ATT today to procure the fact that I can do an early upgrade (I switched numbers from west to east coast, and they f’d up my upgrade date) and they told me there WOULD NOT be any extra charge to purchase the iPhone 3G FOR ANYONE. Even though this was on their website. Who Knows.

Residential Plans

As a note before I share the actual plans, note: NO SMS TEXT MESSAGES ARE INCLUDED. Why? Why? Why?

So that’s it. More Expensive, Less Features. Go ATT!

By the Way, Apple no longer gets a percent of the monthly fees, so their say in pricing is gone. As far as I can tell this is all ATT.

Enterprise Data

One of the main features of the phone is its Microsoft Exchange compatibility. It’s a HUGE feature for anyone who has a blackberry at work. It means whole companies may be moving over to IPhones rather than the crack berries.

Data Plan
All Plans are Unlimited Data plans.

Data Plan for iPhone (Normal) $30
Enterprise Data Plan (needed for Exchange) $45

Texts
The business text plans are exactly the same as the residential.

Voice
Voice plans are exactly the same as with residential plans. You figure this by the voice plans amount, plus $30 for non-enterprise data.

You can also sign up for Business Pooled plans, but you need to qualify and be accepted. It is $14.99 more, but the minutes can be shared between multiple phones.

International Usage

The phones will work as any other tri/quad band phone would in a foreign country. I WISH you could get another network’s SIM card, but locked phone. To ATT. Makes me sad, I may inquire about this at the Apple Store.

Oh, and I learned the last time I was in the UK I found out ON TOP of all other call charges, text charges, what not, you are charged $1 every time you get a voice mail. For the visual voice mail feature (data… ) Aaargh.

Wrap-Up

Once again, no SMS Texts included with a normal plan. And 20 cents per text? Yea. Its only 50 cents to text the UK from the US (used to be 25?!?).

ATT is viscously raping America now that is seems Apple is not involved with plans at all… I’ll still buy the phone… But most likely I’ll wind up deactivating voice and finding a cheaper plan/provider, heh. $30 a month for more or less a little wireless laptop ain’t too bad.

I would like to add here, that Apple has done a crack up job with the phone. I like the look (but it is < than the 1^st gen), its got GPS, 3G, and most importantly (to me) a NORMAL headphone jack. Ahhhh… I can actually use my Sony MDR-7506s (I’m a slight audiophile, being a Live Audio Engineer and all) with the iPhone now. Rock.

At least we made out better than Canada.

Resources:

ATT Residential Plans
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/specials/iphone-info.jsp

ATT Business Data
http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/iphone3G/index.jsp

ATT Business Voice/Text
http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/plans/voice.jsp

People are far, far more stupid than I had realised. It's days like this where I despair for the human race and just want the cockroaches to take over - I doubt they'd do a worse job. I know I’m not the most charitable chap when it comes to evaluating the average intelligence of my species, but I think even I may have been overly generous thus far.

I read this article today and I’ve been hearing similar bulletins all over the radio warning the mobile phone owners of Australia not to respond to a text message scam saying:

Someone paid me to kill you. If you want me to spare you, I give you 2 days to pay 5000 dollars. If you inform the police or anybody, you will die, I am monitoring you.

How fucking stupid are you? If you’re enough of a douche bag to fall for that, you deserve not only to lose your money but to be beaten with a sledgehammer, dragged behind a car, chewed by wild dogs and set on fire. WAKE THE FUCK UP!!! How many hitmen tell you they’re going to kill you? How many hitmen ruin their own professional image by letting clients buy them off? How many hitmen can be bought off by clients for a meager $5000? I mean, how much was the cunt hired for in the first place? A bag of weed and some 2-minute noodles? What the shit-streaked pants are you thinking?

So...have you crawled out from under the bed yet? Will you be able to sleep tonight? If you're still scared just ask yourself this: Who the fuck are you that someone would want you dead and feel strongly enough about it to spend money getting it done? Be honest now. No-one. Not one single person gives that much of a fuck about your imbecilic arse, do they? In fact, if you died tomorrow in your apartment, it would be a couple of weeks before the neighbours complained about the stench - that’s the truth, isn’t it? Yeah! So just shut the shit-eating-fuck up and relax!

If you’ve had a text message like the one above and after reading all this you’re still worried, please contact me at buck.frain@gmail.com  Include your address and when you’re likely to be home and, when I have time, I’ll make a special trip over to kick the living cunt out of you for being a stupid sack of self-absorbed shit. With all my heart: GET FUCKED!!!

Beginning Monday, customers can suborn music in the MP3 format, which will take up on practically any music gadget, including iPods. Rhapsody is following in the tracks of Napster, Apple Inc.'s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc., all of which have introduced MP3 downloads and moved away from digital rights management, or DRM, which prevents copying and piracy, but also makes it grim to legally remind music between devices.

