Over the last weekend, one of my friends had sent me a link to a certain story about a study which shows how bees all over the world are affected by the signals from mobile phones, and remain so for a period of 12 hours after coming in contact with them. This study can help solve the mystery behind rapidly declining bee population throughout the world.

USA’s Bee Troubles

As the whole world witnesses a steep decline in its bee population, USA provides a good example of events or things that might have triggered this decline. 1980s witnessed the USA suffering a serious blow to its population of honeybees, primarily owing to parasitic mites’ breakout and excessive insecticide usage. During that time, farmers had started hiring bees to save their crops. The period between 2006 and 2007 saw another major disruption in the bee population because of the popularly known, “colony collapse disorder.” In this, traditionally thriving bee boxes were found empty after the passing of winter season. The reasons of the collapse were never found, but people are hopeful that this new study will be able to provide some answers.

The Significance of Bees

Bees are known to be significant agents of cross-pollination and thus play a major role in the sustenance of our environment. There are many plants that depend entirely on certain breeds of bees for their survival and reproduction. Kill those bees and you’ll end up killing the related crops as well. With the failing of crops, the foodstuffs are bound to become scarce and even ceasing to exist in some cases. Well, you can guess the widespread implications it can have.

Although mobiles are not the only reason behind the rapidly dropping bee population, gaining knowledge about their negative effects can help us all in discovering solutions to negate their impact on our bees.

Spring is literally the time for spring cleaning. So with the summer approaching, the time is right to clear all the clutter from your home. It’s even better if you can earn some money along the way too. You can do all this by selling your old mobile.

Your old mobile might be lying around at your place like worthless junk, but someone else might be able to make good use of it if you sell it and the benefits will accrue to both you and the buyer:

• Firstly, you will make money on the sale of your old mobile.
• Your old mobile can be resold after minor repairs to someone here or even to someone living in a developing economy. Mobile phones, these days are responsible for many great revolutions in the field of healthcare as well as for providing information to economically weaker communities. A Google search on this topic will throw up many stories and articles to vouch for the fact that there is improvement in community life through the use of mobile phones.
• The working components of your mobile can be worth something as these components can be joined together with other parts for the creation of new mobiles.
• Recycling of the pieces and metals of your old mobile will enable you to also do something for the environment. Not only will the use of your old mobile parts help reduce the mining required to get metal for manufacturing of new parts, but the recycling will also help reduce the amount of toxic waste that dominates out landfills.

Sell Your Old Mobile is the answer to your question “What is my old mobile worth?” We can update you with the prices that the top UK recyclers are paying, based on you make and model and can thus ensure that your old mobile fetches you the best price.

Sell Cell is our sister company based in the USA and we peek into their affairs from time to time to find out what all they are discussing. Recently, it seems to be mobile texting and talking while driving.

Here in United Kingdom, we are all very well aware that it is unsafe to text and talk while driving. What more, it is illegal too. The only time that law allows you to talk on a mobile while being behind the wheel with the vehicle running is when you are using a hands-free device to do that; however, that too can be questioned as police is free to charge you for offence if in their opinion you were not just talking, but also fiddling with the phone. Even if you appear little distracted to them while talking and driving, you might have to face fines and points.

However, it’s not quite the same in the USA. In several states there, it is still considered alright to talk on a phone while driving. In fact, some of the states even allow texting while driving. Though this all is changing gradually now, but in a country where people expect least interference by government in their day to day life, a ban on talking/texting while driving is not met with great celebrations.

The truth is: any kind of interaction with a mobile phone while driving a vehicle is risky. Furthermore, whether it is illegal or legal, as responsible drivers, we all must stay away from our mobile phones while we are driving. So next time you happen to receive that message or call while behind the wheel, resist the temptation!

As per the recent survey conducted by brandrepublic.com, the Android OS seems to have overtaken the Apple iOS finally!  Android OS is now the most popular cell phone platform in the UK.

