Mobile Phone News:

You may remember, last week, that I did this post about urban myths that’ve got mobile phones in ‘em. And you may remember that in that story, was a bit about the hoax claim that you could cook eggs with two mobile phones.

Well, there’s a new and improved version of the same old rubbish this week, as four videos have popped up supposedly showing popcorn being cooked by mobile phones.

Having watched the videos (and you can see one for yourself, at the end of this post), even I have to concede that as hoaxes go, it’s a convincingly done one, which is probably why so many people are jumping round, going, “Oh noes! The mobile phones will fry my brains!”

There’s one tiny complication to that, though.

Those videos aren’t physically possible.

Just the same as the egg story, where the mobile phones couldn’t produce enough energy to cook (or even warm) the egg, the phones could not, I repeat, NOT generate enough heat to make popcorn go, erm, pop. I did some checking as to what temperature popcorn actually does go pop at, and… well, it’s quite high. 180ºC, in fact, whereas water boils at 100ºC, as you know.

That’s really quite hot.

Put it another way, you mobile phone would have to be set to gas mark 4, to cook popcorn. Now, I know people will say about it being microwaves, but once again, your phone simply CAN’T generate that much power. A microwave running at 800W will take a few minutes to make the popcorn pop, but 4 mobile phones, running at a combined power of about 8W (a hundredth the output of the microwave) will make ‘em pop in about the same length of time?

Erm, no, I don’t think so, do you? Besides, if they did generate that much power, that much heat, they would LITERALLY fry your brains. And your hand, and all your skin on your face and arm. Never mind long term health risks (which I’m not convinced exist at all), a phone that could cook popcorn like these purport to would actually melt your arm and your face right off!

So, if it’s not real (and The Guardian tried to replicate and couldn’t, which is pretty damning), what is it? What’s it for? Could it be viral marketing? And if so, who by? Surely not a mobile phone maker (”I’ve got a great idea, lads, let’s make an advert that tells people our phones will kill them!”)? Maybe a popcorn maker?

I say, let’s not forget the stupid lengths people will go to for a laugh. Who’s to say there’s not someone sitting there, sniggering now, because more than three people believed it. And remember, never underestimate the power of human nature to do something utterly stupid and pointless!

And for everyone who’s been waiting here’s one of the videos in action:

Do you agree with Technical Markus that there’s no way this is physically possible? Or do you think mobile phones really are dangerous enough to do that? Either way, leave us a comment and have your say!

Well, we’re trundling on towards the summer, and amongst other things, that means it’ll soon be time for Glastonbury again. Every year the young and the old, the trendy and the tasteless all gather together to join in this festival of music. Although I won’t be there, because I’m more at home somewhere like Ozzfest, or at Monsters Of Rock (flashback for anyone who’s ever been to Donnington Park), where security was handled by a Hell’s Angel with a 14lb lump hammer…

It’s entirely possible that not many people realise that Glastonbury’s actually sponsored by Orange, since, to be honest, I didn’t know that.

But sponsor it they do, which means there’s going to be some ties with mobile phones. In past years they’ve had the Charging Truck, a truck that could charge 50 mobile phones at a time, and last year, the portable Wind Charger that you stuck on top of your tent (another reason I won’t go to Glastonbury… can’t stand tents…)

Well, this year, according to Pocket-Lint, they’re going to be trialling kinetic energy charging for your mobile phone. Or, as we predicted here (complete with picture of jiggly Bluetooth headset), shaking your phone about to charge it. The theory’s simple: as you dance about, you produce energy, which is then used to charge your mobile phone up. It’s a (nearly) revolutionary idea.

I can see a few potential problems, not least of which is the fact that at every gig I’ve been to, the door security confiscate anything that even looks like it could be recording equipment (yes, even mobile phones without cameras). So, they’ll probably want to take your phone off you, so you never get to charge it (or, as happened to my mate, you say no, and they beat you to a pulp).

Incidentally, this happens because the average door security operative (especially at the last Dream Theater gig I went to) is one step away from amoebas, in terms of intelligence. And it’s not a step in the right direction, either…

All of that is, of course, on top of the fact that the average Glastonbury-goer is 1) covered in mud, 2) stoned off their face, or 3) a hippy. Their mobile phones are powered by pixies, anyway. Well, at least until they get home and realise they’ve bought a rock with a hole in it (which makes it magic, obviously), a native money pouch and a bit of rice with their name on.*

Still, if they can figure out which of the four LG Secret KF750’s they can see to plug the charger into, it should work wonders!