Rhapsody is a dump venture of RealNetworks Inc. and Viacom Inc. through its MTV subsidiary. Apart from its music sales and pledge service, Rhapsody provides 30-second music samples that can be played on several Web sites, through "music conception service" iLike Inc. Those clips will now be expanded to blinding tracks, and surfers can listen to up to 25 of them per month without a Rhapsody subscription.

The MP3s without copy charge will extend to RealNetworks' existing relationship with Verizon Wireless. Previously, a drug who bought and downloaded an individual song on a Verizon VCast handset got another copy of the song for the PC. Now, that copy will be an unprotected MP3. The copy that arrives wirelessly on the phone will still be in a protected format.

"We're charming this one retire at a time," said Ed Ruth, Verizon Wireless' director of digital music. There's a concern, he said, that allowing unprotected downloads straight away to cell phones could egg on piracy. Songs downloaded through the new $15 unlimited service on Verizon phones will still come with DRM. The take care of requires users to connect their phones to a Windows PC uninterrupted Rhapsody's software. There is no Macintosh version.

Verizon Wireless claims to be the second-largest U.S. distributor of music downloads, after iTunes. That's counting sales of ringtones as well as copious tracks.

Esteemed opinion post: there

Looking at the way the phone market is moving forward it begs the question of what can we expect in the next 10 years, with technology already at its peak, we are bound to see enormous breakthroughs over the coming years. Who knows we may be able to even send things through the phones in the future such as food or other pieces of items. We can already send faxes as such, it basically uses the same concept. We may even have holograms of the whole person we are speaking to so it will look like they are actually sitting next to you while you speak.

What I can successfully say is that I don't think phone numbers will come out of use any time soon, simply because it's the greatest invention of all time, there is no way that any of the phone companies technology can progress without the use of phone numbers, it's the core backbone of there production without the telephone numbers we will be unable to perform all of the basic tasks such as sending a text message or performing video calling.

So what does the future hold for telephone numbers? In my opinion I believe that phone numbers are quite hard to remember especially when you have very long versions or a number with a lot of different digits. I think in the future they will be created like you have a domain name on the internet at the moment so instead of typing in 1234567 for example you will be using a sort of name code, lets just say that you want to call John Smith in London, she would obviously have to purchase the new version of the phone codes and you would enter something like LondonJohnSmith onto a phone to call that specific person, easy to remember and fully functional.

No! It was from E-Plus telling me I have no credit and should top up now, now, now becasue they so desperately need the money! Why do they feel the need to inform me of something I already know at such a ridiculous hour? Do they think waking people up will make them more likely to do as they're told. "Yes E-Plus, I will put hundreds of euros on my phone. Just please let me get some sleep!" Maybe I should try it. I'll call random friends when I know they're sleeping and demand money from them. I'll either end up rich or friendless...
Usually I don't let it get to the stage where I have literally no money on my phone, but this time my boyfriend ruined that plan by answering the phone when I tried to one ring him. Who picks up on the first ring anyway? I bet if I'd actually wanted him to pick up it would have taken 10 rings, or 15 or 20. I suppose E-Plus is right really, I do need to top up my phone. But with what money? Hmmm? Answer me that one you lovely people at E-Plus.

There are many things I would like to do if I had money. Move out of this place for a start. This morning I had to spend 10 minutes cleaning the mud out of the bottom of the shower before I could actually get in and wash myself. Thank you so much whoever left the mud in there. I need to do some washing as well but I can't... until Friday! There are 2 washing machines in my building. Two! For more than 100 people! To use a washing machine you have to get an appointment. So yesterday before work I trailed down into the cellar to try and get an appointment... There were no appintments left at all yesterday. For today every slot between 6 (when I finish work) and midnight (the last slot) was taken. Same for tomorrow. I managed to get one appointment for Friday evening. That's one load of washing, two if I time it exactly right and manage to first get my washing into the machine dead on 7:30pm and then manage to get down there with my second load just as the first cycle finishes. Doing laundry in this building is a fine art.

I also need to get new clothes when I finally have money. Clothes for the summer. I'm not just saying this in an "I am female and I really need new clothes beacuse I just do and that's all there is to it, ok?" kind of way. I really, really do need summer clothes. Or at least summer clothes that are suitable for work. I'm currently sitting here in brown pin-striped trousers, a top with three quarter length sleeves and a pair of boots with fur inside them. Yes, fur. My feet a boiling and I'm not even at work yet. So I need shoes. And I need skirts so my legs don't have to boil in trousers. But most of all I just need money!

