What Do You Know About VoIP? What Do You Know About VoIP?

Author : Dee Scrip

What is VoIP

VoIP is an acronym for voice over internet protocol, aka voice over ip phone. A VoIP, in essence, is a computer phone that allows you to make phone calls from your computer to anyone in the world, e.g., PC to PC, PC to phones – landlines or cells.

The voice signal converts to data packets and travels across the internet through a VoIP platform, and then converts back to voice at the receiving end of the communication exchange. Leading telecom experts are projecting that 75% of the world’s communications will be done on VoIP within the next several years.

What Kind of Equipment Do I Need?

You will need a computer with internet access and an inexpensive microphone if your computer does not have one built in. Although most VoIP voice over ip phone providers require high speed internet connections, there are a few that can be used on dial-up connections.

How Can I Place a Call or Receive a Call?

Basically, the same way you would a regular phone, except on your PC. When you download a VoIP voice over ip phone line on your computer, a phone usually appears on your screen. The computer phone acts like any other phone in that you can dial numbers on it from a pad, or click on a contact’s pre-programmed name, and press the call button. You will then hear the phone ringing to the party you have called and can talk to them when they accept the call.

When receiving a call, the phone will ring on your computer and you can click to accept the call and talk, or let it ring (based on the number of rings you have set up) and forward the caller to your voicemail.

What Kind of Features Does a VoIP Phone Have?

Typically a VoIP voice over ip phone not only has audio capabilities, but also three-way calling, text messaging, and contacts list. Some VoIPs even have webcam capabilities. In addition, there is usually a button to click that can indicate to others when you are available, unavailable, away, or off line.

Who Can I Call Using a VoIP Phone?

Most reputable VoIP computer phone providers limit PC to PC calls among their own subscribers for privacy purposes so that the quality of sound is not compromised.

Most reputable VoIP voice over ip phone providers have their own patented technology.

Some VoIP solutions providers require limiting PC to phone landlines or cells to their own subscribers, while others do not.

Advantages of VoIP

• With VoIP computer phones, you have unlimited talk time to anyone in the world from PC to PC for a flat monthly rate

• Most VoIP voice over ip phone providers offer drastically reduced costs for calling PC to landlines

• Most VoIP’s offer reduced costs for calling PC to cell phones, however, prices often vary depending on the cell phone carrier.

• Savings of up to 80% off current phone bills.

What are the Costs for VoIPs?

Typically there is an activation fee which varies between $20.00 to hundreds of dollars, although some are hidden.
Monthly fees, after enrollment, varies between $5.00 per month to $99.95 per month.
If you do not have a microphone on your computer, you would have to purchase one. Cost is between $5.00 to $40.00.

Things to Watch Out For with VoIP Services

• Hidden costs

• Unsecure lines - meaning anyone can listen to your conversation because of shared servers or open platforms, thus making you vulnerable to viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and unscrupulous hackers, which ultimately can corrupt your computer and create a costly computer crash.

• Inability to be used with dial-up connections

• Public listing of your name and/or phone number

• Many VoIP services have spyware.

Dee Scrip and her close friend Andy Murray operate the website http://www.whypay4calls.com. Where you can experience a 7 day free trial with a secure line on patented technology. NO contracts, obligations, or hassles!

SIM-free mobile phone – a 'must have' accessory of a footloose soul !

Author: Amanda

Let me ask you. In the world of opportunities and freedom, doesn't it lets one to feel stifled to use a mobile phone with the same network service provider, that too long after it failed to match to the expectations once so proudly announced by it? Just in the name of signing a contract deal, how could one company let its subscribers deprived from enjoying the best of services offered by other network? There are arguments that promises to die hard. But how about letting all the arguments mend their own meanings and we, the clever souls of this modern world, enjoy the best by not signing any contract deal at all. And thankfully, to let ourselves exercise our freedom of mobility, many a network service providers in collaboration with major mobile phone makers have come out with innovative offers of Sim free mobile phones. The new definition of footloose mobility.