*Thanks to Terry Pratchett and Bill Bailey for inspiring this list.

Planning on going to Glastonbury this year? Taking your mobile phone to try out the mega-happy-bangin’-dance-o-charger? Leave us a comment and have your say!

A recent survey carried out by the price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com questioned 2,000 UK adults about what they hate most about mobile phone usage. The top five pet hates are (in no particular order): people talking loudly on the phone; a person texting while talking to them; loud music being played on phones; using a phone in a restaurant; and swearing on the phone in public.

The conclusion to these annoying habits of others? Slapping an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on them, that’s what! ASBOs are usually reserved for rowdy vandals who just generally want to cause mischief and upset, but one in ten Brits think the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders should be given to ‘inconsiderate’ mobile phone users.

An ASBO is, and I quote : “a binding agreement between a person or persons who have committed acts of anti-social behaviour and the police. The principle behind these orders is that they act as a legal and binding contract signed by all parties concerned in the hope that they will reduce the chances of the individual in receipt of the ASBO from causing any further acts of anti-social behaviour”. According to LawandParents.co.uk, two forms of activity which can see you being given an ASBO include: “using intimidating verbal language” and “causing excessive noise”. (So technically, three of the things mentioned in the list of bug-bears, above!!)

More than half of respondents said they believe that the thoughtless use of mobiles in public should be punished - with the most popular option being a 12-month ban on using their phone in public. But one in 10 respondents went further; suggesting offending mobile users should be given ASBOs.

So next time you’re out in public - let’s say on a train somewhere - and being a little too loud on your mobile, stop and think about others in the carriage around you - most of us don’t want to listen to how the plumber showed up 20minutes late, or how your colleague is a pain in the butt, or even what you are having for tea that night! We don’t want to listen to your fowl language and we certainly don’t want to listen to your music, most of us have iPods for that! So if you think you’re being clever and cocky doing any of the above, think again, cos we’ll be the ones having the last laugh when you are issued with an ASBO and your cheeks turn a slight shade of red. Ooooh, imagine the silence that will descend, closely followed by the titter of sniggers from the people around…

Leave us your thoughts about the use of ASBO’s for these inconsiderate phone users.

People are going Mobile Broadband craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy. The world of advertising is obsessed with the must have dongle gadget that is taking over everyone’s laptops!

For example:

Just the other day I was in Surrey on business and everywhere we looked there was a mobile broadband advertisement…. whether it was a 20 foot advertisement at the train station, a P4U ad going up/down the underground escalators or simply information on the paddles of the tube. There’s no escaping the new obsession when you’re darn saaarf.

Also, I went to le cinema a couple of times last weekend (to see a different film I will add!) and although it was like déjà-vu watching the same ads again, the one that stood out was the Vodafone ad, with the little dude flying through space trying to race the dongle as it sped past at 7.2Mbps (14 times faster than standard 3G I will say!) Then I’ve seen that ad a million times since!

Aaaand finally, I listen to good old Galaxy Radio every morning on my way to work, and Hirsty, Danny & JoJo have been giving away a 3 dongle every day this week! What made me chuckle the most though was the examples they gave of where you can use this “amazing… thing” (that’s a quote btw) and some of them I can’t really publish!

Now if you haven’t heard of Mobile Broadband (or MBB as it’s called in the industry) WHERE’VE YOU BEEN?!?! But for those of you who may not know…. Mobile Broadband for laptops is a sophisticated new technology that allows you to access the internet on your laptop almost anywhere, even when you’re abroad.

So go on, take a look at the Mobile Broadband options we offer, with a USB Modem, and you will have to agree that it does what it says on the tin - they give you fully-mobile full-internet, wherever you are, at speeds so fast that it’s quicker than Speedy Gonzales himself!!

Oooooh dear, I think the advertising has gone to my head!!!! Time for the weekend I think….

Keep an eye out over the weekend for MBB adverts and let us know where you’ve seen them. Whether it’s in a magazine or a poster on the side of a bus, let us know!

