Families of British Merseyside soldiers in Iraq will be sent text messages by the army if the regiment is targeted. The idea is to channel information and to stop the rumors about incidents and possible casualties. If there are casualties then, a casualty notification officer will be asked to go out to the family and “break the news” to them directly.

“Families will get a flash message to tell them that something that has come out is not true and that the truth will follow as quickly as we can”, said Commanding officer Lt Col Gary Deakin. “We plan to test and adjust as we go and see what is appropriate,” he added.

It’s hard to classify this as either a good or a bad thing. On one side it’s good that family members know exactly what’s going on with their loved ones on the front. On the other hand, I’m not sure just how SMS is good medium for such sensitive information…

[Via: BBC, textually.org]

Nothing like hearing someone rant to get your own blood boiling; Steve from All About Symbian is excited about the upcoming Symbian Smartphone Show and he is taking the times to reflect on things that just don’t make any sense, yet they still occur in the smartphone world. I too have some equally interesting enigmas that need answers:

1. The name change from Series 60 to S60 was a fantastic move, now please think of something a little bit more marketable than S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 to call the OS on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95.
2. What do the XpressMusic and Walkman brands mean? Today we have a hard time finding a phone without a camera, equally as prevalent are devices that play music. Why the need to create another brand to advertise a feature that most phones already have?
3. The first Walkman played tapes and went on sale in Japan in 1979. The CD playing Walkman graced planet Earth 5 years later. Every Sony device that has had the Walkman brand on it also happens to have a 3.5 mm headphone jack, yet a Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) device with such a standard audio port does not exist. I’m not harping on SE either, most phone makers have this issue too. The Nokia XpressMusic 5610 that was launched at the Go Play event in London lacked a 3.5 mm jack, the smaller and thinner 5310 however did. People at Nokia tell me the product manager for that phone fought very hard to make that happen. Thank you sir.
4. Hitting and holding the application key on S60 based devices to switch between running programs makes absolutely no sense to me. I only learned how to do that after reading an online forum. S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (there is that name again) addresses this, but it is difficult to judge how well it will be implemented and when devices based on that operating system will be released.
5. When anyone goes from version 1 to version 2 of a software application or driver there is a change log telling me what was fixed. Why can’t phone manufactures do the same thing?

What confuses or upsets you?

It seems like everyone is getting in on the SlingPlayer Mobile fun. Windows Mobile (both Smartphone and PocketPC editions) smartphones have it; there’s a Symbian client being tested, compatible with the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95; and even Palm OS, as antiquated as it is, has a SlingPlayer client to boast of. What about Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) lineup?

Well, Pocket Lint got some inside information that Sling Media and RIM are working together on a BlackBerry-compatible SlingPlayer client. Stuart Collingwood, VP of Europe for Sling Media told Pocket Lint that they “are working with BlackBerry to develop a software application at the moment.”

So it looks like BlackBerry fans will soon be able to fully unlock the potential of their lonely SlingBoxes. With the SlingPlayer Mobile client for BlackBerry, Sling Media will have all their mobile-bases covered. Well done guys, well done.

[Via: Pocket Lint]

Picking a new mobile phone based on features is hard enough without having to figure out what kind of price-points you’re dealing with. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a convenient list of prices for all of a certain carrier’s upcoming mobile offerings? Well, Boy Genius got his hands on a price list for AT&T (NYSE: T)’s upcoming mobile phone and data card lineup.

Here’s some of the pricing information, from BGR:

• HTC 8925 Tilt: $349.99 with 2-year agreement and $50 MIR, $549.99 to purchase outright.
• Pantech C810 Duo: $249.99 with 2-year agreement and $50 MIR, $449.99 to purchase outright.
• Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q9 Global: $299.99 with 2-year agreement and $50 MIR, $499.99 to purchase outright.
• UTStarcom (NSDQ: UTSI) 5700: $69.99 with 2-year agreement and $50 MIR, $269.99 to purchase outright.
• Sierra AC881U (HSUPA data card): $49.99 with 2-year agreement and $100 MIR, $299.99 to purchase outright.
• Option GT Ultra (HSUPA data card): FREE with 2-year agreement and $100 MIR, $249.99 to purchase outright.
• Option Ultra Express (HSUPA data card): $49.99 with 2-year agreement and $100 MIR, $299.99 to purchase outright.