A SIM-free mobile phone is free from the shackles of any particular mobile network. With it, an user enjoys the maximum freedom in-terms of selecting a network that matches to the needs and demands of the lifestyle. The phone comes handy for the ones globe trotters and in taste to carry their choicest mobiles handset to the destinations across the globe.

While a contract phone confines one's roaming facilities, either by exorbitantly overcharging or by virtue of its limited networking facility, a SIM free phone helps users to experience mobile connectivity by allowing a SIM (or network service) of the place of visit. Also known by GSM mobile phones, a SIM free phone supports for dual-band, tri-band and quad-band connectivity and helps its owners to enjoy mobile telephony sans the hassles of monthly charges.

Now let it be for the sake of enjoying freedom of mobility or just to remain holding a beautiful creation of the name of a mobile phone while using it for the best of purposes, SIM-free mobile phones, finding presence in the list of offers from all on-line mobile phone deal sites, are the perfect accessories for the ones who like to lead their life by their own terms.

This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_183053_47.html

Mobile on a budget?

Written by John Gray

Wednesday, 05 March 2008

Looking for a cheap and safe contract? Try a contract that does not let you run up a large bill. There are many people out there who are looking for a mobile phone contract that will not allow them to run up a huge bill. These are usually parents who are being pestered by their children for a mobile, or those on a strict budget. Now while you can set a limit on a contract mobile it is not very accurate and you can go well over the limit before you even realise it, and are left with a big bill at the end of the month. T-Mobile have possibly found the solution in U-Fix, a contract which gives you a monthly allowance of minutes and messages, but stops working the moment you have used them all up. You can still use it after this though, simply by adding credit as you would with a PAYG phone. Now while it seems like a great idea the tariffs have always been a bit lacking, and the phones quite expensive. However T-Mobile are attempting to make the tariffs better by adding a few extras: "Call Me Back" is a service for new and existing customers which lets you send a text for free when you are out of calling credit/allowance to request that someone calls you back, you can do this up to five times a month when you are caught short. The call costs for going over your allowance (when it reverts to a PAYG like phone) are better than before - it is now 25 pence per minute for all calls and 12 pence for all texts. Also the new U-Fix £35 tariff gives you unlimited minutes and messages to other T-Mobile users - which is great if you know a lot of people on the T-Mobile network, so here's hoping that there are a lot of people who do! Over Easter there are also extra text messages on offer for U-Fix plans. The U-Fix 20 tariffs will get an extra 300 messages and the U-Fix 25 will get an extra 500 messages to use in their first three months. While they still might not be great value, they do offer more than before and they really are ideal for parents looking for a safe, sensible mobile phone for their children - it is worrying the amount of parents that simply give their children a normal contract and then get shocked by a massive monthly bill! Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com

About The Author:

This and many other articles on mobile phones and the latest mobile phone deals was written by John Gray. John Gray's writing can often be found at http://www.onecompare.com

Nokia: Are they on top to stay?

By Jawahn Thompson [ 13/10/2006 ]

Just this week, Nokia released music phones into the market. With the ability to store approximately 100 albums, the consumer has access to all the music they could ever want to hear. Is this what the consumer wants from their cell phone?

The fact is Nokia, with headquarters in Finland, is on top for a reason. They not only listen to what the consumer wants-they do something about it. They are the world's leading cell phone manufacturer and if things continue the way they have been, they will continue on their roll. With a global market share of approximately 34% in the second quarter of 2006, they're aiming higher by releasing new and improved models.

Nokia's new release, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic holds about 1500 music tracks on their 2 GB microSD card and users can listen to their music while they use other features, like texting or the camera. If you want to listen to music in a public place, just plug in your headphones and if you prefer to listen to the music you've saved on a stereo, you can simply utilize their Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway AD-42W and you can play your music on any stereo. The Nokia 5300 also has other top quality functions such as a 1.3 mega pixel camera and high-resolution video ring tones. When it becomes available, the consumer should be able to purchase for just over $300.

The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, however, is not the only music phone they've come out with. The Nokia 5200 also gives the consumer top quality music functions and will cost the consumer approximately $250. The Nokia 3250 XpressMusic is of a different design, giving it a more unique look and consumers will still be able to hold about 1500 music tracks. More expensive, it will retail for approximately $500.