Around two months back in the USA market, Android has notched up the top spot.  It was left to be seen how long it would take Android to grab the same place as far as UK markets were concerned and to our utter pleasure, it did not take very long.

The survey involved 2,001 respondents, all of whom were smartphone users.  Out of these, 28 per cent mentioned that they used Android, while Apple was being used by 26 per cent.  The other 14 per cent used BlackBerry in the UK, 6 per cent used Symbian interface and 5 per cent used the Mobile Windows Phone 7.  And all of us, of course, know that Nokia is replacing Symbian with Windows Phone 7 from next year onwards.

If the survey results are to be believed, Android definitely seemed to be the most popular while in terms of intensity, Apple iPhone users showed it the most.  It was reported that iPhone users spend an average of four or more hours per day on their iPhones, while only 4 per cent of BlackBerry and Android users did so.

Would you believe that merely 15 per cent of London residents own an Android while 42 per cent own an Apple iPhone?  What it means is that Apple users are mostly in debt and 18 per cent even stated that their account is almost always overdrawn.

Is your current or old smart phone proving to be too small for your comfort (we will abstain from going into the details and psychology here)? If yes, LG might have a solution for your dilemma.  LG will soon be launching a new innovative smart phone going by a rather gargantuan name – LG Optimus Big in the marketplace.  Big seems to be just the right answer to all problems, if this new gadget is anything to go by, as a leaked picture of the phone reveals that it is even bulkier than the iPhone 3GS.  The whole idea seems quite bizarre, given that the latest technology trends are more about gadgets becoming sleeker and slimmer.  Perhaps LG has good reasons for what it is doing.  However, in this case it has apparently taken the saying, “Big is Better” quite far.

Although the screen size of LG Optimus Big is not the biggest that the mobiles market has seen, with HTC Desire HD and the Samsung Galaxy S II both featuring screens of the same size, one significant edge that the LG phone has over the rest is its much spoken about Nova Screen technology.  It is reported to be double in brightness when compared to other screen types that are based on the traditional Super AMOLED display.  LG also stresses that the Nova Screen technology provides for deeper blacks and purer whites than most of the LED screens in the market and consumes less power too, which is one of the main reasons behind the hype surrounding the launch.

Koreans will be able to use the LG Optimus Big first, with the phone getting launched there next month, followed by Europe launch in summer.

One of the feeds on French Twitter has recently confirmed that Europe will soon be able to lay its hands on the new Evo 3D device by HTC.  The British were not too optimistic about it and hence were not expecting this to happen.  You would wonder why?  That’s because TechRadar, known to be the “official” French Twitter feed for HTC sent out a message announcing that these HTC handsets will soon be available in Europe including France, which got Britain wondering – why not them?!

For those who want to know what the feed mentioned – “Un #HTC Evo 3D pour la France ça vous dit?  Nous oui!  Et même qu’il garde le même nom Date de dispo non confirmée.”  In case you aren’t able to decipher that, it basically means “A HTC Evo 3D for France, did you say? Yes! And it even keeps the same name. Date of availability is not confirmed.”  That says it all!

Blighty sure won’t be missing too much considering what all this new HTC Evo 3D mobile device has to offer, whenever it hits the European shores.  It will indeed be a “smartphone” that will not only feature Android 2.3 Gingerbread as well as HTC Sense User Interface features, but also a dual core 1.2GHz processor.  It will also be able to record videos in 3D.  The phone’s autostereoscopic screen is already driving up everyone’s adrenalin, though the actual launch date has not yet been announced.

Thinking of buying a new mobile phone? If yes, it is time you start thinking about how to dispose off the old one too.  One option is to donate it to charity. You can also trade it in exchange of a new one, of course at additional cost.  Alternatively, if you wish to earn more from your old mobile phone, selling it won’t be a bad option either. Talking about selling – where do you think you can sell your old mobile?

