Genocides, obliterations of cities, murder of prisoners, egregious violation of international humanitarian law. These are crimes that will likely get a person tried as a war criminal. But using a cellphone? Um. Sure… at least, that’s the case in North …

The Boston Globe ran a story a few days ago about a company called Cignifi who has developed a way to calculate a person’s credit report in the absence of any previous credit history. The claim is counter-intuitive to how …

Nielsen has released the results of a study into mobile phone usage by various age groups. While the study shows a rise in data usage across the board, the greatest increase was in the 13-17 age group. In the third …

On the list of cancer-causing boogeymen, cellphones are pretty high on the list. For years, people have been saying that they cause cancer – and for years almost as many people have been saying that the cancer/cellphone link is total …

If home computing ever does truly die, the culprit is an obvious choice. The mobile phone. While I’m one to believe that home computing hasn’t so much died, it’s just that most homes that want computers, be it Mac or …

Hey, you guys wanna get blinded with some science? South Korean engineers have found a novel way to charge your mobile phone – noise. Basically what Dr. Sang-Woo Kim and his team has found is a way to convert sound …

The global mobile phone market saw slight growth in the third quarter, according to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Year-on-year growth remained negative, but improved from the first half of 2009. Mobile shipments totaled 287.1 million units worldwide in Q3, down from 6 percent from the previous year, but up 5.6 percent from the second quarter.

Major producers of mobile phones have reached an agreement with the European Commission to standardize phone chargers in an effort to reduce unnecessary waste and provide convenience for users.

The first generation of the new interchargeable mobile phones is set to reach the EU market in 2010.

The complexity of mobile applications and services is preventing their adoption and usage, according to a survey by mobile device management company Mformation.

The majority (95%) of consumers said they would be more likely to try new mobile services if setup was easier. Difficult setup issues are also preventing 45 percent of people from upgrading to new, more advanced mobile phones. More than half (61%) of these mobile users say phone setup is a frustrating as changing a bank account.

Close to half (45%) of U.S. mobile phone users prefer to use their mobile phones to make calls, and not for other multimedia features, according to a new report by the NPD Group.

Only 20 percent of mobile phone users prefer to use their phones as an all-in-one multimedia device for music, videos, Web surfing and other activities beyond making phone calls.

Beginning on July 1 a new hands free mobile phone law goes into effect in California.

Motorists face a $20 fine plus fees for a first offense and a $50 fine plus fees for a second violation. Drivers under the age of 18 are prohibited from using a mobile phone or a hands free device while operating a motor vehicle.

Drivers will be allowed to use a mobile phone while driving to make emergency calls to a law enforcement agency, a medical provider, the fire department or other emergency agencies.

Japanese children should have limited access to mobile phones to protect them from harmful content according to an advisory panel to the government.

The advisory council on education made the proposal to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda as children become more likely to be exposed to cyber crimes and bullying on Internet school bulletin boards.

Limited mobile phone use on airplanes may be an inconvenience for some people, but for those who want peace and quiet it is something they welcome.

A survey, commissioned by Yahoo and conducted by Harris Interactive, found that the majority of Americans, 74 percent, favor mobile phone use being restricted to non-talking features like texting and games.

I am just on the way out the door but I caught this (opens in PDF) excellent news release by Nielsen/NetRatings stating that "one in four members of UK social networks use their phones to network." Now considering that Europeans tend to be dramatically ahead of North Americans in cellular adoption this statistics release seemed worth of attention.

Here is a chart that really drove home the popularity of social networking via mobiles (click the image for a larger version):

A new study suggests that prolonged cell phone use has been linked to brain cancer as well as tissue damage. The study said that exposure to mobile phone radiation causes the risk to significantly increase over time.

The bitter taste of disappointing profits in Motorola’s handset operations will be spun off as the electronics manufacturer tries saving itself by splitting into two companies.

Filipinos increased the number of text messages they sent last year two fold, averaging 1 billion daily, industry figures showed.

For the 8 million Filipinos who work abroad, texting is the primary way they keep in touch with family at home. Text messages are also a political tool and played an important roll in overthrowing President Joseph Estrada in 2001 by making people aware of rallies.

Shipments of recycled handsets are on track to exceed 100 million units in 2012, according to a recent study from ABI Research.

Shorter handset replacement periods, growing demand for low-cost mobiles in emerging markets, regulatory requirements, and growing consumer awareness are the main factors behind the market for recycled handsets.

Ringbacks that play alternative audio instead of the standard ring to callers while they are dialing a number are starting to cause a commotion with U.S. mobile users.

The number of U.S. ringback subscribers tripled last year, according to M:Metrics. A recent J.D. Power and Associates study also found that 9 percent of U.S. mobile consumers used ringbacks. IDC estimates that 40 million global users will subscribe to ringback tones by 2010.

The trend of young U.S. mobile users choosing to disconnect their home phone lines is growing, according to a report from In-Stat.

Use of mobile services is popular with young people with 47 percent of 15 to 18 year olds adopting them compared to only 17 percent of 35 to 44 year olds, according to a new report from JupiterResearch, "European Mobile Youth Consumer Survey, 2007: Targeting Digital Natives and Keeping Them Loyal."

AT&T has introduced a new Web-based feature that allows parents to stay in touch with their children while controlling the children’s mobile phone use.