Nokia has come a long way from when it came out with the first mobile phone in the 1970's in the form of field radios for the Finnish Defense Forces. However, it wasn't until the late 1980's that the mobile phone technology allowed for international calls and the cell phone craze began. From then on, Nokia has remained on top, even with some difficulty it faced in 2004 when they failed to adapt to the market trends. While they have been behind others in new design innovation, Nokia is working to reestablish themselves among their competitors as has plans to retain their number one position in cell phone technology.

While cell phone technology may one of Nokia's top income producing departments, Nokia has their hands in many different things. Nokia Enterprise Solutions provides a wide variety of businesses with a vast array of business solutions. They also have divisions in multimedia and networking, putting them at the forefront in the technology of today.

Nokia has the right outlook-they want to keep the consumer happy and the consumer continues to be the top priority for Nokia. Their continuous goals are to: create top of the line devices to be used by the consumer, include top quality Internet services as part of their offerings, provide enterprise solutions, build scale in networks, and expand their line of professional services. Their strategies for providing all of this-by prioritizing and investing in brand and design and commitment to the customer.

The fact is Nokia top priorities are to be the number one provider of customer service and products. They don't just want to sell the most cell phones or provide the most service, they want to make certain the consumers are happy with what they are receiving and they want return customers. They understand that in order to design the best-of-the-best, they need to understand what the consumer wants from a product or service. While they did have a small downfall in 2004 in following the direction they had set for themselves, they are back in line to provide the consumer the best possible experiences in today's technology.

In order to become the number one provider to the consumer, approximately 36 percent of Nokia's workforce is in Research and Development, where they have centers located in 11 different countries and employ over 20,000 people. Their Research Centers are responsible for the increasing technological advances in the industry but also for adapting to changes in market trends and responding with knowledge and innovation.

Second in line to Nokia is Motorola. Working Mother magazine has just announced this month that the company made the 2006 Working Mother 100 Best Company list. This means a lot to those all over the world and you'll find that Motorola employees are happily trying to beat out Nokia's number one position. They, too, have prioritized and are working diligently to beat out all their competitors in offering top quality products and services. Whether its Bluetooth products, home networking, dispatching products, or virtual private networks, Motorola will have it, as they are known for their vast array of services in the United States and many other countries.

Motorola has just come out with several new products, including the Motorola SLVR. This sleek designed cell phone has many features that consumers demand and they are top quality. The Motorola SLVR is able to store music tracks and has Bluetooth technology. Again, however, Nokia has outdone Motorola with the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic. Not only does the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic allow for more music to be downloaded, it has several more advanced features and capabilities than the Motorola SLVR. Consumers know this but all it will take is one slip up for Nokia to lose its place.

So what will it take for someone, such as Motorola to take over the number one position in cell phone technology? The most important thing that Nokia can do is stay on top of the market trends and listen to what features the consumer wants. Without their top-quality Research and Development, they will not be able to stay where they are and they must continue to excel in this area. Motorola, in fact, could easily overtake their position if Nokia makes another mistake like they did in 2004.

About the author:
This nokia phone article has brought to you buy your consumer electronics

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Information about LG Voyager VX10000

By Corwin Brown [ 22/02/2008 ]

The LG Voyager's mission is to unseat the iPhone as the hottest touchscreen handset out there. It addresses many complaints about Apple's controversy magnet and has many of the same goodies, including an email client and a music player. And although the Voyager's touchscreen interface isn't as slick as the iPhone's, features like stereo Bluetooth, GPS, video recording, a spacious QWERTY keyboard, and mobile TV support actually give it an edge. Limited video support, lack of WiFi, and inadequate contacts and calendar syncing may keep it from stealing too much thunder from the iPhone, but we still think the Voyager is something to call home about, especially if you're committed to sticking with Verizon.

