Mobile wallet service lunched by Loop Mobile

Loop Mobile has launched an SMS based mobile money service, in partnership with Zipcash card services, in Mumbai.

Loop Mobile subscribers can now use their mobile phone as a virtual wallet for mobile and utility services as electricity bill payments, prepaid recharges, digital TV recharge, online shopping, buying movie tickets and more.

In addition, subscribers can also book travel tickets, avail gift vouchers or local deals and offers, all directly via the convenience of their mobile phone. In the future, this shall also be extended for using at restaurants.

The service is available by simple SMS commands and does not require the subscriber to replace his SIM card. Loop Mobile subscribers can visit the closest Loop Mobile Gallery to register for the mobile money service and load cash into their mobile wallets. Subscribers need to send an SMS "Money" to 51888 (toll free). Registering and managing a mobile money account is at no extra cost.

The mobile wallet service will be offered in association with ICICI Prudential, Birla Sun Life, Reliance Energy and e-commerce portals such as eBay India, HomeShop18, BookMyShow and RedBus.

New iPhone 5 just weeks away

Wireless carrier Sprint will launch Apple‘s latest smartphone, the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4 simultaneously in mid-October, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 The Journal cited sources familiar with the matter that indicated the phone would arrive in time for Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter. The Wall Street Journal’s “people familiar with the matter” line is typically code for an inside source that is feeding the Journal information about a new product or company news.

Sprint is the last major carrier that does not carry the iPhone. Apple sold more than 20 million iPhones in the third quarter this year and it sold 8.4 million iPhones in the third quarter last year. The company finally launched the phone on Verizon in February, 2011.

The new reports are contrary to rumors that the phone would arrive in September, at the end of the company’s fiscal third quarter. The iPhone 4 launched on Verizon halfway through one of Apple’s fiscal operating quarters on June 24, giving the company an incomplete picture of how well the iPhone 4 was doing compared to previous iterations of the smartphone.

The iPhone 4 currently retails at $199 for a 16-gigabyte model and $299 for a 32-gigabyte model, and both require a contract with wireless providers AT&T and Verizon. That puts the phones out of the price range of many devices that run Google’s operating system, Android, which can cost as little as $50.

There are also reports of Apple building a cheaper iPhone 4 alongside the iPhone 5 that would likely replace the current low-end 8GB iPhone 3GS, which retails for $50 with a two-year contract. The 3GS is considered dated and is nearly two years old, while new Android devices come out daily that have better technical specifications than the iPhone 3GS and sport a similar price tag.

Tata Docomo launches video news alerts

Tata Docomo, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices, has launched a unique VAS service called Video News Alert, a first-of-its-kind service that will give breaking news alerts in the form of video clips. The video news alerts can be streamed, viewed and downloaded by both 2G and 3G subscribers on their mobile phones.

For offering this service, Tata Docomo has inked an exclusive partnership with Network 18, India's largest network of business news channels.

Tata Docomo's 'Video News Alert' service allows subscribers to stream and download video clips, as also search and view news stories. Using the service, subscribers can express their liking for a story, share their opinion on a story, participate in polls and do much more to voice their feelings and concerns.

Customers can avail this service by simply sending an SMS 'VIDEO NEWS' to 53333, following which a subscription confirmation SMS along with a link to access video news will be sent. Subscribers will then receive three video alerts every day. The charges for data access are 10 paise for 10 KB and there are no subscription charges to use this service. To de-activate the Video News Service, customers can dial 155223 or SMS 'STOP videonews' to 155223.

Limca launches win Samsung Galaxy Tab contest

Coca-Cola India has announced the launch of its innovative "Limca Do Pal Tazagi – Har Ghante Touch Pad" consumer initiative across the country.  The national initiative aims to offer consumers a chance to refresh themselves via the latest in technology, i.e., touchpad phones – which bring together mobile and internet platforms

A computer generated lucky draw would provide consumers with an opportunity to win up to 10 Samsung Galaxy Tabs (samsung mobile phones) every day from 17th August – 30th September, 2011. The initiative is applicable to 200ml, 300ml  and 330 ml returnable glass bottles (RGB) and also on 500 ml, 600 ml 1.25, 1.5, 2 & 2.25 liters PET bottles of Limca.

