You must have heard a lot of news surrounding MNP or Mobile Number Portability. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has finally fixed the various charges for Mobile Number Portability in India and the TRAI press release is below. If you are still wondering what does MNP mean to you read further.

• Are you sticking to the same Operator for many years just for the fancy mobile number you possess despite the poor network coverage in your area  ?
• Do plans from another Operator seem more affordable / attractive to you compared to the current operator ?
• Are you a Technology enthusiast and want to figure out whats MNP ?

If you said to any one of the questions above then you might make use of MNP to move to another mobile network operator and retain your same old mobile number. Now lets get to the charges.

You have to pay a porting  charge to port your mobile number from one network to another.

This fee has been fixed at Rs.19 only. TRAI has indicated that

The amount to be paid by the subscriber shall not be more than the per port transaction charge i.e. Rs.19. Operators are free to charge any amount less than or equal to this charge

These charges will come into effect on 31st December  and MNP is expected to be available in Metros and Category A circles by this date. It is expected to be available in other circles by March.

Are you interested in MNP  ? Will you use the service ?

• Consumers To Bear The Mobile Number Portability cost?
• Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) Reduced; Will Mobile Call Charges Come Down Further?
• TRAI favours number portability
• Operators must provide hard copy of bills to postpaid subscribers for free says TRAI
• Come August, say Hello to Mobile Number Portability

The looks of the LG BL-40 will amaze anyone ! Is it a phone or a chocobar ?  The phone has some revolutionary features like a 4inch Touch- Screen with resolution of 800x345 pixels and for the first time on a mobile, screen with 21:9 aspect ratio. Actually it’s just recently that the first 21:9 aspect TVs were announced by Philips, so this is a remarkable achievement. It also sports a 5 Megapixel camera.Its also got  HSDPA, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Multi-Touch, Flash Based 3D UI

Features

• 4 inch widescreen HD LCD
• Complete Web Display
• Dual Screen UI
• Panoramic Entertainment
• One Touch Copy & Paste

BL40 Price

We spotted the phone in UK and the price there was around 400 pounds without a contract .  The price in India IF its launched would be around Rs.30-35000

BL40 Official Video

• LG BL40 Official Pictures!

LG launches the world’s first transparent design phone, LG GD900 Crystal. The GD900 Crystal is a slider phone with a stylish transparent keypad that lights up when opened. The mobile has a thin layer of transparent plastic. Under the transparent plastic on the front there is a gray frame surrounding the display.

The keypad is a touch-sensitive controller which lets you to move through menus, navigate the Web, and even write using handwriting recognition. When you slide the mobile while typing, the onscreen keyboard disappears and you’re ready to use the hardware one.  The multi-touch features lets you to zoom in on images with the pinching gesture.

GD900 Features:

• Dimension: 105 x 52.5 x 13.5 mm
• Weight : 120g
• 3-inch 16M color TFT touchscreen, 480 x 800 pixels
• 300 hours of standby time, 4 hours of 3G talk time,6 hours of 2G talk time
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 (alternative version: 850/2100) MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 12, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• 1.5GB integrated memory, 16GB microSD card
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and D1 video recording at 30 fps, QVGA time-lapse and slow-mo video recording
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port
• FM Radio
• Ambient light sensor and the video-call camera
• 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Smooth animations
• 3D spatial effects, motion blurring
• Available in Chrome and Titen color.
• Price – Rs.26,000

• 2 Hot New Music Phones for music buffs
• Motorola launches Made in India phone
• LG Arena crosses one million sales worldwide
• Motorola , LG and now its Nokia’s turn to name their phones
• Motorola to setup facility in Chennai

$25. Thats the price you will pay for a brand new Palm Pixi at Amazon on a 2-year contract with Sprint. Having been released just about a week ago this entry-level webOS smartphone will please those customers who are on a tight budget while still being capable of doing your everyday task.

If you didn’t know, the Pixi comes in a candy bar factor, has a 2.6″ capacitive touch screen, a full qwerty keyboard and is a 2 Mp snapper. Connectivity wise you have the usual 3G, GPS and 8 Gb of on board storage though you will have to say goodbye to the WiFi

Ready to live your life with Sprint for the next 2 years then head over to this page

Source

• Palm Pre Coming Soon to India

Earlier, we had brought to you news about the Dell Benzine Smartphone set to release in China. Well now, Dell has made it official that they are set to release a series of smartphones under the Dell Mini 3 branding.

Since most of Dell’s products follow the naming technique in accordance with the screen size, we are led to believe that these phones will have a 3″ screen. Dell hasn’t announced any specifications yet though.

We have the pictures of a Dell Mini 3 smartphone which we previously stated as the Dell Benzine. It runs on the OPhone OS (Chinese Android OS). It is set to release later this month. The Chinese version will lack Wi-Fi and 3G due to regulations.

The specifications that we can are sure of  right now are:

• 3″ Full-Touchscreen
• mini-USB Port

Other features are mostly the same as what we mentioned before in the link below.

Dell Benzine

Pricing is still unknown and we will bring you more information as it becomes available.

Source

• Dell Benzine Smartphone Leaked!

All the users of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 who have been wondering if the device will be getting Windows Mobile 6.5 update, are in for some disappointment. Sony Ericsson specified today that Sony Xperia X1 will not be getting the official Windows Mobile 6.5 update.

Its a not a huge loss for all the Xperia users though, since some of the major features like the My Phone backup service and Windows Marketplace for browsing and installing the third-party apps are already available for WM6.1.

