India | Fone Arena

Use your Nokia phone as a flashlight with PhoneTorch for SymbianOS 9.4 5th Edition

Ever wondered to what level convergance can actually reach. First our phones doubled as a MP3 player, then they bundled as a mass storage device., then as a Camera . Few of our phones could also double as a Flash torch light. But that feature was long reducing in usage as they did not offer that functionality and the feature could tend to be over used which actually caused the camera flash light to diminish in quality and life time. Ofcourse like all technologies the right amount of usage always matters.

Well with that caution here is re introducing the flash light functionality into your S60 5th Edition Nokia Phones.[5800, n97]

Anyway, Harald Meyer has come to the rescue withPhoneTorch for S60 5th Edition, in full Symbian Signed form. Continue reading “Use your Nokia phone as a flashlight with PhoneTorch for SymbianOS 9.4 5th Edition”

Security Issues Hovers Over 3G Services

Its really sad to know that, after the launch of 3G services with lots of hardships, they are now being convicted to create some security issues for the nation. As of now, there are no ways to monitor 3G calls on real time basis and the Intelligence Bureau is concerned about how secure they are (3G services) for the nation.

Reportedly, its been said that, the Intelligence Bueareu of the country wants to halt 3G services in the country until such real time monitoring mechanism is implemented, whereas telecom companies are of the view that, such monitoring mechanism should be implemented by the security agencies of the country as they are concerned about such security issues.

Well, as of now, there are no such official notice about pausing the services but its for sure that 3G will be a hot point of debate in the days to come.. Hope everything goes well! 🙂

Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) Reduced; Will Mobile Call Charges Come Down Further?

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) today announced the revised interconnection usage charges (IUC) for domestic calls and slightly increased them for incoming international calls. To be more specific, the domestic IUC has been reduced to about 33% approximately and IUC for international calls has been increased to 40 paise instead of 30 paise presently.

Also, according to reports, it has been made clear that the reduction in domestic IUC would be affective for all types of calls such as Fixed to fixed, mobile to fixed, and fixed to mobile. And the above changes would be made effective 1st of April onwards.

For those who don’t know what exactly is Interconnection usage charges, it is the charge levied by the telecom company to whom a call is being terminated to. For example a call is being made by a Vodafone customer to Airtel customer, then Vodafone will have to pay some amount of IUC (as fixed by TRAI) to Airtel .

In the previous years, as and when there were changes in the IUC, the call tariff by the mobile phone operators also affected accordingly. According to TRAI, even this time, it expects this initiative to reduce domestic call charges in India as domestic IUC has been reduced to about 33 percent. Hope this step by Indian Telecom watch dog (TRAI) will bring down domestic call tariffs (specially in mobile phones).

Via

BlackBerrys on IDEA – What an Idea!

Idea Cellular and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced that the BlackBerry will soon be available to Idea customers. Idea will offer a broad range of BlackBerry smartphones and services for enterprise and individual customers on its network, nationally.

The BlackBerry solution provides customers with easy wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web and multimedia applications, as well as access to thousands of other mobile business and lifestyle applications.

BlackBerry smartphones will now be available from Idea stores, leading modern trade, and multi-brand outlets across 15 circles of Idea Cellular’s network, throughout the country. Idea Cellular will offer BlackBerry Enterprise Server support to corporate customers and other organizations that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise and provides advanced security and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

Continue reading “BlackBerrys on IDEA – What an Idea!”

Vodafone Comes With Competitive Price for Blackberry’s Unlimited Email Service; Just Rs. 299!

If you remember, in a recent post, our co-author – Ritu published about a unlimited email plan for Airtel Blackberry users worth RS. 499 per month. This plan once activated, lets a blackberry users access unlimited email and Instant messengers (like Gtalk & Yahoo) for one complete month. But surprisingly, immediately after Airtel’s announcement of this plan, Vodafone too launched exactly a similar plan but for a better and competitive rate.

This plan by Vodafone costing Rs. 299 per month would give a Vodafone customers exactly the same benefits as in the case of Airtel but the only difference is its price. Airtel charges Rs. 499 and Vodafone declared the same services for just 299 bucks a month. Well, if you are planning to activate this plan, let me tell you, unlimited usages will be only for accessing Email and not browsing the Internet.

I say Vodafone is finally curious about attracting more and more corporate users towards its brand. Hope there would be more such competitive offers in the days to come. 🙂

Via

Celebrate Women’s Day with BSNL SMS Booster Plans!

BSNL has recently announced the launch of a special SMS booster plan for its customers using which one can send unlimited SMS to National and Local mobiles for just 10 paisa.

Initially a customer need to recharge their BSNL mobile with Rs. 50 worth SMS booster pack and then, as said earlier, they can send as much SMS to any number (mobile) or any network across the county for just 10 paisa for one full month.

So BSNL customers what are you waiting for? Just recharge your mobile with this SMS Booster plan and celebrate women’s day with joy!! 🙂

Happy Women’s Day!!

Link: Official Release

Nokia 5130 Playing Music Hands On Video

Do you want to listen to the latest numbers on Nokia’s latest affordable phone the 5130 XpressMusic ?

Catch the phone playing music in this hands on video

Well we have one more video of the phone .. check out the flashing lights on the music keys ?