To participate in the initiative, consumers just need to SMS ‘LIMCA’ followed by a nine digit unique code to 07738383838 from their GSM / CDMA mobile phone. Additionally consumers also have the option to Call 0-77 38 38 38 38 and register their code through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).

The initiative has been conceptualized by Ogilvy & Mather, is being launched across 16 states across the country to leverage the popularity of digital media such as Tablets, mobile phones (Both GSM & CDMA & IVRS), internet amongst today's consumers across the country.

Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY mobile

The idea of a dedicated gaming phone is not really revolutionary. Nokia's experiment with this concept gave us the N-Gage. However, it failed to make any impact in the market, and even the redesigned QD didn't live up to expectations. Now, Sony Ericsson (SE) is trying to regain its mobile market share with the help of its highly popular PlayStation brand. Unlike Nokia, SE has better chances of succeeding in its plan, thanks to the latest CPUs and Sony's expertise in gaming.  

Design And Build Quality
The retail box contains the phone, a charger with detachable USB cable, 8 GB memory card, and earphones. The device we received for review was white, with the other available colour being black. The phone measures 119 mm (l) x 62 mm (w) x 16 mm (d) and weighs in at 175 grammes.

 Surprisingly, the four buttons below the 4" screen lack any sort of backlighting. Hence, in the dark, you end up having to guess the button positions, and invariably end up missing them.


Most of the body is made up of glossy plastic to keep the weight in check, but the company should have used matte plastic, at least for the back panel, to provide a better grip. The phone creaks when pressed near its joints, which is sad for a high-end device.

The main highlight of the sony ericsson mobiles are its slide-out gamepad. The sliding mechanism is solid, and looks like it can take a lot of wear and tear. The gamepad gives you the feel of a PSP's controller. It sports four directional buttons, as well as the iconic PlayStation face buttons.

 The shoulder buttons are also present, and are the reason behind the oddly placed volume rocker. For some stupid reason though, the design team decided to paint the device's sides in silver. This looks bad and reminds me of the cheap Chinese FM radios that try to fake a metallic build by painting plastic silver. In short, the cheap plastic takes away the premium feel of this device, but thankfully its internals are solid enough to withstand the wrath of gamers.

Display
The 4" LED-lit LCD has pixel dimensions of 480x854. The manufacturer seems to lack confidence in the durability of its hardened glass screen, as the display ships with a scratch guard. The panel manages to show lively colours, and its contrast is also good. However, the display is too dim, and you will have to set the brightness to maximum. What's worse is the tendency of the screen to start losing colour accuracy even at viewing angles close to 45 degrees.

  

RIM unveils BlackBerry Curve smartphones

Close on the heels of refreshing its Bold lineup, Research In Motion has announced three new BlackBerry Curve smartphones -- Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 -- featuring the newly launched BlackBerry 7 OS.

BlackBerry 7 OS includes a number of pre-loaded applications and integrated functionality for increased productivity. 

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"The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones offer a significant performance upgrade with an unmatched mobile social experience for the millions of feature phone users in the market as well as our existing Curve customers," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

As for the specs, all the blackberry phones will come with 2.44-inch 480 x 360 display, 512MB RAM expandable up to 32GB via microSD card, 800MHz processor, Near Field Communications (NFC), GPS and Wi-Fi support.

The phones will feature 5 megapixel camera with flash, image stabilization, face detection, digital zoom, scene modes, geo-tagging and VGA video recording.

According to reports, BlackBerry Curve 9370 will come with CDMA/EVDO and Quad-Band EDGE support. The GSM variant, Curve 9360, will offer Tri-Band UMTS and Quad-Band EDGE. Curve 9350 is CDMA.

As for the availability, BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 are expected to be available in Canada this month and around the world beginning September. No details on the pricing are available.

Canadian mobile video streaming Co Jigsee launches in India

Mobile video streaming technology provider Jigsee has launched in India and aims to bring entertaining, informative, and educational video content to people who use feature phones. The introduction of Jigsee Beta enables mobile subscribers to access premium video content on mobile phone for free. Developed by mobile video streaming start-up, Jigsee Inc., the patent pending technology helps offer seamless video streaming on mobile phones on wireless data networks.

