Filed under: Cellphones

No need to adjust your set — the United Nations communications chief has boldly predicted that half of planet Earth’s population will be hooked on some sort of mobile phone before 2009 dawns. Granted, the numbers he’s talking about do look strictly at subscriptions, so a small percentage will be skewed by those with multiple accounts (and thus, multiple numbers), but really, the forecast isn’t all that outlandish. After all, we already hit 3.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions back in November of last year (and 4 billion lines overall). As predicted, it’s growth in developing regions such as Africa and the Middle East which will boost the overall figure the most, with yearly increases in those areas expected to hit 27% and 25%, respectively. So, what are the chances a post eerily similar to this pops up in 2012 or so saying the entire world has a cellphone? Our trusty Magic 8-ball says “Signs Point to Yes.”

[Via Core77, image courtesy of Road and Travel]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Just last month we heard that there were some 2.68 billion mobile accounts currently active in the world, but a new study by Informa has found that there are actually 3.3 billion subscriptions. This number is somewhat significant considering that it’s approximately half of the world’s population, but alas, not half of all Earthlings actually own a cellphone. Researchers found that 59 countries had mobile penetration over 100 percent, suggesting that some individuals actually accounted for numerous mobile subscriptions. Sure, the figures here could be picked apart in a myriad ways, but why not just raise your handset to commemorate hitting the big three point three? You are one of them, right?

[Image courtesy of W3]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Ever wonder if you could tap the electrical current on your phone company’s landlines (does anyone still use those anymore?) to supply low-powered household gadgets with juice in an emergency (or financial pinch)? Turns out that apparently it ain’t too hard to get between 40 and 70 volts (no word on wattage) with a few components and a little time spent soldering. Now comes the second, more PSA-style half of this post. How ridiculously guilty might you feel if a power outage occurred and people couldn’t call for help because enough nerds trying to save a buck by charging their gadgets via landline took out the phone company. Sure, it’s a dramatic scenario, but we’re just saying it’s also potentially dangerous, so use this technique wisely. Embedded video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, via Instructables]

Continue reading Tap into the phone company’s current… if you dare

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!