Physical Aspects

The physical design of the LG Voyager is the cause of much of the attention that the device has received. While neither light nor small, at 140g (4.9oz) and 118mm x 54mm x 19mm (4.6" x 2.1" x .73"), the Voyager still garners attention due to its large external touchscreen display and its communicator style clamshell hinge that hides a large non-touch display and full QWERTY keyboard within. It is, for the most part, the best of both worlds, offering some iPhone like finger touch wizardry while at the same time being a very practical platform for messaging and other text related functions.

Design
From the outset, the LG Voyager VX10000 looks more like the iPhone than it does its VX9800 and enV predecessors. Gone are the exterior keypad and tiny external display; instead you're greeted by a vibrant touch screen that dominates the front face of the Voyager. As you'd expect from a messaging phone, the Voyager is rather bulky. At 4.64 by 2.12 by 0.71 inches, the Voyager is exactly as tall as the enV, but it's also a bit wider when measured across the front face. Though the change from the VX9900 is noticeable, the Voyager manages to pack its keyboard as well as a long list of features into a trim profile that's a quarter of an inch trimmer than its forerunner's.

Think of the LG Voyager less as a would-be iPhone killer and more as what the latest Sidekicks should have been--a solid messaging device with first-class multimedia features. Although the touchscreen could have been better implemented and the Web browser is a bit slow, we like the versatility of having both touch- and keyboard-based input


Surfing the Web on the Voyager was a mixed bag. When you open the Browser, you'll see a VZW homepage with a menu of eight options that includes News, Sports, Weather, Entertainment, Optimized Web, and Connect. Connect brings up quick links to Yahoo Mail, Windows Live, Gmail, and AOL Mail, as well as Facebook. Optimized Web attempts to format HTML pages for this device, and in general it did a pretty good job displaying content in one easy-to-read column.

One look at the Voyager and you'll get LG's message loud and clear: "suck it, iPhone!" From the large 2.8-inch, 400 x 240-pixel touchscreen to the icon-based user interface, the Voyager so readily resembles Apple's wundergizmo, that you might try activating it with iTunes. Okay, it doesn't work that way, but it does give the iPhone a legitimate run for its money.

About the author:
Read about Digital Camera Reviews and Mobile Phone Reviews. Also read about Laptop Reviews

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Nikon Coolpix P50 Review and its Features

By Corwin Brown [ 26/02/2008 ]

Nikon is pleased to announce the introduction of the Nikon COOLPIX P50, a new model which prioritizes photographic performance by blending orthodox camera styling with an advanced feature set and operating ease. Built on a custom application of Nikon's innovative EXPEED digital image processing concept and incorporating the precision optics of a NIKKOR lens, the COOLPIX P50 is built to realise optimum performance and maximum image quality.

The P50 has an old-fashioned, boxy feel. The chunky grip for your right hand, complete with rubberized panel, is helpful, but we're not sure about the overall chunky design. We appreciate that not every camera has to be a 'style' model, competing to be the thinnest for five minutes. But to make a camera as willfully bland as this seems strange.

Nikon is celebrating ten years of Coolpix cameras, which have brought Nikon’s world-class optics, expertise in digital imaging and outstanding image quality into the hands of millions of consumers. Building on these achievements, Nikon Europe announced 8 new Nikon Coolpix models in the Performance, Style and Life series. Friendly, fashionable and fun, the sleek, colourful and powerful Coolpix cameras will be any consumer’s constant companions. The new Coolpix cameras continue Nikon’s uncompromising commitment to optical quality, powerful but easy to use technology, and to helping photographers create great images.

Moving to the right hand flank of the camera – if still viewed from the rear – a covered AV out and USB port is discovered, hiding beneath a loop for attaching the supplied wrist strap. At the opposite side of the P50 nestles a built in speaker that provides tinny but adequate sound. The base of the Nikon Coolpix P50 features a screw thread for attaching a tripod, a slide and open lid that hides the compartment for the twin AAs and Secure Digital card, while there's a further port for attaching the supplied multi purpose AV and USB cable. Battery life is pretty much as expected given that everything is running on AAs – meaning that I found they were almost spent after a couple of afternoons' use, and just over 100 shots.

