HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 Feature Bigger Screens, Better Battery Life

HTC's Touch Diamond, and its QWERTY'd doppelganger the Touch Pro, have formally passed into their second generation, with bigger screens, higher (WVGA) resolution, better battery life, and deeper interface changes.

These handsets have always represented something of a standard to which WinMo phones are measured, and the tastefully restyled new versions, boldly called the Diamond2 and Pro2, play on their predecessors' strengths.

The Diamond2 gets a screen upgrade, from 2.8in to 3.2in, with an accompanying resolution boost from VGA (480x640) to WVGA (480x800). The lauded TouchFlo 3D alternative interface now reaches a bit deeper into Windows Mobile 6.1, making a few more functions touch-friendly, but stopping short of a total overhaul. The most interesting new interface feature is the "Single Contact View", which consolidates your complete history of communication (texts, calls, emails) for a given contact into a single screen. A SD card expansion slot replaces the old model's fixed internal memory, which results in greater flexibility but severely diminished memory size on delivery (gone is the 4GB internal memory, replaced with the wimpy 512MB ROM) and a new 5-megapixel autofocus camera.

The Pro2 is treated to most of the same upgrades. Its screen stretches to a full 3.6 inches, which is just .2 inches smaller than the monstrous TouchHD. It gets a louder speakerphone system and less-pixely camera than the Diamond2, but retains the larger battery and slide-out QWERTY keyboard that originally distinguished its dad from the Diamond.

Battery life is apparently boosted by 50% on the Diamond2 and "improved" on the Pro2, a change which is more than welcome, as this is one of the areas where the original Diamond/Pro fell down. Other, less immediately interesting new features include "HTC Push Internet", which is essentially pre-loads parts of your favorite webpages, and the inauspiciously-named "Straight Talk", which allows for easy transitions between text or email communications and regular or group phone calls, letting you immediately initiate a conference call with, say, the recipients of an email thread.

A few things don't sit will here—mainly the lack of internal memory and lost touchwheel—but anyone who has used the TouchHD knows that the enhanced resolution is a welcome change. And not to repeat an all-too-obvious grievance, but HTC fans have long said that the Diamond and Pro should have been the company's Android handsets from the get-go, so it's hard to avoid being slightly disappointed by Windows Mobile 6.1, again.

HTC hasn't announced pricing yet, but should hit European and Asian markets by early Q2, with early H2 availability worldwide.

Ipod Touch on Thick as Thieves

I was watching the latest movie featuring Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas, Thick as Thieves. As the movie goes, they used this handy gadget IPOD Touch to spy on their next "prospect project".

Here are some snapshot of the movie. I know you wouldnt like me spoiling the rest of the movie. I just want to share it to you readers.

And I wonder what type application could do this. Hmmm makes me think...really?

Sony Ericsson Unveils Latest 8MP, 12MP Handset

Sony Ericsson launches latest 8MP, 12MP handset in market with including excellent features this is the amazing design of latest handset with attractive color it has excellent sound you can easily use this handset it is best for calling anywhere it has amazing quality of features.

I have a great passion of handsets this Sony Ericsson is really an excellent quality of amazing handset it has 8.1-megapixel loaded with Cyber-shot features, a video recorder and picture blogging, auto-focus, image stabilization, a 16x digital zoom, face detection a flash. It has W995 kickstand for video watching. It has also including some advance features such as PC syncing, a speakerphone, stereo Bluetooth, a voice recorder, gaming and direct access to YouTube, FM radio, phone as modem capability, messaging and email.

It has also including 12 megapixel cameras (no CyberShot) with Xenon flash, DLNA-compatible WiFi and GPS receivers.

Sony Ericsson is such a great company that offers excellent quality of finest features many of the further handsets are available in market but this new Sony Ericsson is best to others the color and design of this handset is so attractive and stylish. So what you think about this amazing handset it’s a great offer hurry-up!

Mario Brothers Mushroom USB Massager

Shoulders or body parts feel tired due to always working with computer? Don’t worry. Mini Mushroom USB Massager will help to get rid of your tired and stress. This is a regular scenario for us Call Center Agents, now here comes a very innovative and techy solution for our aching pains. The Mario Brothers Mushroom USB Massager!

