Do you keep finding yourself doing nothing and wasting precious time at random intervals during work? If you live in the UK, then you may want to take a shot and check out Daily Downtime for the mobile. Promising to make your idle time productive with juicy stuff like puzzles, trivia, and the like, Daily Downtime won't make you feel useless during those hours. Read more and check out screenshots in the full article!

Do you find yourself getting swamped with expensive phone bills resulting from all those international calls? VoIP service provider Jajah may have just the thing that you need, which can be used for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. Details in the full article!

If you can't get enough of playing games on your mobile like Nokia's patented N-Gage mobile phone, then Sony Ericsson is about to offer you something new to quench that gaming itch of yours. In a recent announcement from the mobile service provider, Sony Ericsson has announced that it will be upgrading its existing PlayNow service to cater a wide selection of mobile entertainment downloads to its subscribers worldwide.

Check out the entire article right after the jump!

 

Previously, we relayed to you a rumor about the existence of a new phone that would enable Skype users to send phone calls to other Skype users for free. Thanks to a tip from Luciano, however, we've just found out that it isn't a rumor. In fact, it seems to be already available for folks everywhere to pre-order.

The device is called the 3 Skypephone, and as its name implies, the phone's main draw is its ability to let Skype users call other Skype users, whether on the computer or on other Skype-capable phones, for free. According to the website, the service is available for both pay-as-you-go users and subscribers, though pay-as-you-go users will have to pay a £49.99 fee to keep the service active.

In addition to the Skypephone's special service, the phone will carry the same accoutrements, such as an mp3 player and camera. For more information, you can check Three's Skypephone page, as linked below

Virgin Mobile now has a winning card in their hands: introducing Virgin Mobile's Wild Card by Kyocera. It's a mobile phone than can stream music through its Headliners streaming audio application. How's that for getting your music on the go?

Kyocera's Wild Card is looking nifty, with its flip open QWERTY keyboard, color LCD screen, and a 1.3 megapixel camera that will become handy should you wish to save some memories you have with your friends.

The going rate isn't bad either. The audio streaming service through Virgin Wireless is only US$ 2.50 per month, and songs on demand are available for a very affordable 25 cent rate. Reports have mentioned that the song-on-demand fee will permit unlimited listening to the song, but Virgin did not clarify exactly how.

It looks like Virgin is definitely on the roll with their audio streaming services, including Virgin Radio for the Wii and PS3, and we're definitely not complaining.

Still can't get enough of your MySpace experience even when you're on the go? Well, T-Mobile USA, MySpace and Danger. have some good news for T-Mobile Sidekick users looking to have complete control over their MySpace universe right from the palm of their hands.

The MySpace Mobile software will be available for download at the T-Mobile Sidekick website which integrates the mobile's hardware, user interface and applications and optimize them into all the features that MySpace users love on the PC.

Aside from the intuitive user interface the service provides through the T-Mobile Sidekick, it gives real-time updates that users can access as they stay signed in to their MySpace account on the go. Danger has provided an interconnection service to MySpace which makes such real-time access possible. Other features of the service also include:

• Profile editing, which allows users to edit their MySpace profile directly from the MySpace application, quickly and easily, wherever they are. Profile updates are immediately reflected on the MySpace Web site.
• Optimized photo management, which empowers users to — with the click of a button — upload photos with captions from their T-Mobile Sidekick photo galleries, directly to MySpace.
• Full-featured MySpace messaging, including push content and notifications powered by the Danger service. The service automatically pushes content, such as new friend requests or new messages, to the end user, meaning that users are notified of new MySpace activity even when they are using other T-Mobile Sidekick applications. This changes the interaction paradigm from request/ response (as it is via the browser today) to real-time, push messaging.
• The application will provide "Online Now" status for a user's friends who are online, further advancing the "always-on" model.
• Users can read, reply to or post comments to the profiles and photos of friends, as well as read and reply to comments on their own profiles.

Swedish Company TerraNet has developed the idea to introduce peer-to-peer technology which allows users to place calls without using a mobile phone base station. Originally designed for remote areas, this project has already received funding from Ericsson and was recently launched in Tanzania and Ecuador.

Anders Carlius, TerraNet's founder, said the idea dawned on him while he was on safari in Tanzania. The bad connection prevented him from calling up his friends in a nearby jeep. He asked himself why "couldn't we get phone-to-phone without needing any other equipment, and actually have real voice communication, like a telephone call, between units?"

The way the technology works is pretty simple. The phones act as both a bridge and a receiver for both data and calls. If two individuals are located within a one kilometer radius of the phone then a call can be made directly. If not, it looks for another unit within its area of coverage. From there the data jumps from phone to phone until a stable path to connect both the caller and the receiver is found. If one is established, then the call patches through.

So far, a few problems have been found concerning this new approach to telecommunications. It relies on the fact that multiple users will be adopting the technology. A lack of users within a certain area could potentially cut off individuals from making the free calls. Carlius himself has pointed out that they are also having problems with not having enough available frequencies.

It seems Vodafone is set on giving the iPhone a run for its money in Britain. While the iPhone is yet to hit British shores, Vodafone is already gearing up their own music download service that would compete Apple's own. They are now looking to other mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia to spread their service.

It was once believed that Vodafone will be providing the exclusive network service for the iPhone as AT&T did for the US, but analysts now suspect this won't be the case.

Instead of the exclusivity deal, Vodafone may in fact pull through with the music download service as they have already signed an exclusive deal with the British music firm Omnifone.

Vodafone's new service will offer certain handsets the option to download an unlimited number of songs from a selection of 1 million for a weekly fee of GB£ 1.99 (around US$ 4). The service will launch later this year and will be available for 2.5G and 3G compatible phones from Vodafone.

There's a bit of controversy surrounding a TUAW report that a British iPhone user was able to get an AT&T SIM to adopt a local Vodafone number, enabling him to use the iPhone outside the US with an American SIM.

Apparently, the user was excited about the iPhone and got it even though he could only use it with AT&T activated by iASign. Realizing the futility of having his US number in the UK, he went to the Vodafone store and had the people there add the phone to his account. Amazingly, the Vodafone-enabled AT&T SIM worked great on the iPhone. The screen flashed AT&T but the number was localized and SMS was working well.

According to TUAW, users in IRC have been discussing how this could have happened and if there was any truth in it. Most chatters say that it shouldn't have worked because of regional and technical restrictions. Apple has not commented on the topic so far.

TUAW reports that they tried to have the same procedure done in Canada but the Rogers store there would not touch the SIM. We'll keep you posted for more on this issue and other exploits as they come.

The chairman of a House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet Rep. Edward J. Markey is very upset by the fact that the iPhone has a US$ 175 termination fee. He said that the phone essentially becomes a very expensive paperweight if owners decide to discontinue their AT&T plan.

To put things into perspective, he was quoted at saying that the phone has "Hotel California service. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave—you're stuck with your iPhone and you can't take it anywhere." This entire argument started from a hearing regarding the cellphone industry's wish to pre-empt states from regulating wireless phone companies.

So far the state public utility commissions have no authority over the pricing of wireless plans but have control over the terms and conditions of wireless service agreements. Be that as it may a law professor at Columbia University Timothy Wu had another take on the entire system saying that our current cellular phone industry is a "spectrum- based oligopoly" and that we, as consumers, have already given up our property rights.

He gave a very good example on this: "Imagine buying a television that stopped working if you decided to switch to satellite or a toaster that died if you switched from Potomac Power to ConEd." Now it's time to ask yourself, is this the way we want things to be run? Or do we want more from the system.