Features:-

Slowest Shutter Speed - 4
Fastest Shutter Speed - 1000
Screen Size - 2.4 in
Screen Resolution - 115,000
Screen Type - LCD
Maximum ISO - 2000
Widest Focal Length - 28 mm
Longest Focal Length - 102 mm
Maximum Aperture - f/2.8
Zoom - 3.6
Video Resolution - Up to 640x480
Video Frames per second - 30
Battery - 2x AA Alkaline
Battery Life - Approx. 140 shots
Width - 3.8 in
Height - 2.6 in
Depth - 1.8 in
Weight - 5.6 oz

About the author:
Read about Digital Camera Reviews and Mobile Phone Reviews. Also read about Laptop Computer Reviews

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

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Balckberry Curve 800 -Review.!

About the phone -

Form Factor Candybar;

Performance -

The BlackBerry Curve runs on a 312MHz Intel XScale processor.As with most Berries, the Curve is responsive and performs most tasks with good speed. The BlackBerry 8300 has 32 megs of RAM (used like RAM in your computer) and 64MB of flash memory for storage. Before loading data and applications, the Curve has 21.8 megs of free storage. When you first setup the phone, it will ask you if you wish to delete languages other than English, and after doing so you will have 21.8 megs of free memory.

Operating Frequency and Reception quality -
Quadband - GSM 850, 900, 1800 , 1900;

The BlackBerry has EDGE for data but unfortunately no 3G.
Call quality is good and volume is loud by GSM standards.
The speakerphone is clear and loud. The Curve has good but
not stellar reception.

As such it is not recommended for areas with marginal coverage.

Connectivity -
HSCSD, WLAN, IRDA - No

GPRS, EDGE , BlueTooth , USB - Yes

Dimensions -

Height (mm) 107
Width (mm) 60
Depth (mm) 15.5
Weight (g) 111 g

Battery -
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh
Standbytime (h) Up to 408 h
Talktime (m) Up to 4 h

The Curve has an 1100 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's user replaceable. It ships with RIM's standard world-friendly charger with fold-down prongs. As with most GSM BlackBerry phones, the Curve has excellent battery life (being EDGE-only helps). Push email generally greatly reduces battery life on competing smartphone platforms, but somehow RIM manages to give us phones that last 2 to 3 days on a charge. Claimed talk time is 5 hours. Standby is 22 days-- very long by smartphone standards.

Messaging -
SMS Yes
Email Yes
MMS Yes

Camera -
Camera Yes, 2MP,
1600 x 1200 pixels
Video recording Yes
LED flash and self portrait mirror

The Curve features a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom and a built-in flash along with a self-portrait mirror. The camera application offers three picture qualities and three still image resolutions (1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480), and it uses the screen as the viewfinder. The photo quality isn’t the best you will see on a 2 megapixel camera, but photos have good amount of useful image data that can be corrected using Photoshop or RIM's photo editing tool on the desktop to yield a good image.

Display -
Color display, 65000 Colors
Display width (pixel) 320
Display height (pixel) 240
LCD Type Color
LCD Size (pixel) 320 x 240

Like the BlackBerry 8800 series of smartphones. the Curve has a QVGA (320 x 240) TFT display that’s very bright, colorful and crisp. It has a light sensor that adjusts to ambient lighting conditions, and you can turn this feature off -- though it works well except in near-dark rooms where the display sensor opted for too little backlight. The screen is capable of displaying 65k colors and is extremely bright at 100%; too bright! The screen is viewable outdoors, more so than Windows Mobile Professional (Pocket PC) and the Palm OS Treo PDA phones.

Memory -
64 MB flash memory with 21.8 megs available for storage and program installation.
Memory card not included
Supports microSD card slot

Multimedia -
Ringtones Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3
Polyphonic Yes

The Media Player application has been jazzed up with a skin compared to the 8800's dull media player. There are 4 icons for music, video, ringtone and photos viewing/listening. The music player has options for shuffle, genres, play by artist and play by album. The image viewer is fairly fast and you can use it to set any image as the home screen background. the ringtone manager at The media player plays MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ and WMA files. You can use the microSD card to store music and video. Sound is decent through the mono speaker and very good with the included 3.5mm stereo headset with inline mic.

