8 must have mobile applications and services

Think your cellphone can work a trifle more harder than you do? Think it can keep you that much more connected to work, friends and family? Here’s a list of applications that you should have on your cellphone to keep you happy.



FoxyTag is a collaborative application which warns you 15 seconds before a speed camera. Now before you go all crazy and get a Bugatti Veyron from somewhere and go berserk on the roads after you get FoxyTag, read this from their website.
“FoxyTag motivates neither speeding nor any other risky behavior, but allows the driver to concentrate on the road instead of having their eyes fixed on the speedometer.” Right said.




With ZYB, you can be sure that you’ll never lose your contacts and calendar ever again. It safely stores all your calender/contacts online and you can synchronize it with a single click. Can be a boon when you are migrating cell phones or have just plain lost it; mind and/or mobile.


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Fring is to the mobile what Digsby is to the PC. It can keep you connected to Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo and Twitter. You’ve also got push mail and video streaming for screaming out loud! Agreed most of you don’t use most of things mentioned here, but a long options list is never a bad thing. Over and above that you can make VoIP calls as well, but in India, you’re going to get royally screwed with the exorbitant data transfer rates when making calls via VoIP. So, if you’re an Indian and have escaped recession, make VoIP calls only when you are in Wi-Fi hotspots.
(If you are having connectivity issues with Fring, you can also give eBuddy a shot. Head to m.ebuddy.com for a quick WAP fix or download the application from their site.)




Shozu is basically a photo and video upload application with quite a comprehensive list of destinations to where you can upload them. Flickr, Picasa and PhotoBucket are just the tip of the iceberg. It also brings Facebook right in your hands and you can do a fair bit with it. Upload images, update descriptions, check out friends’ photo feeds and keep track of events. Shozu can also double up as a mobile blogger’s paradise with support for Wordpress, Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, Live Journal and what have you. And if you happen to have been bitten by the reporter bug, you can also report to BBC, CNN and Reuters with your pictures and videos. This thing also allows you to upload via FTP. Just falls short of taking your dog for a walk.



Like using Google Maps to find directions from your PC and laptop? You’re going to love Google Maps on Mobile then. It offers you the complete functionality of Google Maps right in the palm of your hands. You can switch from maps to terrain view to satellite view with a click and also find the best routes. And your phone need not have GPS inbuilt for using this. It uses approximation to well, approximate your location within 500 mts. Also, it’d have been great if Google compressed the data before sending it to us hapless Indian users. One simple map loading, zoom-in and zoom-out sequence takes up a good 0.25MB of data. What? Don’t look at me like that.

If you ask me, Opera Mini can easily be called the best innovation after the cellphone phone itself. A mid-server sitting somewhere in the Obama-land compresses all your web pages and sends it to you at just 1/10th of the size of the original web page. Also you can store all your bookmarks on Opera’s server and synchronize them between your PC and mobile; very useful when upgrading or such like. Supports uploading files, saving web pages, has a RSS reader and has a few themes in the latest version to suit your whims and fancies

If you are a Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 user, you could also try Skyfire.

GMail for Mobile is a simple Java application to access your Gmail account. It’s definitely faster and more efficient than trying to access it from your browser. Only problem is, you can’t attach anything.

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Wouldn’t the world be a better place if you could read your voice mail rather than hear it? This text could then be organized in so many ways and you could build a humongous archive of all your voice mails for future reference. Alright, this thing is still in the making but looks promising. Do signup and get yourself on the waiting list.
And oh yeah, if you’re a developer, they have a big buck challenge happening.

Check ur mobile broadband connection

There are hundreds of tools available to test broadband speed of the internet broadband connection that you are using, but most of them work with just the computers and no other web browsers like mobile phone browser etc. To check the broadband speed that your mobile phone browser can pull up, here is a good testing tool -
Mspeed by dslreports.com
This is a very simple tool which is made for your WAP browser of mobile phones, and tries to download a file of small size, to test the speed of broadband that you are using.

We attempt to convince your mobile device to download a measured amount of data, compare this to minimal data, and calculate your effective latency (time for one request) and effective download speed.