A moderately disturbing story, now, from Geek Sugar. With the mobile world becoming more and more prevalent, it’s only natural that more things will ape it. Like kids’ toys. You know the ones I mean, you’ll see them in pound shops, they make noises when you press the buttons, and they’re usually, unfathomably, bright pink.

I can’t help thinking, though, that whoever chooses to have this latest mobile phone-inspired thing, a wedding cake topper, on their wedding cake, is perhaps not sending out the correct signals to their intended.

Actually, I’m thinking “divorced before the honeymoon’s over“.

Doesn’t bode well, does it… I mean, if you’re getting wed, and your bride to be comes up the aisle with her Blackberry 8110 in hand, emailing someone to tell them the wedding’s going swimmingly, thank you very much. And that’s not all, because I really can’t get the question out of my head: “what about the wedding night? Will they be texting then?”

Think about it, that’s wrong on sooooooooooo many levels. The person they could realistically be expected to be having phone rumpy-pumpy with is logically in the same room (and if you’re not in bed with your new hubby/wife on your wedding night, where the hell are you, and how is it possibly more fun than what you should, by tradition, be doing?), so who are you texting? And how are mobile phones more fun than, well, you know, new-marital-naughtiness?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it’s not the best, is it?

Tell you what, though… it could be funny during the ceremony…

“If anyone here knows of any lawful impediment as to why these two people should not be married, let them speak now, or forever hold their peace…”

Biddly-dip-beep-beep-57-incoming-messages-biddly-dip-beep-beep…

Are you getting married soon, and plan on having this cake topper? Would your partner kill you if you even suggested it? How long do YOU think the couple on the cake would last? Leave us a comment and have your say!

I was doing some work on the BT part of our site this week, and part of it caused me to have a massive, MASSIVE flashback to when I was a wee nipper. Hands up everyone who can remember ‘Buzby’…

Back in the late 70’s, British Telecom (who would become simply BT) split away from the Post Office, and to show this split, they got a whole new advertising campaign, involving Buzby: a curious creation, like weird mating between Big Bird (off Sesame Street) and Roobarb & Custard, the latter being because he was in fact voiced by the great Bernard Cribbins, he of The Wombles fame, amongst other things (and who is soon to be appearing the next series of Doctor Who)!

It’s kinda weird, for those of us who can remember Buzby, contemplating just how far BT have come. Sure, back in 1980, everyone had a BT phone (because there, basically, was no-one else to get a phone from, unless you lived in Kingston-Upon-Hull) but that was as far as our massively advanced communications infrastructure went at the time. And they were all Bakelite ones, with the big-turny-dial. (For the youngsters, why do you think we still call inputting the number in your phone ‘dialling’, when a dial is something round, and phone keypads, well, aren’t? That’s why!)

But now, fast-forward 28 years, and BT are a massive global company, with fingers in every aspect of the communications pie. So, we don’t get BT phones, we get BT Mobile phones, we get BT broadband, and we get BT Vision, their TV service.

Which ain’t bad really, given that in my lifetime, I’ve seen them go to that, from having a talking canary as a mascot……

Leave us a comment and have your say!

Ok. I have to tell you about this story in The Guardian, because it made me guffaw. Not just laugh, but properly guffaw like a redneck… It seems we now have a new mobile phone phenomenon in Britain. Not content with happy slapping, stealing phones, and running over a granny whilst answering a call, we Brits are now falling prey to “Walking & Texting” injuries.

Yes, you read that right… walking and texting injuries. Ok, I’ve heard some funny injuries in my time, but this should be interesting… *pricks up ears*

It seems that in an effort to curb “walk’n'text” (oh come on, that name was to good not to use!) injuries, Brick Lane in London has already had some work done to it. And this is the bit I guffawed at…

Padded lampposts…

Excuse me a second…

BWAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok, I’ve got that out of my system. Apparently, people are walking along, texting away (yep, just like in the T Mobile advert), and since they’re not paying attention, they’re walking into lampposts, into other people, and under buses.

Can we say ‘Darwin Awards’…?

Anyway, there are a number of initiatives to prevent these accidents from happening, such as the aforementioned padding of lampposts (which, to my mind, would still hurt), and creation of a ‘mobile motorway’, painted lines on the pavement, where texters can wander along happily, safe in the knowledge there are no obstacles to break their face on (except, presumably other texters, which is a bit of an oversight, if you ask me). All of these methods are, in my opinion, a bit superfluous, really, as I believe I have the best solution to end this spate of morons smashing their faces open unfortunate incidents.