Product Specifications

• Mini mushroom design
• Massage your tired body parts
• Helps to release stress and get rid of the tired
• On / Off knob
• Powered by USB
• Or powered by 3pcs AA batteries (Not included)
• Size: 85*85*70mm
• Weight: 110g

Lego teams up with Alcatel to release LEGOPHONE

Earlier this year Lego and Digital Blue announced combined efforts that would yield a variety of Lego-centric electronics aimed at kids. Slated to be released by this Summer, the announcement included details on a digital camera, a walkie talkie and an MP3 player - nothing too crazy. These functional toys would appear as though they had been built from lego bricks and would all fall into an affordable $20 - $60 price range. Cool. An anonymous tipster may have just shined some light on a yet-to-be-announced element of this partnership however, that might bump the endeavor’s interest-factor from a 1.1 to an even 2.

As you can see from the image above, Alcatel is apparently jumping into the mix and the trio is planning to make their best effort at putting cell phones in the hands of children at an even more inappropriately young age. Woo! From the looks of things, the Lego phone will consist of a base structure containing the body and display of the handset, while a series of modular attachments can be snapped on - likely just for color variation as opposed to changing the functionality of the handset to some extent. Little else is know at this point but we’ll be sure to update you as soon as possible so you don’t lose too much sleep over it. Hit the jump for a bigger shot showing off more modular pieces.

Mozilla releases Fennec Firefox Mobile

Ask, and ask, and ask….and ye shall receive. Mozilla has finally unleashed a functional “Milestone Release” version of its Fennec mobile Firefox browser. Available immediately for anyone with an HTC Touch Pro. The release version is limited in several ways, most notably without support for soft keyboards, automatic version updating, and plugins, but everything else should work more or less as promised.

This is exciting news for anyone that has been eagerly anticipating Mozilla’s official move into the mobile space, and hopefully marks the beginning of significant product development for something that will hopefully do to Pocket Internet Explorer/Opera Mini what the desktop version of Firefox has done to its Internet Explorer equivalent, i.e. render it obsolete. Anyone interested in taking the release for a test drive should hit the Read link for access to the CAB file, though we definitely recommend making a complete backup of your handset before proceeding too eagerly.

Anyways, read all the documentation here.

Nokia 5800 XPRESS MUSIC Nam revealed details

Nokia fans in the US are most definitely used to waiting. First it was the long wait for Nokia to begin offering its Symbian handsets more widely in the US which then lead to the wait for a wider variety of S60 devices packing 850/1900 MHz WCDMA compatibility. While each of those issues have been addressed to some extent, there’s still the ever-present wait for NAM counterparts of handsets that have been available elsewhere for months. Enter the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia’s first touch-enabled S60 5th Edition handset. Released months ago in some regions, it looks like North American Nokians will finally be able to get their mitts on the 5800 XpressMusic circa February 26th, a Thursday.

This is apparently the date the handset will become available to US retailers however, so we wouldn’t expect units to actually be fulfilled for at least a few days thereafter. As for pricing, MSRP is set at $399 which has ballooned slightly from the ~$360 at which the handset was announced. All the same, Nokians looking to get their touch on will still be likely to jump on the 5800 especially considering a new round of rumors that suggest a delayed N97 release.

Facebook now part of OpenID board

Social networking giant Facebook has announced that they are now joining the OpenID board.

OpenID is already supported by several other industry giants including MySpace, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and IBM.

Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s director of engineering spoke about this new development: “It is our hope that we can take the success of Facebook Connect and work together with the community to build easy-to-use, safe, open and secure distributed identity frameworks for use across the Web.”

Facebook Connect is designed to make it easier for users to supply their personal information to web services on the web securely.

Luke Shepard, a member of Facebook’s Platform and Connect teams would now become a new member of the eight-member OpenID board.

David Recordon of SixApart and Chris Messina of Vidoop spoke about Facebook’s decision to join them: “Given the popularity and positive user experience of Facebook Connect, we look forward to Facebook working within the community to improve OpenID’s usability and reach.”

Chris Messina, David Recordon, Facebook, facebook connect, Google, IBM, Luke Shepard, Microsoft, Mike Schroepfer, MySpace, OpenID, SixApart, Social Networking, Vidoop, Yahoo

Nokia E63

The Nokia E63 has a beautiful deep colored shell and is very good with emailing if you need to and it has so many great features on it, it’s just like bringing your Pc with you, so you never have to miss your office if you just simply can’t be there. The E63 focus is to maintain your professional business and your more private matters in life, by allowing you to participate in your social life and browse your more private emails and now you have access anywhere to do this.