The Canadian company was established in 2008 by Ray Newal, an ex-employee of DoubleClick and Areef Reza, who has worked with Research in Motion (RIM). It is funded by Sequoia Capital and the Indian Angel Network and has offices in Ottawa, Canada, and Mumbai, India.

The startup aims to dissolve the technical, cultural, and economic barriers that prevent mobile subscribers globally from accessing and discovering the video content they want. Ray Newal, Founder and CEO, Jigsee said, “Jigsee is more than a technology, software or mobile application. Jigsee is our way of dissolving borders that prevent entertainment, education, and information content from being equally accessible to everyone.”

The technology enables all kinds of phones to stream video content over all kinds of connections as well.

Newal explains to exchange4media, “The challenge for video streaming is while dealing with lower devices, which are not smartphones. The devices have very limited processing power, limited memory and are very basic in these terms. So at Jigsee we have developed the technology that makes video streaming viable on such basic phones and on any network be it- GRPS or 2G, 3G and 4G.”

Jigsee claims to have a growing list of top content publishers including UTV, 1Take Media, Spice Digital, Khan Academy and others in India, who use the Jigsee platform to mobilize their content to masses.

At the moment, over 200 Java enabled mobile handset models will support the Jigsee application. It will introduce the technology over a period of time most phones, including those with the Android operating system.

Jigsee claims to have over 200,000 minutes of content from top tier content owners including 1take media, Gypsy Videos. Mukta Arts, Point Zero, Speed Records, Spice Digital, Soor Mandir, Manorama, Mayura, UTV, UTV Bindass, Wave Music (Vee Gee) and Yuki.

Mobile phones soon to replace plastic money

It was recently articulated by VRL Financial News that mobile phones are ready to replace credit and debit cards as a means of transaction. This was the overall view expressed at the round table meeting hosted by Cards International.

It was said that although mobile phone is capable of this, the transition may not occur very soon, as the benefits in it are not publicized clearly as yet. According to certain industry figures, mobile payments may take off in the ongoing year. However, various professional at the meeting pointed out that it may take at least a couple of years or even more before the market for this conversion could really shape up.

Sony Ericsson Txt Pro messaging mobile phone available in India

The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro, which was unveiled in June, is now available in India through online stores for Rs 7,500. The phone is ideal for those who are busy chatting and messaging all the time, thanks to its slider Qwerty keypad. This sony ericsson mobiles comes with 3 inch capacitive touchscreen (400 x 240 pixels), WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP and 3.5mm audio jack. It weighs just 100 grams and has an internal memory of 100 MB. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera using which one can also record videos. The 1000 mAh battery gives 400 hours standby time and about 5 hours talk time. However, the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is not 3G enabled.

 The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro has a social soul — it was announced by Sony Ericsson first on the Facebook page where it has 5 million fans. The only trouble is, it is a touchscreen phone, but is still a feature phone and users do have the tendency to compare such phones with low cost Android handsets. 

Motorola EX212, EX109 and EX119 Dual-SIM Mobile Phones Coming to India

Motorola is all prepared to bring three new mobile phones in the Indian market. These upcoming mobile phones include the Gleam EX212, EX109 and the EX119 all of which would be GSM-capable Dual-SIM handsets. The Gleam EX212 would be a Moto RAZR-like clamshell mobile phone which includes a 2 megapixel camera, FM radio with recording, 2.4-inch TFT display and microSD card support of up to 16GB. It will be priced at 4,599 INR.

Moving on to the Motorola EX109 which also sports a 2 megapixel camera, FM radio, 2-inch display, Bluetooth 2.1 with stereo Bluetooth capability, 750 mAh battery, microSD card support up to 32GB and QWERTY keypad. The pricing for the device is not yet known.

The Motorola EX119 also includes a QWERTY keypad and is up for order with online retailer, Flipkart. The device sports a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen display with a 3 megapixel camera and WiFi connectivity. These motorola mobile phones supports microSD cards up to 32GB and is priced at 5,599 INR.