Next time check-in with your mobile phone

By 2010, passengers can toss away their paper tickets at airport check-ins. If this takes off, Associated Press reports that major airlines will be adopting a new mobile phone check-in system that would speed up processes and at the same time reduce costs. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry is expected to save more than US$500 million annually after paper tickets are phased out.

Users will need to register their mobile phone number with the airline at the time of ticket booking. They will then receive a text message with an embedded 2D barcode, or instructions to download it, which works as the boarding pass. Currently, users have to either check-in manually at the counter or print out their boarding passes when they do it online.

Picture credit: Singapore Airlines

The Great iPhone Hack, round 3

Two weeks to the day after Apple's iPhone software update wiped third-party applications from the device and disabled unlocked phones, the hackers have struck back.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog posted details of the iPhone Dev Team's latest effort, which once again opens the iPhone up to third-party applications and the ability to use it on any other GSM network than AT&T's. This appears to be a more substantial effort than the one posted earlier in the evening that exploits a vulnerability in a TIFF image file; you can bet that one will be patched fairly quickly.

The latest hack allows iPhone users who have already installed the OS X 1.1.1 update to revert their iPhones to the previous 1.0.2 update, "jailbreak" it for third-party applications, and then somehow update back to the 1.1.1 version without the cell door slamming shut. TUAW and iPhone Atlas have tested the latest hack and have declared that it works, assuming you have a certain amount of knowledge of the iPhone's command line interface.
Read more »

No Office Mobile on the WM6-upgraded i600

Samsung i600 users waiting to upgrade their handhelds to the Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) operating system may be in for a slight disappointment. Apparently, the Korean mobile phone maker will not be bundling the Office Mobile application in the WM6 software upgrade. According to Samsung, the i600 will continue to use the Picsel Viewer application for viewing Office documents.

When the Windows Mobile 6 OS was launched earlier this year, one of its main enhancements in the Standard Edition (for smart phones) was the inclusion of Office Mobile. Unlike viewing applications such as Picsel Viewer, Office Mobile offers users the ability not only to view Office files, but also to allow editing of Word and Excel documents on the handheld.

We aren't sure why Samsung has decided not to include Office Mobile in its WM6 upgrade for the i600 or if it will offer Office Mobile as an optional addon. Meantime, we're awaiting the company's response to our questions, and will keep you posted on updates.

Samsung trots out three music phones that rock

Is the Asia phone market getting too unpleasantly crowded for the likes of Samsung? In its latest mobile launch outing, the Korean chaebol has bypassed its Asian neighbors including even its own backyard, to court Europe. While we are awaiting word from the consumer electronics giant on the availability of the devices in our region, here's what Samsung fans in Asia are missing out.

Two of the models, the SGH-F330 (slim HSDPA slider) and the SGH-F210 (swivel stick), are already out in Germany for 260 euros (US$368) and 280 euros (US$396), respectively. The third model which resembles the Nokia N95 with its two-way sliding mechanism, appears to veer away from the usual Samsung handsets that proliferate mobile shelves in Asia.

What makes the SGH-i450 interesting is a touch wheel navigation to access the multimedia menus. There's also HSDPA, Bluetooth stereo and it runs on the S60 3rd Edition platform with Feature Pack 1. Oddly, this is targeted for Italy, out end this month at a price of 360 euros (US$509) without subsidy.

Update: According to Samsung Asia, the SGH-F330 and SGH-F210 are scheduled to be launched this quarter in Asia, while the SGH-i450 will be rolled out in selected markets in the same period.

Palm Treo 500v launched in Singapore

First announced exactly a month ago, the Palm Treo 500v smart phone is now available in Asia, at least in Singapore. The 500v was launched in partnership with European carrier Vodafone in September and still bears that operator's brand name even though Palm has released it with M1 here.

Using Windows Mobile 6 standard, the 500v is Palm's first Treo without a touchscreen. It still has the same QWERTY keypad found in every one of its PDA-phones, but sports a different set of features from earlier Treos because it is targeted at the consumer market rather than business users. One point that really stood out for us was the exclusion of threaded messaging, a mainstay of Treo devices--whether Palm OS or Windows Mobile-based ones. We have a unit and will be posting up a full CNET Asia review soon. In the meantime, read a review done by our colleagues in the UK.

The 500v will be available in some countries in the Asia Pacific by the end of the year, though Palm could not be more specific about when and which countries at this point. In Singapore, it is available only in gray from M1 at S$498 with a two-year contract as well as at S$698 from retail outlets.

Update: Read our full review here.

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