Cell Phone Flap in Court

A special prosecutor could not have had worse timing for telling a judge he'd cleared him of theft for taking a college student's ringing cell phone during a class. Special prosecutor Rob Ives had just delivered his report Friday in Tippecanoe Superior Judge Les Meade's crowded courtroom when his own cell phone began ringing.

Ives quickly left the courtroom, which has a posted sign instructing those entering to turn off their cell phones. Other attorneys waited nervously to see Meade's reaction.

As it turned out, the judge liked Ives' ring tone - the song, "I Fought the Law (and the Law Won)."

"It was the perfect ending to this little annoyance," Meade said.

Six weeks ago, Meade was teaching a business law class at Purdue University when a student's cell phone began ringing. Meade took away the student's phone after he said the student failed to turn it off promptly.

Meade said he intended to turn it over to the dean's office the next morning. But the student, in a hurry to get his phone back, called Purdue police.

Officers told Meade if he failed to return the phone to the student his refusal would constitute theft.

While Meade was talking with officers, Richard Cosier, dean of Purdue's School of Management, arrived and took the phone. He returned it to the student after lecturing him about rules against using cell phones during class.

Prosecutor Pat Harrington said he sought a special prosecutor to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Hook, line and sinker - and a cellphone

With most of South Korea's people already hooked on cellphones, one operator has found a new market - helping fishermen locate their catches.

SK Telecom said Wednesday it has introduced a service using a float-shaped ultrasonic transmitter, which is connected to a phone on one end and a fishing line on the other.

"This service needs an additional device costing 120 000 won ($120)," SK Telecom spokesperson Lee Kyo-Hyuk told AFP.

"It shows the location of fish and the depth and temperature of the water."

It is the latest in a series of fresh services developed by South Korean firms to attract increasingly sated clients.

In 2004 SK Telecom became the first to introduce a service using ultrasonic waves to repel mosquitoes. Now all other local firms provide similar services.

"The mosquito-chasing service has helped our company attract more than 10 000 new clients every year," Lee said.

[via IOL]

World's highest mobile phone call

A British climber has made the world's highest mobile phone call - from the top of Mount Everest.

Rod Baber also claimed a separate record for sending the highest text message, reports the BBC.

His two calls from the mountain's north ridge were made possible after China set up a new mobile base station.

In the first call Mr Baber described the view, how cold it was and what he wanted to do when back at base camp.

He then rang his wife and children in Cirencester, Gloucs, and told them: "It's amazing. I can't feel my toes."

To make the call at the 8,848 metres summit, Mr Baber had to contend with high winds and temperatures of minus 30C.

The call was made to a voicemail account created by sponsor Motorola to ensure the attempt was recorded.

Mr Baber also did not have much time to make the call because those climbing Everest typically only stay at the summit for 15 minutes.

Making such a call is dangerous as talking into the handset meant he had to remove his oxygen mask.

Batteries for the Motorola handset he used were taped to his body to ensure they stayed at a high enough temperature to power the phone.

[via Ananova]

High-frequency 'Mosquito' Tone

High-frequency 'mosquito' tone allows students to get around school rules on cell phone use. Students now have a new way to fight authority: the "mosquito" tone.

That is, a high frequency cell phone ring tone that most adults can't hear, but youngsters can.

As people age, many adults lose the ability to hear high frequency noises. That makes the ring tone the perfect way for many students to ignore the rule of turning off their cell phones in class.

"Teachers don't hear them. I've never heard any teacher say anything about it," said Bakersfield High freshman Danielle Yanez. The teen said she hears the phones sounding off in class almost every day.

"It's like a little screeching," South High sophomore Alcide Lovo said of the tone. "Some teachers can't hear them because they're older and their hearing isn't that good."

read more at Bakers Field

[via Bakers Field]
[photo by Felix Adamo]

UPDATE: At ultrasonic-ringtones.com you can listen to such tones and download them as mp3 files. Personally I'm hearing up to 16.7kHz tone so they rated me as 20 y.o. (I'm 24). :)

Granny in Love Wins Prize for Phone Text Poetry

A love-struck pensioner has come up trumps in a poetry contest with a difference: the poems had to be written in mobile phone "text speak".