The E63 also has really neat Wi Fi Connectivity to keep you in touch in public or private places, and mail for Exchange support will keep you updated technically and even chatting with your buddies at the office. There are speed dial types of features so you won’t have to fumble through numbers trying to call and for such a small device you get access to 1GB file Storage. Now this phone is really a great buy.

The call center industry is dominating the world of the business process outsourcing (BPO) in which the Philippines is considered as the home for largest contact centers in the world.

Beyond this booming industry is a promising future for Filipinos being in the Third World country. The gift of call center is a blessing for Filipino people because the country is being looked up as leader in the outsourcing. This is true, several surveys have been done before why the Philippines is considered as location for outsourcing. The surveys led by the private sectors revealed that the country significantly compete in off-shoring industry. It is a window of hope to young Filipino workers, who directly employed in this industry even they are undergraduate.

Beyond call center promotes huge revenue advantage. In the Philippines, it was reported by the country’s Chief Executive that the earnings in the outsourcing dramatically increase this year. In return, the national government continue to strengthen their partnership among contact center executives. Proving their support of being friendly to the investors are proof why these giant contact centers want to stay up and running in the Philippines.

Beyond call center promotes a realistic preparation in the future of the Philippines. It is now known in the business world that can never be ignored. The presence of call center lessen the unemployment rate of the country. Since there’s no problem in getting job in outsourcing, Filipino workers can easily grasp the lifestyle in call centers. Filipinos are competent and can talk with passion and accent with their American clients. Their trainings are wonderful and considered as extensive.

Beyond call center is a reflection of having a stable industry, which will continue in the next following years. The target of the government will soon achieve because many call center companies are now entering in the country’s business circle. Large and small contact centers enjoy the privilege given to them by the government. No need to worry about security because they are safe and being prioritized all the time. The country’s finest policemen continue to conduct surveillance in any of the financial districts in metro Manila. call center companies are considered as vital installation, since many of them occupying the skyscrapers, the government always monitor them in a case to case basis.

Beyond call center is a strong nation. If the government is considered as investment hub, no wonder that this is a country which practices standard politicking. The Philippines is among of them. Though political bickering is almost happening elsewhere. But when it comes to the public interest, the politicians from the local and national unite each other to promote peace and nationwide camaraderie. No call center companies will stay in the country if political noise is unresolved. With the present situation right now, it is with great respect and desire that contact center locators will remain operational in the Philippines.

Call center and beyond is now the pride of every Filipino. Working closely with the government will provide a better chain of command between the business partners, the lawmakers and the workers. The Philippines will continue to raise up the flag that call center is a dominant industry in the country today.

The designer flash drive is usually overlooked as a status symbol, but not anymore. Whip out a one of a kind state of the art wookden beauty at your next cocktail party, and prepare to bask in the envious OOOHs and AHHHs of your friends and acuaitances.

Made by quirky Netherlands design company Oooms, each USB memory stick is arafted from an actual branch, handpicked from sylvan forests,. That means no two pieces look quite a likfe - some have knots or squiggly marks left by worms.

The drices are avaiable in 512, 1GB, and 2GB sizes. Its a steal for a piece of art, coz price is kinda steep.

But the sight of a protruding twig on you notebook is priceless.

A bill requiring “anyone answering or initiating a call at a center used by a U.S. business to disclose location” is currently under consideration in the US Congress. In short, if this becomes law, we’ll probably see employees at local centers say “My name is Juan dela Cruz, and I’m from the Philippines” at beginning of each call.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jason Altmire, a democrat from Pennsylvania, also wants it to apply to call centers based in the US. “It may make a difference for people in deciding who they will do business with” he said.

My source from the local call center industry (actually, a friend who used to work for eTelecare) said that she was not allowed to reveal her location unless asked directly by the customer.

So, if the Call Center Consumer’s Right to Know Act becomes law, how will it affect the growing call center industry in the Philippines? Personally, I think more “customer service associates” in the here will find out just what jingoism is, even if they’re part of the outsourcing process that lets Americans enjoy lower prices.

Would using wording like “Hi, I’m Juan dela Cruz, from the beautiful country of the Philippines!” work? Probably not.

How well do you look after your customers? Most companies probably think they do a good job, but the addition of technology into large, national call centers has caused many organizations to focus on technology solutions as opposed to people solutions.