Java & Games -
Games - Yes
Java - Yes
Voicedialing Yes

Misc. features -
Interface USB
Handsfree Yes
Vibrate Yes
Phonebook Capacity Yes, Photocall

Bundled Software -
BlackBerry push email client. BlackBerry IM client.
VoiceSignal voice dialing software,
BlackBerry Maps and TeleNav navigation software, media player for your MP3 pleasure and video playback.

PIM apps include address book, calendar, tasks and memo. Also Alarm, voice note, calculator, Password Keeper included. BrickBreaker game is bundled.

BlackBerry Desktop software for PC included for syncing and software installation.

Sales Package -
Stereo Headset
USB Cable
Travel Charger (lots of connector options)
Leather Pouch
Software CD & Manual

PROS AND CONS

The Internet Service keeps a constant eye on whatever POP3 accounts you ask it to and delivers emails it spots to your BlackBerry as it retrieves them. Of course how rapid this is will depend in part on the efficiency of the sender's, and your own, email server(s) and in part on network coverage. Either way, you can force a check for new messages whenever you want to.

Pros -

1. Good Screen
2. Browser supports both - WAP and HTML
3. PEARL trackball navigation,
4. QWERTY Keypad,
5. 3.5mm headset jack
6. Spellchecker
7. 2MP Camera,
8. Small Size makes it comfortable to hold for voice calls
9. Stylish,
10. Blackberry Maps Application included
11. Well Priced - Arnd Rs. 24.5k

Cons -

1. No Memory Card Provided,
2. Memory Card not hot-swappable,
3. No Protection for Camera lens and flash.
4. Absence of GPS Antenna
5. As SIM card slot is under the battery, and so unfortunately is the microSD card slot, so you'll have to power down the phone to insert or remove a memory card

New Technologies in Mobile Phone

MMS- MORE THAN JUST TALK

This is the age of Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS is in; a versatile feature that allows users to send colour pictures, photographs, voice clips, programs, videos and ofcourse text from their cell phones. The rates are a little higher as compared to SMS, but MMS opens up a whole new world of communication at your finger tips. All you need is an MMS-enabled phone and a subscription to a service provider that supports MMS. With MMS, you can, not only send your messages from one phone to another, but also from phone to email, and vice versa.

You can send, store and edit picture messages. There are a number of sites online that let you download pictures free of charge. Some MMS phones even come with an inbuilt camera, so a person can click pictures spontaneously and send them across to another MMS cell phone user. But with phones that do not have an in-built camera, these pictures have to be obtained from the Internet. The messages sent and received are either in text or graphics, once again depending on the phone model. With MMS, you can even download MP3 music, games and video clips on your phone! The following networks offer MMS: BPL (Mumbai) - MMS and GPRS only for post-paid users at Rs. 199 per month with 100 MMS free. If you exceed the 100 limit, MMS are charged at Rs. 3. Hutch- Rs. 99 per month. Prepaid users have to also pay Rs.50 as the initial activation charge. Messages can be downloaded from the Hutch site at Rs. 8 per MMS. Sending MMS is free. Airtel- Offers free MMS service. To activate, you need to send an sms to 222 from your MMS enabled phone. Spice (Bangalore) - Rs. 99 per month. 25 outgoing messages free, after which there will be charge of Rs.5 per MMS. Idea- Offers downloading of video messages from their site. Also allows sending and receiving pictures and music.

SMART PHONES- (PDA PHONES)

One step further are PDA-enabled phones, more commonly known as smart phones. These have a Digital Organiser, Excel, Word and Internet capabilities- all in one phone. Some even have an integrated camera and a MP3 player. These phones have large screens and allow you to write into it (after you learn the easy technique). They also have voice recognition capabilities. These features make the phone bulkier and costlier but then these gizmos sure do separate the men from the boys.