Just open the site from your mobile browser and you would see a screen -



Then you need to select the file size, 1kb, 50kb or 100kb depending on the speed you expect your internet

to be. There are bigger file sizes too, but you may get that option when they notify that the size is too small for the speed of internet connection. Generally a 50kb selection is ideal, select that and it would proceed to the file download -



The speed might be higher usually when checked through the computer but the capacity of pulling the broadband weight in mobile is usually lesser.
The tool also displays the IP information, DNS agent, browser etc. information if prompted to do so.



Check out the tool at www.dslreports.com/mspeed

Suddenly saw new awesome Aircel Plans

Tata Docomo has already taken the big step to break the backbone of the already popular networks like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea with its killer call offers like 1 second for 6 seconds in local calls, and now Aircel follows the same.

Although the plans are not similar to that of Tata Docomo, they are good enough of pull the subscribers towards them. The only thing they have to set right is the availability of the network all around, as many regions are yet to receive the network installation and availability of the SIM cards.



Here are the various call offers lately introduced as special packs –

• RC 45 – Offer for 1 paisa per 2 seconds to any local number from the Aircel number. This offer is available for 30 days.
• RC 4 – The same call plan of 1 paisa per 2 seconds, valid for 2 days time.
• RC 11 – Offer for Aircel to Aircel unlimited calls to one particular number, for a single day.
• RC 66 – Offer for Aircel to Aircel unlimited calls to one particular number, for 7 days.

Aircel has the same offer for STD but after the first 2 months, you need to recharge with RC 52 to continue with the STD call offers.
One more advantage of Aircel over the other networks is the GPRS service which is available at Rs. 14 for 3 days, and Rs. 94 for the whole month, and the browsing is unlimited.

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Client/project web links

Fauna & Flora International/FFI Leading global conservation organisation based in Cambridge, UK	Durrell Wildlife Jersey-based conservation organisation and zoological park
m-GovWorld Specialist mobile-governance website service based in India	SMS Solutions A site dedicated to SMS and MMS solutions
ResourceAfrica South African based environmental and development organisation	In-Tuition.net UK-based provider of a range of email solutions targeted at small businesses
Wildscreen/ARKive On-line 'Noahs Ark' containing digital multimedia portraits of global wildlife	WorldPay Global electronic payment solution now owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland
TTPCom Limited The leading independent supplier of silicon IP to the mobile industry	UNEP-WCMC The World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the UN Environment Programme
Cercopan Nigerian NGO promoting primate and forest conservation	Help an African Schoolchild Jersey-based charity providing help and education to street children in Zambia and Tanzania
t4cd FFI/ResourceAfrica project investigating the use of ICTs in conservation and development	Conservation Through Public Health Ugandan conservation, ICT and public health NGO working in conservation areas in Africa
Bailhache Labesse Leading law firm and advocates based in Jersey, C.I.	Vodafone The world's largest mobile community headquartered in the UK

Facebook Will be the Common Denominator in Social Net by 2012; Mobile Phones Overtake PCs by 2013

The consulting firm is out with their predictions for the next few years. It’s a long document.

Here are a few highlights:

By 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization.

Through Facebook Connect and other similar mechanisms, Facebook will support and take a leading role in developing the distributed, interoperable social Web.

As Facebook continues to grow and outnumber other social networks, this interoperability will become critical to the success and survival of other social networks, communication channels and media sites.

Other social networks (including Twitter) will continue to develop, seeking further adoption and specializations with communication or content areas, but Facebook will represent a common denominator for all of them.

By 2015, context will be as influential to mobile consumer services and relationships as search engines are to the Web.

Whereas search provides the “key” to organizing information and services for the Web, context will provide the “key” to delivering hyperpersonalized experiences across smartphones and any session or experience an end user has with information technology.

Search centered on creating content that drew attention and could be analyzed. Context will center on observing patterns, particularly location, presence and social interactions. Furthermore, whereas search was based on a “pull” of information from the Web, context-enriched services will, in many cases, prepopulate or push information to users.