Want more pricing info? Click on the image above for a full-sized view.
[Via: Boy Genius Report]

Talk about a trick piece of software! SmartCam is an open-source  (from SourceForge) application for the Windows-set (Windows XP or Windows Vista) that basically turns your S60 phone’s camera into a web-cam. All of you with an S60 device and a Windows machine can forgo that webcam purchase, it turns out you already have on in your pocket! It’s too bad there isn’t a Mac version of this software (yes, Macs get built-in iSight webcams, but it would still be cool to use our S60 phone as a webcam).

Getting your mobile phone setup as your webcam is as simple as installing the SmartCam application onto your Windows machine, and then installing the mobile client on your S60 device (don’t forget to read the readme file).

But, there is one caveat. Your Windows machine (laptop or desktop) needs to have Bluetooth connectivity to link up with your S60 phone. We actually think that makes SmartCam all that much better – not only is your S60 phone a webcam, it’s a wireless webcam.

[Via: Lifehacker]

Thanks, Andy! 

We can’t speak for all mobile fanatics out there, but Playboy’s announcement of their new mobile portal sure gets a thumbs-up from us. If Playboy’s content on your mobile phone sounds interesting, just point your mobile browser to the ad-supported mobile site at Playboy.com.  What you’ll see is a mobile-optimized version of the full-fledged website – complete with non-nude pics, Playboy Advisor articles (that’s what interests us), and daily jokes.

It looks like the purveyor-of-skin is trying their hand at mobile-advertising revenue again. Playboy previously licensed their mobile content to Dijji/Dwango, but they went out of business a while ago. Now Quattro Wireless is handling the advertising for Playboy’s mobile site (also developed by Quattro), and it looks like a promising venture – if only because it’s bound to get plenty of traffic from Playboy-loving phone-fans.

Check it out. They have great articles.

[Via: MocoNews]

Samsung’s finally gotten around to announcing the Samsung SGH-i550 S60-based GPS phone. We first spotted this trackball-sporting S60 smartphone back at IFA 2007, and it’s just now getting its time in the spotlight.

The Samsung i550 will be rocking the S60 3.1 UI. And, as expected, Samsung is telling us that the i550 will be bringing along tri-band GSM, HSDPA, 3.2 megapixel camera, and integrated GPS. Oh, and don’t forget that nifty little trackball, a la the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Pearl.

Word has it that the Samsung SGH-i550 will be launched in November, so keep holding your breath. Pricing details are unavailable at the moment, but you can be sure that we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

[Via: Unwired View]

All the whining, suing, and petitioning from the likes of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Frontline have prompted FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to take action . The recently approved open-access rules (for which we applauded the FCC) are now the target of revision by Martin.  As you’ll remember, the 22Mhz block of the 700Mhz frequency spectrum auction, referred to as the C-block, is currently setup to require that the winning carrier allow any device and any software to use the network.

Chairman Martin failed to propose revisions to the open-access rules this past week and is now aggressively pushing to “clarify” the rules – through a “declaratory ruling.” It looks like Martin is trying to change the open-access guidelines in response to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless’s recent lawsuit against the FCC, and is likely also the result of Verizon Wireless lobbying the FCC. Industry insiders fear that Martin is trying make changes to the rules outside the scope of the public-comment system.

We’ll see how this one plays out. It seems that the FCC is moving towards appeasing Verizon Wireless, but public outcry could keep that from happening. So, get on your soapboxes and start spreading the “open-access” word.

[Via: RCR News]

Now these are some attractive mobile phones. Not only are they ergonomically designed (kind of like a used bar of soap), they look pretty damn cool. The Au Infobars are only available in Japan and were designed by Naoto Fukasawa.

The Au Infobars look fairy simple and they probably don’t pack an enormous feature-set, but the sleek lines of the candybar handset are enough to pique our interest. We’d love to see this design hop the Pacific and find its way to US shores.

[Via: core77]

Bluetooth SIG leaks are nice and all, but what we really love are the leaks coming out of the FCC – we usually get way more information, and even pictures. The newest device to get outed by the US-regulatory-body is the HTC “Pheobus.” We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we love the codenames coming out of HTC’s labs.

A perusal of the FCC website shows that the HTC Pheobus seems to be rocking 850/1900Mhz GSM frequency support and a 2 megapixel camera. Aside from that, we’re a bit short on details at the moment. From what we can see, the HTC Pheobus looks to be a fairly thin smartphone but we’ll have to wait on more pics for confirmation.

Keep an eye out for HTC’s latest and greatest! Or just let us keep an eye out and just check back here for updates.

FCC source