Microsoft added the photo displaying app SeaDragon Mobile, its first-ever iPhone application, to the App Store. SeaDragon Mobile is basically a demo of Microsoft Live Labs’ photo display platform. It brings the same smooth image browsing you get on the PC to the mobile platform.  Users can use the app to do such things as zoom in on photos with incredible resolution. The app does this by storing different resolutions, and shows you only the portions requested at a given time.
Seadragon comes pre-loaded with some pretty eye-widening images from NASA, the Library of Congress, maps, and intriguing shots from Photosynth, but you can also add your own RSS image feeds—such as those from Flickr, and get similar super-zoom features, up to a point.Moreover, users can play with and Photosynth users will also be able to browse their synths, in 2D at least. Seadragon is a free download for iPhones and iPod touches running at least the 2.0 firmware.
 Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding SAE is planning to launch 3G mobile-phone services in North Korea Monday, to become the first foreign telecom company to invest in communist nation as it deals with the economic crisis. The company plans to invest $400 million in network infrastructure and license fees over the first three years. Orascom is confident North Korea is opening up its economy and says it has been assured by the -government that everyone will be allowed to buy a mobile. However, experts think that such a volte-face is highly unlikely and reckon only senior military and government officials will be allowed access, and then only to a closed network.
Diab said”According to their strategy, they’re going to become margin positive in the first year”. He explains why the company would want to enter into a market where their subscriber base would initially largely be restricted to top government and military officials. Orascom Telecom spokeswoman Rasha Mohamed confirmed in an e-mail on Sunday that the service will be launched on Monday. Additional details were not immediately available. The company said that it has won exclusive rights on Jan. 31 in North Korea for four years. The business in North Korea is expected to generate revenue per user between $12 to $15 in 2008 from three different cities.
Further shifting attention on the iPhone towards gaming, an Apple executive has out-and-out said that the iPhone is a “gaming console†and claiming that it’s not just a phone, but a “console experience.†John Geleynse (AKA Director of Technology Evangelism at Apple) stated it at an iPhone Tech Talk in San Jose, near the company’s Cupertino headquarters.
While a bold statement, the claim is in line with an increasingly gaming-centric marketing strategy at Apple. Virtually all of the electronics firm’s video ads for the second-generation iPod touch have focused on gaming, while the majority of paid apps at the App Store have typically been games. Nintendo recently touted NPD Group data noting that it sold a near-record 1.56 million DS handhelds during November, but is likely to be outpaced by Apple’s iPhone sales alone: in summer, the company sold 6.9 million iPhones
Researchers at the University of Utah have created a device that they see as hopefully saving the lives of some teenage drivers who like to chat or text unsafely on the cell phone. Called the Key2SafeDriving (K2SD) allows parents to disable their kids’ cellphones while they’re driving. The parents can allow certain numbers to be dialed, and of course 911 is still available, but the kicker is the other functions they hope to add into it.
When the key is extended from its housing, it is in driving mode and will block any calls or messages to or from a paired phone within the immediate vicinity. It uses either Bluetooth or RFID to communicate with the paired phone, shows a stop sign on the phone’s screen when active and has an auto-responder to reply to incoming text messages. Researchers hope to have the technology on the market within the next six months with an expected cost of less than $50 a key with an undisclosed monthly service fee.Check out their totally awesome video after the jump
For you who are the Barbie’s lover and who are collecting Barbie stuffs, here is a new item that you have to buy, called Barbie P520 cellphone. The device is hitting the Chinese market at 780Â¥, roughly $113 US dollars. When closed, the phone looks like your typical compact. Open it up, and you’ll discover a mirror for touching up your makeup.
The Barbie P520 phone looks like a copycat of the Mattel’s Barbie B2 mp3 player. Anyway, this one is not a sponsored product of Mattel. The most interesting part is that the pink heart shaped box even bears the tag line that reads “Barbie Music Phone.†It features a touchscreen display, !.3MP camera, Bluetooth connectivity, 2GB of expandable memory, and will carry two SIM cards simultaneously, allowing you to hold two lines in a single device.
