The FCC (aka: Federal Communications Commission) has just approved the use of a national alert system for American cell phone users.  What this will do is alert Americans via text messaging on their cell phones if three types of emergencies occur.  The events that will trigger the use of this system are attacks or disasters that could put the lives of Americans at risk, natural disasters such as tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes, or Amber Alerts in the event a child goes missing in the cell phone user’s area. 

This system will be run by a government controlled agency that has yet to be determined.  Network Operators (ie. Verizon) have to opt in to this service in order for it’s customers to have access to it; and they will have 10 months to meet the technical guide lines of the emergency alert system.  Currently, AT&T, Sprint, T Mobile, and Verizon Wireless have opted in to using this service once it becomes available. 

This will be a free service and sources say it will be operational by 2010. 

Your cell phone is your life line. It connects you with your work, it keeps you in touch with your loved ones and it keeps you in a front row seat for entertainment. You don’t want your battery losing its charge right when you need it. It’s happened to all of us. The battery no longer lasts as long as it used to and you find yourself plugging in the charger each afternoon. Waiting for the battery to charge so you can then retrieve important messages and make essential calls can be infuriating. Well the life and effectiveness of the battery in your cell phone can be extended by employing a few simple techniques.

• Opt to have the key sound function disabled. This is an easy choice to make within your phones menu options. When you press the keys your phone will now be silent and it will save battery power.

• Turn off the vibrate option on your cell phone whenever you can. Using the ring tone by itself without vibrate on will conserve energy.

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The Motorola K1 KRZR follows up the MOTORAZR mobile phone. It is a sleek phone that has a ton of features and capabilities. The Motorola K1 KRZR is super slim and has a gloss front finish in metallic. It is only 16mm thin, 42 mm wide and 103 mm long and weighs less than 4 ounces.

The Motorola K1 KRZR offers a 2 megapixel camera with 8x, digital zoom and the ability to edit images. The camera has playback and video capture available. The phone also has video capabilities. One can record up to 25 minutes .

There is also an integrated MP3 player. The MP3 player has an airplane mode and has Bluetooth Stereo, so that the user can listen to songs through the headset. To ensure that one can download all the songs that they need, there is a MircrSD slot, where one can add more memory. The music player supports MP3’s, AAC+, Midi and AAC.

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Microsoft has announced that Windows Mobile 6.1 is ready forr launch.  Users can expect a lot of changes from 6.0, such as faster phone set up.  Here’s a preview of what you can expect from Windows Mobile 6.1:

- Respond to notifications, such as messages recieved and missed calls from the home screen.  You can also play music and share photos

- The Getting Started Centre will have you operational in no time, whether its a bluetooth enabled device, setting up email or a wifi connection.

- Newly adapted for small screens, so you can save time viewing webpages and zoom in on texts or pictures.

If you have a Windows Mobile enabled phone, expect the 6.1 update to be ready by the second quarter of 2008.

You are considering getting a cell phone and you may have already made your choice. The next thing you need to do is to find a cell phone service that will suit your needs. Here are some ideas as to what to look for.

1. Ask a lot of questions before you sign up. Ask about your call cap limit, and ask about the rates for calling local and long distance numbers. Remember that plans and cap limits often do not include all information and some special banking phone numbers. Make sure you understand the rules of your service so you are not caught out when the bill arrives.

2. Find out the coverage of you phone service. What areas does it cover and in what places will you be out of service range.

3. Government organizations will deal with any fair trading, billing or service complaints. You don’t have to always take the service providers word on issues that may arise.

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Again, this is not much of a story, but it gives me an excuse to post a picture of a hot tennis player!

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, Maria Sharapova signed a deal with Sony Ericsson to promote their cell phones.  Now, another tennis star has joined the Sony Ericsson team…Jelena Jankovic.   Jankovic has been hired on to promote Sony’s newest phone, the T650i Precious Gold Phone.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed at the time of the press release.

The AT&T tilt can be purchased at around $300, perhaps for less, if one has a rebate and is willing to sign a two-year contract. The Tilt has an angle-up display, utilizes Windows Mobile 6, supports Blackberry Connect and has Wi-Fi and HSDPA capabilities. AT&T has integrated their phone with the company’s video and music services so one can easily download and play videos and songs.

The Tilt has a GPS device feature and boasts of a 3 megapixel camera, as well as a video and music player. The phone/multimedia device has a 2.8 inch screen that can be controlled by touch. It also has a QWERTY keyboard. This allows the user to be able to text, check email, view documents, surf the web efficiently and with only one device. The keyboard is flat, but spacious, so that users have ample room to type.

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Late last week, Motorola came to the decision to break it’s company into two separate businesses.  This move will see the struggling cell phone sector of Motorola split from the rest of the company’s operations to create two publicly traded companies. 

This move comes after a second year in a row of poor sales and growing frustration from Carl Icahn, billionaire investor.  Motorola executives say this move will benefit both new companies, as they will be able to better focus on their differing strengths and weaknesses.

Motorola hit it big in the early 2000s with the trend setting Moto RAZR.  However, as the phone’s popularty struggled, so to did the Motorola company.  Motorola says the split will be finalized in early 2009.

This weekend, Verizon Wireless made the announcement that they will be joining with Loopt to create a social-mapping service to be available on Verizon phones. 

With this cool new feature, consumers will be able to locate their friends that they have on their private network.  Users will see a map on their mobile devices showing the location of thier private friends in real time.  Detailed maps will be able to show where your friends are, what they are doing, and how to catch up with them.

This will be a permission based service with the ability to turn the location-sharing on or off.  Users will only be able to see the location of people in their address book who have the Loopt service and have it activated.

Verizon Wireless subscribers will be able to purchase Loopt starting in April 2008 for $3.99 per month.

Last Thursday, AT&T along with their partner MediaFLO, announced that their Mobile TV platform will be available starting in May 2008.  To start, the service will be available on two of AT&T’s phones: the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.  Both of these phones will have the ability to watch TV and sports content right of the handsets. 

It was announced that the following channels will be available on Mobile TV:  CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News 2G0 and Nickelodeon.  There were also two unannounced channels that will be exclusive to AT&T Mobile TV.  The only thing that was not announced in the press briefing was the price of this service…