STOP!

I mean it’s simple enough, surely? If you’re walking down a street, where there could be lampposts, other people, walls and/or buses, look where you’re going! And as for the councils thinking they need to pad lampposts, what kind of a litigious, lawsuit-happy world do we live in? I say to the justice system, and lawmakers in this country, if someone walks into a lamppost, don’t let them sue!

Is it wrong that in the current political and world climate, I find it immensely funny that the biggest danger in the world is a lamppost…?

[EDIT: Ooh, it’s not just us who picked up this story! ITN featured on their site as well… annnnnnnd the video is available:

Ok, this has to be a wind-up, surely?? And another thing, who was that bloke saying Britain’s pavements are hard to walk down? Is he on glue???!!]

Do you think Technical Markus is right or wrong? Are you sensible about texting? Or do you need your whole world padding? Leave us a comment and have your say!

It’s become a new tradition, now, that when you go to the pictures and after the Pearl & Dean bit, just before the film comes on, you get the Orange advert. You know the ones… the “Don’t let a mobile phone ruin your movie. Please switch it off” ones, with the Orange Film Board (including genius-clever comedy writer Steve Furst, and insanely funny leading man Brennan Brown as Mr Dresden)

Basically, they rock, as anyone who’s been to the pictures knows. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone put them all in one place for your viewing pleasure?

Without further ado, MobileShop.com presents:

Every Orange Cinema Advert I’ve Ever Seen, EVER!

Snoop Dogg

Macaulay Culkin

Val Kilmer

Mena Suvari as Joan of Arc

Michael Madsen

Steven Seagal

Sean Astin

Patrick Swayze

Carrie Fisher

Roy Scheider

Spike Lee

Verne Troyer (Mini-Me)

Darth Vader

Clockwork Orange Parody (apologies for the subtitles)

There may be a couple missing, as I’m sure I remember a Ewan MacGregor one at some point, but this is as complete a list as I can find on Youtube. So, bask in the glory of those Orange ads, and if you find any I’ve missed, leave us a comment with a link to the video!

Oh, and if any new ones come out, let us know, so we can add them!

Warning: I may get a bit over excited here, because this is quite simply the greatest, most awesome thing I have ever seen. As many of you know (i.e./ anyone who has ever read our blog…), I am openly obsessed about mobile phones. What not so many of you might know is that I’m also a drummer, and have been since I was a nipper.

So, imagine my joy when I came across this on Youtube. Yep, it’s a video of drummer Andrea Vadrucci jamming, not just to any old song, but to a compilation of the famous, beepy, monophonic, 3310-stylee ringtones. Check it out:

It’s cheesy. It’s pointless. It’s stupid. And I love it! This definitely gets at least an 8 on the awesomeness scale!

Love it? Hate it? Made you all misty-eyed and given you a retro Nokia vibe, or made you want to saw your own ears off? Leave us a comment and have your say!

I wasn’t here on Friday, but if I had been, this story from the London Evening Standard, about a photo snapped by Matthew Summers of Teesside, on his Sony Ericsson K510i camera phone (yes, I identified his phone, from his pic). But not just any photo, no. This one clearly shows an incursion from the spectral realm.

That’s right, a ghost…

The photo shows a gang of lasses, who look about 12, one of whom is holding what appears to be a wine bottle, but that’s by the by. Peeking out from between the knees of two of the girls is the unmistakeable face of a bit of grit in the lens… sorry, a ghost.

So, what do we think, is it a ghostly visitor from beyond the grave? Is it evidence of life after death? Is it a trick of the light? Or is it some teenagers having a laugh at our expense, using a camera phone and PhotoShop?

I mean, come on. I could knock up a ghost image as convincing as that. I know it’s not like me to play the sceptical naysayer, but really...

Now, I’m not against the idea of the paranormal (and I’ve actually seen a UFO, so nyer), but I don’t think we’re seeing it here. I know mobile phones have good cameras nowadays, but I doubt they can open a window into the other world.

Especially not round that group of kids. If a ghost did appear to them, we face the horror that will be Caspar, The Chavvy Ghost…

Real or fake? Ghost or grit? Leave us a comment and have your say!