Some mobile phone dealers readily purchase used mobiles. In fact I can count some on my fingers right away. They will buy your old mobile even if you don’t buy the new phone from them. The only drawback is that although they pay in cash, the offered value may not be good.

Some service providers run part exchange offers. However, the valuation for your old mobile may not be as per your expectations in this case too.

eBay is another great place to sell your old mobile, particularly if yours is a popular model. iPhones and popular Nokia handsets such as N900 and N95 sell like hot cakes on eBay. However, sale value differs from auction to auction, as it depends greatly on the timing and audience of your auction.

We highly recommend that you try selling your old mobile to a recycler as the amount offered by some recyclers can be far higher than what you might get from eBay or dealers. In any case, it will be best to check the prices offered at all the places and then doing a comparison yourself.

Apparently, most of us do.

I came across this article recently on TG Daily. It was about a fraud protection company which purchased 35 used mobile phones and 50 used SIM cards from eBay.  As per this company, more than half of them contained extensive, undeleted personal details of earlier users.  These details included credit card information, banking details, debit card PIN numbers, contact information, email usernames and passwords, social networking sites’ usernames and passwords and other critical data.

The article further elaborated that 81 percent of mobile phone sellers seem confident about deleting their personal information and 6 out of 10 of them appear confident about the deletion technique used.  So where is the discrepancy?  It apparently is in the method of deletion.  Most of these sellers delete all their data manually – a method which even security experts advise against strictly. Just as in the case of a personal computer, any data deleted manually from a mobile phone can be retrieved easily with the help of third party tools.

Frankly, the numbers stated by the fraud protection company are quite alarming. One small mistake by an individual can potentially turn his/her life upside down.

So how should one delete all such personal data?  The safest method to destroy all such personal information is by overwriting or reformatting the data.  This can be achieved by restoring the mobile phone to its original factory settings.  Details regarding this procedure can be found in the phone’s user manual.  The manufacture’s website and customer service can also be accessed for help.

The Japan crisis has got everyone thinking.  Do we even remember any of the important contact numbers should our mobile phone get lost?  We have really become very dependent on our mobile phones as well as the technology.  Not being able to retain even the important numbers in our memory is nothing short of inviting trouble.  Are we waiting for a crisis to hit us before we realise the need of memorising important contact details?

Fox News decided to put things in perspective and posed this question to many Americans.  The result was indeed very sad.  Not that they expected people to remember all the phone numbers saved on their mobile contacts list, but even the few important ones were not recalled.  The solution to this is easy.  Keep a separate note of all contact numbers, which can be accessed should there be a need.  This could either be in the glove compartment of your car or at your writing desk, or even in your kitchen cabinet.  You can even save these details on your computer.  Unless there is an extreme crisis situation like the tsunami which will wash away all these together, you will be able to have access to important information most of the times.

Thinking ahead and for everyone’s benefit, I am sure many of us will follow Fox News’ advice and start memorising numbers, at least the important ones, and not be dependent on our mobiles just to get in touch with our loved ones.

Geek, a website, has reported about a phone that looks like a human being, with a photo for those who wish to see it for themselves. The phone has been developed by Takashi Minato, an innovator from Japan, working for Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International along with consultants from NTT DoCoMo and Osaka University. The main goal of the team that designed the phone was to give the customer a personal experience while talking on the phone.

The prototype has a creepy look to it largely because of the skin-like texture that it possesses. Moreover, it is far bigger than the palm of your hand. There are several other similarities between the phone and the human body. The speaker has been placed inside the phone head while the chest contains a diode. This changes colours, displaying blue while the phone is being used and white when it is on stand-by.

The phone might be produced for commercial usage in the next 5 years or so. A lot of people are still not comfortable with the idea of a phone that feels like human skin. However, the phone might do well in a niche market rather than being feasible for the larger market. It could be ideal for blind users especially. Even those who are in long distance relationships could be potential targets as customers for this kind of a phone. Most of the features of the phone are designed to make people feel connected. Further features like voice recognition would be added as well.