Nokia keeps Vertu brand, ceases sales of devices in Japan

Japan is one unique mobile phone market where foreign companies have scarcely a foothold, even Nokia with its global market share of 38 percent. Turns out the Finnish firm has thrown in the towel and decided to cease selling its handsets with the exception of the luxury Vertu brand in the Land of the Rising Sun. The move will affect about 10 percent of Nokia Japan employees, according to the company, with the remaining staff presumably working on research and development and sourcing for the global market.

Via Nokia Bulletin Board

StarHub launches world's first 3G femtocell service

Feeling the recent credit crunch? StarHub's new "Home Zone" value-added service (VAS) could help save a few pennies if your hefty monthly mobile phone bill is the result of using your cellular handset instead of the fixed line at home.

StarHub has today announced what it claims to be the world's first commercial 3G femtocell service in Singapore.

For noobs, a femtocell is a portable access point used primarily in residential areas or small offices that connects to a service provider's cell phone network via broadband. This is different from Wi-Fi access points as a femtocell acts more like a signal repeater. Users will be prompted with an audio message when they are making calls in the Home Zone area which has an operating area of approximately 120sqm.
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SingTel launches first location tracker service in Singapore

SingTel has rolled out what could be the first location tracker value-added service (VAS) in Singapore.

Dubbed Locator, the telco's new VAS lets subscribers track up to three SingTel postpaid numbers on a map with an accuracy radius of between 50m and 500m. Besides a monthly fee, a WAP or GPRS-enabled handset is required for the service which will incur data charges when the map is downloaded or when the user is accessing the IDEAS WAP site. Consent will also be needed from both parties, though there's an option for a user to temporarily hide his location or opt out from someone else's Locator list.
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BlueAnt's V1 voice-controlled headset now understands Mandarin commands

Our CNET US colleagues loved the V1 so much they bestowed it with an Editors' Choice award in September. The Bluetooth headset doesn't require voice recognition training, is easy to use and the audio quality is excellent, though the reviewer did mention that the design is a little boring and the headset doesn't feel secure without the ear hook. The Mandarin version of the voice-controlled V1 is essentially all that, save that it now recognizes the Chinese language. To be honest, I hardly use Mandarin on a daily basis, but this could be a hit in the Chinese markets in Asia. The V1 will be available in Singapore next month, though if you can't wait, you can skip over to its online retail store to purchase one now.

Xperia gets more panels

Sony Ericsson has announced new panels for its Xperia X1 Windows Mobile phone, and this time, they are from Facebook and Windows Live.

In a nutshell, the panel interface in the X1 allows the user to choose from a number of Home screens to replace the original. It's a feature Sony Ericsson has used quite a bit to market its X1 as being different from other Windows Mobile PDA-phones. Currently, most of the panels are provided by Sony Ericsson with only a handful of third-party ones.

We downloaded the panels for a test run
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