Starting tonight, cellphones are going to DIE

Or less dramatically, if you have a Chinese mobile -- most of which do not have IMEI numbers -- there is need to worry, as the ICI (Indian Cellular Association) will be imposing a ban on the use of such cellphones starting midnight tonight.

IMEI numbers or International Mobile Equipment Identity numbers are unique numbers assigned to each handset. In case of loss or theft of cellphones, these can be used to track your mobile.

Often, stolen phones are sold with their IMEI number erased, or using an IMEI number from another cellphone. As such, ensuring that each cellphone which is operational is using a unique IMEI number has obvious benefits.

Additionally, terrorists can take advantage of blank or cloned IMEI to make their phones difficult to track. This is a good move for the security of the country, and will additionally aid in reduction of cellphone thefts too.

If you are not too sure about your phone (and even otherwise) you can test the authenticity of your IMEI number by sending a message to 53232 "IMEI " You can find out your IMEI number by pressing *#06# on your cellphone.

BlackBerry Curve 8520 for under Rs 16,000!

Well, this one caught us by surprise. Research In Motion usually has a price tag of Rs 20,000 or higher on all their new BlackBerry handsets launched in India. So when a press release from Bharti Airtel landed in our inbox and said the new Curve 8520 would be available for Rs 15,990, it was reason for a double take.

The phone sports a 2.64-inch TFT screen (65K colours, 320x240 pixels) that offers the latest version of the wonderful BlackBerry OS. The popular ‘pearl’ trackball, however, is missing and has been replaced by a standard trackpad. BlackBerry Curve 8520

The full Qwerty keypad stays intact and holds 256MB of memory underneath. Of course, this can be increased by a further 16GB provided you have a microSD card of that size.

In a perplexing move, the handset is adorned with dedicated music keys. We say perplexing because a standard 3.5-mm audio jack seems to be missing! So RIM wants you to play your music, but just not use your own headphones while you’re at it.

The 2-megapixel camera on the back is not going to impress anyone, nor is the standard connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, microUSB port, GPS and A-GPS (with BlackBerry Maps). And no, there is no 3G on board.

For what can only be a phone targeted at the office-going professional, a reported talk-time of 4 hours and 30 minutes seems a bit less to us. Still, for that low price tag, we guess the company had to cut corners somewhere…

Interested readers can grab the handset from any Bharti Airtel showroom from August 7 onwards.

Silverlight invited to Apple's temple of sanctity

Soon we will have silverlight content on the iPhone! Well not really. However, apparently Microsoft has "worked with Apple" to bring one of the most important functions of browser plugins today to the Apple iPhone, web video.

Web video has rightly become the domain of the Flash player, and is one of it's claim to fame an ubiquity. Now Microsoft's Silverlight is treading on Flash Player's turn by providing playback of video content in Silverlight on the iPhone.

It is by no means the full Silverlight browser plugin, however Microsoft has used a combination of server side features and client side support for video playback in the iPhone safari browser to enable video content delivered using Silverlight to also work on iPhones.

Open-source Google Chrome OS will be available only on closed line-up of devices

All right, so TechCrunch was off about Google launching the much-hyped Chrome OS this week; but what Google has done is make the source code for it available for download to anyone interested. So basically, the people at Google and external coders can now work on the underlying operating system at the same time, said Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management.

In a demonstration of the new Chrome OS at the Google headquarters at Mountain View, California, Pichai mentioned a few things that are worth noting. First, that the operating system is, as expected, a glorified version of the Chrome browser itself. The look and feel are pretty much the same, with just more eye-candy and features in the Chrome OS.

Also, the Chrome OS will work only on Solid State Drives, said Matthew Papakipos, Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS. That’s right, no hard disks with moving parts will be supported. So if you planned on running this on your computer with a dual-boot system, think again! More importantly, Pichai said that the amount of hardware supported will be selective and Google will support only ‘referenced hardware’. The company will be tying up with hardware manufacturers to offer the new Chrome OS on selected devices – netbooks, tablets, laptops or anything else. An open-source operating system on a closed line-up of devices? Irony, thy name is Google!

One extremely impressive factor of the demonstration was the boot-up time. From a cold boot on what looked like an Asus EEE netbook PC, Chrome OS was at the login screen in seven seconds. Google said it will take only another three seconds to be on the Web and browsing. Quite cool, that…

Wirefree and Cool

Studies in human psychology have shown that the way we carry ourselves is what decides our level of appeal to the opposite sex. A small poll of the fairer sex, conducted by a notable tech publishing company, has revealed that this applies to not just what we wear, but also what we carry.

For more detail on Wirefree and Cool log on to http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/Wirefree-and-Cool_3723.html

The Google Phone is real and it’s coming early next year

Leading technology news blog TechCrunch has some solid Google sources. Its past successes in Google-related information include talking about Android before anyone else, about the Chrome OS and its ‘coming this week’ tag, and several other manufacturer-related Android news. So when they stick their neck out and say that the ‘Google Phone’ we have all dreamed of is real, we would tend to believe them.

The article states that some of the information is from solid sources, while some of it is currently in the ‘rumour’ phase.

Now, Windows 7 on a phone! And ViewSonic is set to launch WinXP phone…

It seems like Windows XP is actually being looked at as an operating system for cell phones now. We have previously featured ITG’s xpPhone, which claims to run Microsoft’s operating system with a custom UI. Now, ViewSonic might be opting for the same to make its entry into the mobile phone market.

ClonedInChina is reporting that the renowned LCD monitor manufacturer is coming out with a new handset that runs on Windows XP. Called the VCP08, the device will be powered by an Intel ULV processor, have 8GB of memory, 512MB RAM, 4.3-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard and a 2-megapixel camera. The flip phone will have a smaller 2-inch display on the top, complete with a numeric keypad for normal phone operations.

ClonedInChina is quoting the price of the phone at $800 (Rs. 37,000 approx).

Windows 7Phone