However, if you want to be a bit adventurous, you can always install a cooked ROM  from XDA-Developers. The procedure is not exactly smooth, hence we seriously recommend you to proceed with caution if you do so, since you may run the risk of spoiling your phone.

(via)

• Sony Ericson Xperia X1 & HTC Touch HD Fusion
• Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 Photo Gallery
• SE Xperia X1 launched in India!!!
• Microsoft Unveils Windows Mobile 6.5 on three handsets
• Windows Mobile Development Team Tweets WM6.5 is done!

MyPhone, The 5800 app launcher which converts your 5800 to iPhone has just released a new version 2.40 with many new feature additions.

The Main Attractions of MyPhone 2.40 are:

1. Speed dial.
2. Memo Deduction game.
3. Memo Mosaic game.
4. Enhanced performance.

To use the Speed dial function, just go to MySetting -> MyAPP & Links, Replace the appname with your preferred friend’s name and the exename with the respective friends phone number. Then choose an icon and click add to find the speed dial icon on your homescreen.

The Application is available for trial and if you liked the application, then you can buy the full version for 12.99 USD.

• Turn your S60 Phone into an iPhone with Mmmooo’s MyPhone
• MyPhone v2.2 released with iPhone style SMS conversation
• Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Firmware Update – v20.0.012
• Contest : Win 10 Free Copies of MyPhone Application
• Cricket T20Fever for iPhone and iPod Touch – Trailer

After removing 450 employees from the payroll last September, Sony Ericsson is now planning to close down four of it’s facilities and lay-off 2000 employees worldwide.

The facilities that are planned to be shutdown are the facilities in RTP (North Carolina), Small Facilities(Miami, Seattle and San Diego), Sweden and Chennai. 2000 employees will be laid off and some of them will have the option of getting transfers to other places like Atlanta or California.

The process will take place in different steps, one at a time. This decision comes after incurring huge losses during the year. This maybe mainly due to the lack of competitive handsets from Sony Ericsson. Hopefully Sony Ericsson comes back with the launch of the XPERIA X10 which looks to be a very promising device. At least, lets hope that the employees get their jobs back.

Source

• Hello Moto becomes Hello Samsung as Motorola looses global market share
• Sony Ericsson Kurara Exclusive Pictures and Information!
• Sony Ericsson Kurara Live Pictures!
• Sony Ericsson Using SMS for Customer Feedback
• Sony Ericsson PlayNow Arena Demo Video

Its been 5 months since Nokia’s Ovi Store has launched. Bill Perry, the Sr. Services Marketing Manager for Forum Nokia, California has written about the statistics of Ovi Store so far.

Quoting from his blog mobileperry, the following stats of Ovi Store are from 26 May 2009 through the 31st October 2009:

• Available on over 100 different Nokia devices (60+ Symbian S60 devices)
• Active users from over 180 countries
• Developers from 65 countries are distributing content
• 8 countries today have local content, local language support and mobile billing: UK, Spain, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Russia. By the end of Q1 2010 there will be more than 20 countries.
• Top 10 Ovi Store Markets by performance in alphabetic order: Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Russia & UK
• In almost all of the top 10 Ovi Store countries, 5800 XpressMusic and N97 are the #1 and  #2 devices for Ovi Store activity and consumer engagement
• Re-Download now available and search is much improved.
• Ovi Store will ship embedded on most new compatible Nokia devices including Symbian S60 and Series 40 from Q4 2009
• On average, each registered user has downloaded at least 8 items from Ovi Store
• In October, the number of content items downloaded was over 70% higher than in Sept.

Hmmm Looks like the Ovi Store is doing pretty well. Isnt it?

Also it seems like the rise in the sales of touchscreen phones like Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 are showing on the Ovi Store as well. What do you think?

Have you used Ovi Store? What do you think about it? Pass on your views below.

• Samsung To Launch Its Own Application Store on September 14
• Nokia Widsets is now part of OVI Store
• Nokia Ovi Store vs Apple App Store – an indepth comparison
• Mobile Big Wigs to roll out their own desi application stores
• Nokia App Store is officially called as Ovi Store!

Fly Mobiles have announced the launch of 2 new Dual SIM touchscreen handsets in India namely, the MC 160 and the E106.

MC160

The MC 160 based on Yamaha Chipset, features a QVGA touchscreen with a 262k color TFT display, Other features includes a phonebook which has hold upto 2000 names, 3 megapixel camera with Video Recording, 87MB Internal memory with support for expandable memory using microSD cards, Has support for GPRS, EDGE, A2DP and Bluetooth. The phone has a talk time of 4 hrs and a standby time of 200 hours. The Phone also has a mobile tracker with remote control capabilities and privacy protection feature and is decently priced at Rs. 6,000.

E106

E106 is a Dual SIM phone with a 2.4 inch QVGA screen and a 262K colors TFT display. Other features of E106 include a phonebook which has hold upto 1000 Names, 2 megapixel camera with video recording and flash, FM radio with recording, Bluetooth, GPRS, A2DP, Motion Sensors and expandable memory upto 2GB. The phone has a talk time of 4 hrs and a standby time of 240 hours. Fly E160 is priced at Rs. 5300 which makes it one of the cheapest touchsceen phone in the market.

• Fly launches a series of Dual SIM handsets for Diwali
• Airfone Launches A Range of Dual SIM Mobile Phones In India