And you can watch the Videos in High Quality ! We love Youtube

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Exclusive Photo Gallery

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is the latest affordable music phone from nokia available at great price of Rs.6200

We managed to get some photos of the phone and even video footage .. check out the photos below

Continue reading “Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Exclusive Photo Gallery”

Samsung Pixon – 8 Megapixel camera phone unleashed in India

Although it is becoming a habit with us at Fonearena, we would like to assure all our readers we are not gloating. Yet!

We have been covering the mobile scene with such alacrity and timeliness that sometimes, when a handset is launched in India we realise we’ve already covered its global launch. Similarly, when the Samsung Pixon was launched in September 2008, Fonearena covered the launch. Read the coverage here.

Specs & features at a glance:

• 3.2-inch WQVGA (240 x 400 pixels) touchscreen featuring Samsung’s TouchWiz UI with auto screen rotation

• Samsung widgets on the desktop

• 3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE

• Internal GPS

• DivX, Xvid, mp4 file support

• Music Player with SRS 3D surround sound

• MicroSD card support

• 8MP AF camera with LED flash x16 digital zoom, auto-focus, fast-shutter, face detection

• Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0 (micro)

• FM Radio

• Geotagging

Continue reading “Samsung Pixon – 8 Megapixel camera phone unleashed in India”

Valentines Day Contest Winners

If you remember well , we conducted a valentines day contest

We are announcing the winners of the contest today .

Sorry for the delay , mainly caused by so many entries and new handset launches @MWC 2009

We eliminated the entries and picked the lucky winners using a random number generator.

Some of ur comments were over 160 Characters and we could not consider them

Here are the winners !

Continue reading “Valentines Day Contest Winners”

Unlimited Email and Instant Messaging plan for Rs.499 on Airtel BlackBerry

Airtel and Research In Motion (RIM) introduced a new service plan specifically for Airtel customers in India.

The BlackBerry® Personal Mail service plan is an innovative offering that provides Airtel customers with unlimited email and instant messaging (IM) on BlackBerry® smartphone for just Rs. 499 per month. It is the first service plan priced at less than Rs. 500 to offer unlimited email and IM to BlackBerry smartphone customers in the Indian market.

Unlimited BB Rentals as high as Rs.1500 . And this plan comes as a surprise.

Looks like users are using accessing email from their devices much more nowadays.

And interestingly RIM has started to sell Unlocked BBs in India. We will update you on tat as well

Continue reading “Unlimited Email and Instant Messaging plan for Rs.499 on Airtel BlackBerry”

LG KF300 launched in India

Fonearena had covered the launch of the LG KF300 almost one year ago as it had hit global markets. Read the full coverage here.

The same handset has now been launched in the Indian market in the price band of Rs 8,500. The reason for the after-thought launch by LG is unknown.

While the specs of the handset, re-capsulated below remain the same, the only addition seems to be inclusion of the Mobile Tracker. Continue reading “LG KF300 launched in India”

BSNL 3G SIM Cards to be issued in April 2009

I just went to the local BSNL Mobile Counter and enquired about the availability of 3G SIM Cards..

I was a bit sad to hear when the person at the counter told me that , they are expecting the cards by April 20th 2009.

That’s nearly 2 months away from now

We have see the service beeing demoed by the ministers .. when will the common man get it ?

Please bring out the service soon guys ..

Japan is already using 4G and thinking of improving it ..

Come August, say Hello to Mobile Number Portability

As all of you have already read, Chennai said hello to some serious technology development, though not commercially available as of yet. Yes Chennai witnessed the launch of 3 G services yesterday . But we covered it yesterday.There is another technology the government has been promising to launch for a long time.

Yes you got it right, it’s about MNP or mobile number portability. Continue reading “Come August, say Hello to Mobile Number Portability”

Two new economy LG Radio handsets GB106 GB110

Well, considering the rising popularity of the radio, it is only but expected that radio enabled handsets are gaining popularity in the country.

Keeping the target audience of students and the youth in mind, LG recently launched two new handsets GB106 and GB110 with Radio capability and a new feature: The “Intenna” FM radio do away with the need to attach a headset to turn on the music. Both handsets are capable of accessing all radio stations without connecting the wired headset to be used as an antenna since they come with an integrated FM antenna.

Anil Arora, Business Group Marketing Head, Mobile Communication, LG Electronics Pvt Ltd. said, “We are happy to launch LG GB110 and LG GB106 which offer a completely new experience to its users. These powerful but affordable mobile sets offer mobile music on the move. At LG, we lay emphasis on understanding the customer needs and work towards meeting their expectations through our new offerings. This launch is in line with our philosophy of providing the best to our customers. I am positive that with the key feature of Intenna FM, these handsets will catch on everyone’s attention and be well accepted.”

Specs and features:

• 1.5-inch colour display

• Extensive phonebook memory

• Stylish leatherite carry pouch

• Black and Gray colours

While the LG GB106 also features an anti theft mobile tracker, the LG GB110 comes up with additional features like a VGA camera, a micro SD card slot (expandable up to 2 GB and 1GB card included) and MP3 full song play back.

Price:

LG GB110 is priced at Rs. 3,100 and the GB106 is priced at Rs. 2,100.