By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. According to Gartner’s PC installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

Access the Complete Document
Source: Gartner

SMS @ 1 paisa

News reports state that Reliance Communications Ltd has taken the lead and slashed SMS rates to 1 paisa per SMS. The first salvo in a new tariff war in telecom circles has begun. It will certainly put pressure on other telecom operators to follow suit.
The new SMS rates are in the form of add-on plans and are for all Reliance CDMA and GSM customers. By loading a voucher of Rs. 11/- the 1 paisa per SMS plan will be activated. My friends in Reliance say that a fee of Rs. 11/- will be automatically deducted every month from the balance of the prepaid subscriber. Should the subcriber not have sufficient balance on that day, he/she will revert back to 50 paise per SMS. So that's one catch.
Customers also have an option of going in for an unlimited daily SMS plan by having Re 1/- deducted from their balance. (Bad idea because Re 1 = 100 paise = 100 SMS' a day!)
A Third option given to prepaid subscribers is to load a Rs. 14/- voucher. This voucer will give a balance of Rs. 10.50 + odd and will also give daily 500 national SMS's free. Subsequent SMS will be charged at 1 paisa. A Re. 1/- daily fee will be deducted from the balance.
I, myself, have subscribed to the Rs. 11/- per month SMS pack on my post-paid billing Reliance Connection and I should be enjoying SMS @ 1 paisa within a day or two, WOW!!
My tired fingers don't seem to be rejoicing at this news, are they! ;)

50 Paise STD

Hritik Roshan, the pied piper of "Telelyn"stands out in his fancy clothes, pulling in all the telecom "rats" or should I say, (calling) rates, and dumping them down the hill.

At 50 paise a minute, it is actually cheaper to call, then to send a post-card!

And its not only Reliance. Airtel, Idea and Vodafone too have reduced rates to similar levels* conditions apply!

Why have these rates unraveled so quickly and to such low levels.

I don't reckon that volume growth will in any way make up for the 50% reduction. I feel that there are 2 factors behind this reduction in rates.

1) The first: New Entrants:

Etilsalat DB (of Dubai) and UniNor (a JV of Unitech and Telenor of Norway) have received licences to roll out service at national level. Maybe this is a Grand Welcome being planned by our existing players for the new kids on their block. It should definitely push back the break even point by a few years.

2) The Second: Spectrum Allocation:
The one rarity in the telecom space - Spectrum. Spectrum is nothing but the frequency (in lay mans terms) allocated to the telecom operators. Think of it as the width of the road that cars drive on. The wider the road, the lesser the jams. Similarly the more the spectrum with the operators, the lesser the network congestion. And one way of justifying the use of more spectrum is by showing more subscribers.

All I can say is that it only gets interesting from here onwards. Bills will fall in real terms as rates for voice and SMS fall to 50 paise.

Now its upto the operators to make up for fall in revenue from other value added services such as dialer tunes, internet usage etc

Upload Photos To Facebook From Mobile

You can send photos from your cell phone directly to your Facebook Profile page. It's easy to do and it's a great way to share what you're doing and seeing with your friends or family.Here is How to Upload Photos To Facebook From Your Cell Phone!

First, you need to make sure that your cell phone number is registered with Facebook. If you know it already is, you can skip this para. If you aren't sure it's registered, then log into your Facebook account. Go to the top of the page and click on "Settings". This will take you to the "My Account" page.

Click on the tab that says "Mobile". On the Mobile page, click on the link that says "Register For Facebook Mobile Texts".

This will open up a box, which prompts you to choose your Country and Mobile Service Provider from two drop-down boxes. Make your selections and click on "Next".


The next box, tells you to do the following: "Using your mobile phone, send a text message containing only the letter "f" (without quotes) to 32665 (FBOOK)". Send the text message as instructed and then click on "Next".


A few seconds after you send your text to Facebook, you will receive a text back from Facebook that contains your alphanumeric mobile activation code. Go back to your Facebook page, enter the code in the box provided, and click on "Confirm".
This will take you to the Confirmation page showing that the Facebook Mobile Application has been added to your profile. Your cell phone is now setup to send photos to your Facebook Profile page.

Now that your mobile account is setup, you are actually ready to upload a photo! Take a picture with your cell phone and send it as a picture message to this address: mobile@facebook.com.

If you want to add a caption to your picture, just include it in the subject line of your message!

Very shortly, the picture you uploaded will appear on your Facebook page! It will be positioned at the top of your message column with any caption you wrote below it. Any pictures you upload will also be saved in your Profile under Photos for you and others to view later on.