Nokia 5230 Price : GPS navigation and Ovi Maps with aerial images

The latest addition in the Nokia touch phone portfolio, the Nokia 5230, is designed for those who lead an active life and use their mobile phone as their primary instrument for music, photos and videos, as well as sharing their lives online.

With the Nokia 5230, consumers can get new content, be it songs from the Nokia Music Store or apps, games, videos and other services from the Ovi Store, directly from their phones.

The solutions offering is complemented by A-GPS navigation and the latest version of Ovi Maps with aerial images, 3D landmarks for over 200 cities and terrain map views for pedestrian and drive navigation.

The Nokia 5230 features an easy to use music player with 33 hours of playback time. In select markets the Nokia 5230 will include Comes With Music service offering truly unbeatable value with all you can eat music. The recommended price of the Nokia 5230 with the Comes With Music service will be 259 EUR before subsidies and taxes.

For a mighty music experience, any headphones with a 3.5mm AV connector can be used. In addition, the Nokia 5230 features a Media Bar with quick access to your favorite media and applications, such as music, photos, YouTube or Ovi Share.

The Nokia 5230 is expected to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Apple approved Google Voice alternative Toktumi's Mobile VOIP

This Line2 app was just approved after a 3 month delay, partially caused by the Google Voice shenanigans Apple pulled back in July when they pulled out all the Google Voice apps from the App Store. This is really similar.

Toktumi works similarly to Google Voice, letting you use one virtual number to forward to your real numbers. It doesn't support SMS, and it costs $15, but it supports business features like phone trees and other filtering options. The Line2 app is by Sean Kovacs, the guy who made "GV Mobile", the Google Voice app we still use on our iPhones now.

Since Toktumi is a paid service, Apple probably believes it won't directly impact At&T business and it doesn't support SMS either which makes it a less preferable choice. At the same time, they might be interested in pushing toktumi ahead of Google Voice App to get as many users under this app and make it difficult for google voice to gain these customers.

Whatever be the case, the Mobile VOIP Application and the entire VOIP market in USA would face huge turmoil in 2009-2010. Lets hope we see some really good innovations and value addition to VOIP service.

IFFCO : Question Box provides a service in India

Airtel has entered into a strategic tie-up with IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative) for providing agriculture and allied information to farmers through mobile phones. The facility was formally launched by the Chief Operating Officer (Andhra Pradesh) of Bharti Airtel Limited, Rajnish Kaul, at a function at Anakapalle town, about 40 km from here on Tuesday.

Question Box provides a service in India and Uganda. In India, phone boxes are installed in slums and villages that connect users to operators that will answer questions. In Uganda, users can call in from any mobile phone and ask their questions.

The operators have access to a repository of previously asked questions (and their answers), and they can also occasionally consult the Internet. A special search engine and database were also built specifically for the project.

Another initiative, Avaaj Otalo, provides an audio community forum for farmers in rural Gujarat, India. Working with an organization that produced a popular radio program, Otalo provides a call-in number where farmers can exchange questions and answers. Users are also able to listen to archives of the radio program.

These projects differ in that Question Box avoids having to process users' questions by adding a human listener in the loop; Avaaj Otalo avoids processing by organizing their collection of audio prompts with into a menu. Both programs, however, have yet to deal with the problem of cost because they subsidize the service for users.

Otalo operates with a toll-free number and Question Box provides the phones to call from in India. In Uganda, Grameen Community Knowledge Workers provides the mobile phones.