With iPhone 3G launch date getting closer, AT&T decided to give us even more information to chew on. Not only have they given us the plan information (detailed after the break, but we now know that AT&T's doors will swing open at 8:00 am on July 11th for iPhone 3G customers. Besides that nice tidbit of information, the plans shown below show a definite price hike up since iPhone original. Information to note: plans do NOT include SMS messages, so look at the SMS plans for pricing (they raised the price of the 1500 SMS messages a month plan by $5). Besides the full voice and data plans listed below, AT&T will offer a $30 data plan similar to the current $20 plan offered. SMS messages will not be included in that plan as well. Also, to access the full capability of Exchange service, users must have the Enterprise Data plan which is an extra $15 a month. Besides announcing the plans, AT&T gave details on upgrades, pricing, and related details. Those eligible for an upgrade pricing ($199 and $299) include: "new customers, current postpaid iPhone customers in good standing prior to July 11, and AT&T non-iPhone customers who are currently eligible for an upgrade discount." Those ineligible for upgrade pricing will put up $399 and $499 for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively. Activation fees for upgrades are $18, while activation fees for non-AT&T customers will be the normal $36. Lastly, those looking for a unlocked, no contract iPhone will pay $599 and $699. Apparently, that unlocked pricing is more expensive than just buying the phone with the cheapest service, paying the upgrade fee, and then canceling the service. Click the read more link to view the plan pricing.

• Free MP3 ringtones
• Free mobile themes
• Free mobile J2ME/Java games
• Free mobile software
• Free wallpaper/screensavers for your phone
• Free 3GP videos

In addition, they also offer an online ringtone maker, which especially helps out if your phone has certain restrictions on ringtone length, or if you just feel like making some small changes.

Games are provided by the community of users, and new ones are uploaded everyday for multiple screen sizes. To download the games, you can either download them directly on your phone, or download them to your PC, and transfer them to your phone either by data cable or SD Card (or what ever your phone supports). A free account is needed to download them, and you are given 30 download credits a day. When downloading from the computer, you can download both the .jar and .jad files.

Check it out!

The GPS works well, and the voice-activated live search is batting 1.000 for me so far with recognizing my voice and finding businesses. The Telenav GPS software is okay (not as slick as my wife's TomTom), but is overall very usable and useful.

It was not a very hard decision for me to go from the Q9c to the Instinct. The interace is fast and snappy, and it just does what it's supposed to do, and does it well. Every application I run on mine runs nicely, and the sports apps are especially well-done. Watching videos on youtube even works without any monkeying.

Music plays very well... and the headphone jack is regular size. I can connect it to my car's aux-in and listen to music on my car's stereo just as I can from my iPods or Zune. My nice headphones finally find use again... not that I needed any. The Instinct comes with a pair of nice stereo headphones that also double as a extended headset w/mic.

No AIM... yet.

Browser is okay, but there are supposed to be other options coming soon.

As for email, I will say that it connects VERY nicely to Gmail. Attachments download from Gmail without problems (not sure about Exchange; I haven't had any attachments from that account yet).

Obviously, the keypad of the Q/Q9c (my former phones) is better suited to power texters who are writing long emails on their devices, but for regular use (I type about 10-20 emails a day with about 10-25 text messages), it's quite easy to use (and actually quite fun). The handwriting recognition (a little touted feature) is very nice, and works very well albeit it's actually faster to just type it in with your fingers.

The accessories it comes with are quite welcome considering the trend lately of companies cutting out the accessories that devices ship with.

Also, I posted a quick video of the kids on their Instincts on Youtube; it's pretty funny.

There are definite benefits from possessing a special Mobile Phone Insurance policy, especially after the release of insurance company figures which show claim volumes over the past year. This becomes increasingly more apparent when you read further into the figures and see that over 2 million mobiles were lost, stolen, suffered accidental damage or water damage, who would believe that! See this squidoo blog page for a breakdown of water damage issues alone!

After reading the above, you may think again and be tempted to purchase some mobile phone insurance to protect yourself in the event that you did lose your mobile phone, or were unlucky enough to have it stolen. At this point it would be wise to take a step back, as not all Mobile Phone Insurance cover is the same. There are some insurance providers that write out important modules of cover, important modules such as loss and water damage - a cause of nearly half of claims made in 2006 where from loss or water damage!

This may sound like bizarre conduct on the insurance company's behalf, but excluding certain areas of risk from policies is far from uncommon in the insurance world. You could then make a balanced decision if that particular mobile phone insurance policy was indeed the right product for you!

Some of the more expensive policies may well offer less cover than some of the low cost options available today. Take your time to shop around for the cheapest Mobile Phone Insurance that offers you the level of cover you need to protect your mobile phone from all sorts of mishaps!