Eileen Bridge, 68, a grandmother, from Accrington, Lancashire, won 350 pounds ($697) in the "txt laureate" competition, after she took second place with an ode to her husband of six months.

The entry read: "O hart tht sorz, My luv adorz, He mAks me liv, He mAks me giv, Myslf 2 him, As my luv porz."

The retired teacher was only beaten by London law student Ben Ziman-Bright, 23, who scooped the top prize of 1,000 pounds.

He wrote: "Not even the wet rustle of rain can dampen today. Your text buoys me above oil-rainbow puddles like a paper boat, so that even soaked to the skin, I am grinning."

The contest, started by mobile phone operator T-Mobile, was judged by Luke Wright, who took his debut show "Luke Wright, Poet Laureate" to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.

He said: "Ben was easily the winner because of things like his contrast of the 'oil-rainbow' puddles, which is poetic and abstract.

"Then his last line about 'grinning' brings the poem right back down to earth.

"Overall, there were a lot of funny poems - good to know Britain still has a wicked sense of humour."

More than 200 entrants across the country submitted over 300 text poems of less than 160 characters.

T-Mobile set out to find Britain's "txt laureate" after research showed that 46 percent of people crave flirty text messages and 40 percent cherish mobile love messages by keeping them on their handset.

[via Reuters]

Men admit to £9,000 phone con

FRAUDSTERS fleeced a mobile phone company out of £9,000 as part of a scam, a court heard.

Alan Dobson abused his position working for Link telesales, part of Dixons, to set up the fraud with his friends.

Newcastle Crown Court yesterday heard how he would sell contracts for mobile phones to friends, then urge them to cancel within the 14 days allowed.

Dobson, 23, of Windermere Crescent, Hebburn, would then re-sell the returned phones at knock-down prices to pals.

The court heard how Link, a mobile phone telesales arm of Dixons, lost out on commission.

Dobson admitted two charges of conspiracy to obtain money by deception and obtaining property by deception.

He was given a nine-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, with 12 months' supervision and 150 hours of unpaid work.

His pals David Arthur, 21, of Markington Drive, Sunderland, and twins Paul and Robert Hanson, 22, of Fallstone, Washington, all admitted conspiracy to obtain money by deception.

They were each ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £250 costs.

Defence barristers said all four were hard-working men who had never been in any trouble before.

Dobson has since found work with a mobile phone company.

[via Shields Gazette]

Thief Betrays Himself to Get Free Beer

A German phone thief led police right to his front door when they called the stolen mobile to say he had won some free beer and he willingly gave his address.

"An officer called and said, 'You've won a crate of beer'," said a spokesman for police in the eastern town of Neustrelitz Friday.

"Then he asked where he lived so he could drop the beer off, and the guy told him. I think the man was drunk."

[via Reuters]

Worlds Top 5 Most Expensive Mobile Phones

by Kerry

When products are first released with the latest technology they always cost a lot and as more people buy them things get much cheaper over time.
With mobile phones the majority have been priced between £100 and £300 apart from one or two companies making phones for the filthy rich like Vertu phones which cost around £4,000.

This year in 2007 things are very different to the past and many brands have seen a market of people with a silly amount of money to spend on a mobile phone to make a fashion statement and they are filling this gap with some of the most expensive mobile phones in the world.

Here are five of them:



1) The most expensive we could find is the Goldvish “Le million” as shown in the photo above.

2) Vertu Signature Cobra = $310,000 (£167,567)


3) Sony Ericsson Black Diamond = $300,000 (£162,162)


4) Vertu Diamond = $88,000 (£47,567)


5) Motorola V220 Special Edition = £28,000 ($51,800)


Full features of most phones can be found on phonesreview.co.uk

[via product-reviews.net]