• 1. If your call center uses a feature where a customer can leave a number where they can be reached by the next available customer service representative, turn it off and hire more customer service representatives.
• 2. A call center manager must rely on technology to track important statistics like the amount of time a customer waits on hold. Any time greater than one minute should be considered to be inadequate. By monitoring these statistics, priority can be given to improving staffing levels.
  
  
  
• 3. If your first point of contact with your customer is having a recorded message telling them how important their call is, you may want to look at changing the message. If their call was important, it would be immediately answered by a real person - not a computer.
• 4. If your marketing team suggests that a marketing campaign should be created around a “focus” or “commitment” to customer service, laugh at them and tell them they should take the marketing money allocated for that campaign and spend it on actually improving customer service.
• 5. Here’s a great idea. If your company sends invoices or bills to your customers, reduce the amount of calls to the call center by simplifying the bills. Bills that are too confusing are a leading cause of calls into a busy call center.
• 6. Make your executives and managers spend a day in the seat of a customer service representative. Give them a good idea of the challenges that are faced by your front-line workers.

Traditional ROI calculations use the level of profit generated by an asset divided by the value of the asset and expressed as a percentage. That’s fine but when we seek to ascribe a value to non-profit generating assets we need to look at ways in which we can quantify the value that the call center is contributing to overall business operations.

Call center data management and manipulation has lent itself particularly well to KPI metric and Balanced Scorecard methodology. KPI/Balanced Scorecard techniques are a mainstay of the management of any call center and using the metrics that are being produced from these management information tools allows to start calculating an approximation for ROI.

If we move away from the idea of profit centers that need to be maximized and cost centers that need to be cut so logically increasing profit, we can start thinking of the different business components as contributing value.

What is the value that we can ascribe to a call center it doesn’t create anything?

First, lets look at a revised ROI calculation, we can pretty easily work out a cost for the call center which is going to be used in the ROI calculation if we use that as asset value of the ROI number crunching.

Second, if we look at the relative contribution of call center activities we can start ascribing a value based on the effect on our financial and management accounting information. Linking information from customer service feedback and focus groups will allow us to develop an idea of the impact on repeat business for instance. Repeat business is something that our accounting and CRM system will be monitoring so we can get a value for that. The customer survey and feedback groups will also give an indication as to how important our customer service is in winning repeat business orders and that will in turn allow us to infer a value for that proportion of repeat business that is attributable to the call center efforts.

We are now close to being able to perform an ROI calculation in that we have determined a value that is created for the expense of our customer service efforts made by the call center.

Using such attributable value calculations for ROI is not flawless but it does provide a valuable tool for tracking the value of a non-revenue division that is being contributed to overall business success. Tracking ROI of this nature over time, as long as the calculation is made on a consistent basis will help indicate and highlight the relative success of initiatives and investment in the call center.

Calculating an overall ROI can be done by a broader attribution of value that is created by the call center and the total expense that is incurred by it. Used alone such an ROI calculation is not going to be of much help but the use of the incremental ROI that can be calculated for discrete costs and further investment in the call center is very useful for helping to justify whether incremental investment should be made or not.

The last time that you purchased something, did you happen to see on the bottom of the label an 800 number that you can call to find out information about the product or other products or services that the company offered? Or the last time that you traveled and had a question regarding the tickets that you had purchased, were you referred to and given a number to call? These places that companies now have you call with questions regarding their products or services are called “contact centers.”

Running a business such as an airline or drug company has its own problems, without having to constantly deal with customers or clients that have questions or problems. Also, when these customers and clients do have their issues it is imperative that they be solved as expediently as possible, so all parties involved are happy. Managing a contact center is a major undertaking, because if it isn’t done right a business will lose customers and money.

Contact Center Outsourcing Services Are Experts at Customer Relations

This is why more and more businesses are turning to contact center outsourcing as a solution to this issue. By using a contact center outsourcing service, business managers are then freed up to focus on actually running the business. Also, the business benefits by having a company handle this area of customer relations and service that specializes in it.

Cost Savings for the Business

A contact center outsourcing business is able to help the businesses that they serve to cut costs at the same time, which allows them to be more competitive. This is because, when a call is placed to a contact center outsourcing business it can all be handled over seas or by cheap labor subcontracted by a states prison industries in the U.S.