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Getting sex is up to you, but the folks at want to make it as easy and embarrassment free as possible. Their new text for condoms service has just launched for those of you in the UK. Simply send a text to 63100 and you can get your condoms delivered in a discrete unmarked envelope instead of having to endure the scornful eye of the checkout lady whom you just know is heading straight to the confessional when she gets of work to pray for your sinning soul…

Right now the services is only available in the UK but the group intends to branch out swiftly if their service catches on. If you want more information that can be found right .

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While lots of people are very excited about the impending UMA Launch on T-Mobile, others - in fact one of my good friends and business mentors - Andy Abramson of have been having a spot of trouble with their technical support for his Blackberry device. If T-Mobile doesn’t upgrade tech support in a hurry, they’re in for some serious bashing as a new technology with a huge slew of new devices and service offerings, plus endpoints providing connectivity, it is highly likely that there will be a big increase in demand for support.

As Andy describes , this is exactly how NOT TO HANDLE a customer. Especially a customer with a big and highly regarded blog like Andy.

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There appears to be a ton of interest in UMA Technology as well as some confusion about the difference between a WLAN enabled handset (one with a WiFi radio as well as GSM/GPRS) and a UMA/Dual Mode handset which also sports the WiFi-GSM/GPRS Radio configuration but also includes the UMA software that enables the seamless switching from one mode to another even during (and without dropping) a call in progress. These are NOT the same thing as the information below, which I’ve culled from the progenitor of UMA technology,

UMA-Enabled Mobile Handsets

The most common UMA-enabled devices are UMA-enabled mobile handsets, or WLAN-enabled
mobile handsets running UMA client software. Generally, handsets supporting a UMA/WLAN
client and radio also include a GSM/GERAN radio in which case they are said to have a Dual

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Craig Mathias of a Telecom Analyst and Consultancy gets kudos for calling this one right on the money as his prediction that either or would be the first to roll out alternative connectivity services has turned out to be dead on.

Following a highly succesful test of UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) developed by and now part of the 3GPP Specification, UMA is a technology that, when coupled with handsets that support both WiFi and GSM, allows for the seamless switching of a call in progress from one network to the other and back again.

For consumers this means no more dropped calls when you enter residences or buildings as well as reduced tariffs (even all-you-can-eat plans) rather than per minute charges.

For T-Mobile this means a vast reduction (once the solution has been fully deployed) in the number of calls carried over the capacity limited cellular network and an increase in overall traffic carrying capability that has the potential to be quite significant.

T-Mobile …

Despite pulling out of Europe as a marketplace, BenQ-Siemens are still making handsets for the Asian market, leading me to seriously consider importing a handset to use, rather than settling for one of the uninspiring range available from the major carriers in the UK, a view typified by this concept handset from BenQ. Even if it never sees the light of day, it does show what could theoretically be possible, but may never see the light of day in Europe even if the ideas are deployed in a handset in Korea or anywhere else in Asia.

The images that have been released appear to show the functions of the phone changing depending on the use, and the entire interface being delivered by a touch-sensitive display rather than mechanical buttons.

Source: .

M:Metrics has announced that responded to ads that included SMS shortcodes.”These numbers are not unlike what we saw in e-mail response during the mid-1990s as the Web emerged an advertising medium,” said Will Hodgman, CEO, M:Metrics, who also founded AdRelevance, the global standard for advertising measurement on the Internet. “The growing adoption of major brands using SMS and the substantial consumer response rates indicate a couple of important trends: mobile as a commercial medium is on steroids; and multimedia convergence is real.”Personally this doesn't surprise me, with this type of response slowly starting to gain popularity amongst advertisers as an easy way of getting consumer opt-in or basic response.

Via .

As many weepeing fans have noted, T-Mobile their US spokeswoman, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. In a not wholly unrelated move (*chuckle*) the US operator is now about to move faster. How do I mean? Rumors abound that the company will announce tomorrow that it is making quick use of its recent win at the in the 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz bands .

Analysts think it will take about 18 months for T-Mobile to roll out the network, but devices will appear sooner.

Over a year ago I proposed collecting EXIF data (the data on the type of camera, settings, etc, generated by digital cameras for each photo taken) from Flickr, the online image sharing service, as a means of better understanding which devices correlated with which kinds of images, times of day taken, locations taken etc. has now gone out and collected this data to see which camera types are most popular.

Of the cameraphones on the list, Nokia rates as the manufacturer of the most used cameraphone, and number 8 most used camera overall, in the most recent analysis of data from last week's recently uploaded images. SonyEricsson is just behind at number 9 overall for cameras. Motorola charts at 15, and HTC at 22. Nokia is probably ahead in part because of and distribution of software. An interesting trend that will be fun to follow.

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has revealed that starting today sponsored results will begin appearing alongside natural search results on mobile phones.

According to Steve Boom, Senior Vice President of Broadband and Mobile at Yahoo!, the company has been running an extended beta test in Japan for the past two years. “Enough users are doing queries that it’s beginning to turn into a business big enough for Yahoo! to find interesting.” He continues “We’ve done the same thing in the UK on a single operator for the last nine or ten months and the same trend appears to be happening.”

Initially Yahoo! intends to roll out with only a small group of advertisers to get the kinks out and fine tune the user experience which will initially be accessed just like their online sponsered keywords are obtained, via their . Of course their will be some distinctive options such as the ability to choose under which carrier(s)you want your keywords to appear. When Yahoo! migrates to …

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The fellows with the fancy-pants over at Sybarites got their hands on a Vertu Constellation for review. If you�re just joining us, the Vertu is a luxury line of phones made by the same people who make you Nokia�s phones�Nokia. So how does this phone stack up?

Well, the Nokia S40 UI is similar to other Nokia Symbian OS phones, but is �far superior graphics wise.� The phone has a concierge button that calls Vertu�s Concierge service, kinda like OnStar for your phone. It�s also got Bluetooth, GPRS, and EDGE, which makes it fairly recent in terms of features, instead of just an old phone packaged in a pretty shell.

As a bonus, it also has WorldMate software to �keep track of flights, different time-zones and currency rates�, useful for any jet-setter that can afford a Vertu.

[Sybarites]