In a recent newsletter, I read that Germanys Deutsche Telecoms SMS Text to Voice service which was launched last year has finally caught fire. This service allows a mobile phone user to send a text message to a landline number and a software application would then convert the text messages strange spellings and all to voice. So lets say you want to tell your wife that you will be coming home late for dinner and youre too chicken to make that voice call, all you have to do is type a text like, "RUNNING L8 & B HOM @ 9 INSTEAD :-)" and send it to your home landline number. Your home phone rings and your wife will hear the software say, "YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FROM GLENN." Then the same software applications canned voice repeats your text message, including the emoticon you left with a giggle sound! Now isnt that cool?! Whether it will take-off here in the Philippines is a good question.
I just read in a British daily that cell phone snatching was on the rise in London. So whats new? Its the same as over here in Manila. Apparently, cell phone burglaries have reached a point where an East London resident was awaken by an unusual noise early in the morning. To his amazement, he saw a black chimpanzee coming through his window and grab his Samsung A300 cell phone which was sitting on his bedside table. Upon investigation, Scotland Yard also discovered that two other flats in the same building were burglarized by the hairy thief that same morning. Wow, what will desperate people think of next!