Last Saturday I’ve been at the CeBIT, the world largest IT exhibition. However, again, this year less exhibitors showed their products and again less mobile related products were shown too. Anyway, hall 26, which was full of mobile phones three years ago, had some ‘interesting’ stuff.
Today I came across a new service called Vopium. Vopium reduces the costs of your international calls and international SMS. However, how does it work and is it really useful? Read more to get the answer.
How it works:
Vopium is free, there are no monthly fee, no call set-up charges, no hidden fees. When you make an international call, Vopium re-routes your call as a local call to a Vopium gateway and then via premium global traffic carriers to ensure top-notch voice quality. All you need to pay is your mobile provider for a local call and Vopium for the international add-on.
Having an Open Source Operating System for mobiles might seem a challenge for Symbian…or maybe not.You could compare it to Windows and Linux (and its distributions). Windows isn’t Open Source but got a hefty advantage over Linux, Linux is mainly used in hosting servers and research centres, and not that much in homes. We could blame this on the distributors not having done enough publicity and not making Linux easy enough. This will not be the case of Google Android, which is basically another Linux distribution. They have won the hearts of more than 40 companies such as HTC, and also many developers thanks to their 10 million Dollars prize contest.
For developers it might seem a dream come true, but I don’t think it’s that good. What many people are expecting is an Operating System that can be moulded easily but these people are forgetting what Open Source really means. It means to have a public source code. This doesn’t mean we can grab Google Android, remove unwanted code and personalize it. Unless Google actually comes out with a “NSU” type of program with self-uploadable firmwares, and also a SDK that allows full customization, this won’t be possible.
The guys at Orange in UK have found a great way to charge your phone without electricity. All you need is wind – nothing more. The Mobile Wind Charger does not only help mother-earth it even saves you a lot money. So, if you’re living in country where you have only a bit sun but a lot wind, than is the Mobile Wind Charger the perfect charger for you. There is no information of release or price.
Steve Litchfield has put together his 33 part of his Smartphones Show.You can watch it at Youtube or the Smartphones Show site.
Programme 33 covers:
News from the smartphone world
Hands on review of the Windows Mobile 6-powered HTC S710 smartphone
“Beyond the iPhone”. With the imminent availability of Apple’s uber-cool iPhone, a look at 10 things current smartphones like the Nokia N95 have been able to do for a while and that the iPhone can’t currently match…
Handytaschen nach Maß. Individuelle Fertigung mit Microfaserinnenfutter für Displayreinigung. Optional mit Karabinerhaken, Strahlenschutz und Handyschmuck-Schlaufe. Made in Germany.