E-MOBILE...REDIFINING TECHNOLOGY

GPRS AND WAP GPRS and WAP let you enjoy a continuous wireless connection to data networks (Internet) and access favorite web sites, entertainment services and other web applications. With WAP, GPRS, you can go online on your cell phone. All you need is a GPRS/WAP enabled phone and activation from the service provider. Call up the Customer Care number and ask them to activate the service, afterwhich you need to download the GPRS settings as instructed and GPRS is activated.

Airtel charges Rs. 600 per month for GPRS and airtime. MMS, however is free. Reliance India charges Rs. 200 + usage charges Rs, 40 paise per minute, whereas Hutch charges Rs. 99 for GPRS + airtime. Using your cell phone as a modem: Alternatively, you can connect to the Internet using your cell phone as a modem. For this your cell phone should support HSCSD. If your phone supports HSCSD, you can connect to a laptop, desktop or a PDA, using infrared, data cable or Bluetooth and then dial your ISP connection. This method is useful if you want to check some urgent mails or access a site when on the go. The connectivity is slow and also is expensive as compared to a normal Internet connection using a modem. You pay the ISP for the Internet hours and the cell phone service provider for the airtime charges. With Internet connectivity, you can download a variety of groovy ringtones, logos, and graphics to jazz up your phone. If you are tired of the monophonic tones, polyphonic ringtones is the latest craze. All phones do not support poplyphonic ringtones, especially the old models. If your phone does, you can download a range of polyphonic ringtones from the Internet. What's more, you can even acquire information about current news, movies, stock markets, weather, forecasts, jokes etc. All this is just a click away from your phone and all for a nominal fee. Checking email, acquiring information about current news, movies, stock markets, weather etc. is just a click away from your mobile phone.

Games:

With the advent of GPRS and Java-enabled phones, gaming is no longer limited to basic games like Snake and Space Impact. The GSM as well as the CDMA subscriber base is growing at a good rate and with Reliance offering Java support on its CDMA phones, the basic cell phone has turned into a pocket-PC!

So, what do you need to play games on your cell phone?

1) Lots of in-built memory
2) GPRS or Java enabled phones and
3) Colour screen (optional)
How can you get games on your cell phones?

You can get games either from your cell phone service provider such as Hutch (Orange), BPL, Reliance by downloading them from the internet using WAP or GPRS or you could get them uploaded onto your cell phone at a manufacturer's showroom. (e.g Nokia)

HUTCH (ORANGE)

For downloading games using Hutch (Orange), it is necessary to have GPRS enabled on your cell phone. This can be activated through Hutch (Orange) by paying Rs. 99 if you are a postpaid user. Prepaid users can activate GPRS by paying Rs. 99 as activation fees + Rs.99 every month. Both pre-paid as well as post-paid users can download the games from the Hutch (Orange) site by paying Rs.20 per game for 20 rounds. For Rs. 50 you can play the game as many times you want, plus you get a free Photo Messaging facility. You need to check if Hutch supports gaming on your cell phone model though.
BPL

For downloading games using BPL website, you need to have either MMS or GPRS enabled on your phone. If not, you can go to a BPL showroom and get the games uploaded onto the phone. The charges are the same as that of Hutch, Rs. 20 per game for 20 rounds and Rs.50 for an unlimited usage, except that you'd have to shell in an extra Rs. 25 as service charges if you get the games uploaded at the showroom.

RELIANCE (CDMA)

Reliance Infocomm in India allows users to download games on their Java-enabled cell phones using their 'R-World service'. With R-World, you can access and download from a huge variety of Java games such as Arcade, Boards, Puzzles, Cards, Sports, Casino, etc free of charge till March 2004.

NOKIA

Nokia is offering its own games to the Nokia cell phone users through cell phone service providers such as Hutch (Orange), Airtel, BPL etc. As of now, only Hutch and Orange subscribers can access the WAP-based content, whereas the Airtel, RPG (Chennai) and BPL Mobile customers can access only the SMS-based content. You are charged Rs. 49.9 per games apart from the GPRS activation and rentals. You can download from a variety of games such as Pooltime, Crashn'burn, AlphaWing etc at www.nokia.co.in. This facility is available only on a few Nokia phones at present.