Telemarketers will not call you on your cell phone.

Ominous e-mails that have been warning consumers that telemarketers will soon start calling cell phone numbers are either part of a hoax or a misunderstanding by those who sent the messages, regulators and consumer groups say.

Still, the messages - widely assumed to be legitimate - aretriggering a surge in sign-ups for the national do-not-call list.

Well at least we won’t be getting bombarded by stupid telemarketers when we’re not even at home.

New smartphones from top global mobile phone maker Nokia will have pre-installed Internet services, like email, from internet media company Yahoo Inc.

“We aim to get Yahoo’s services on the phones in as many countries and channels as possible,” a Nokia spokesman said.

In the first quarter, Nokia shipped 5.4 million smartphones, accounting for a 50 percent share of the global smartphone market, research firm Canalys said earlier.

Smartphones run computer-like applications such as navigation programs, e-mail and enterprise planning software.

Everything keeps on getting smarter, but soon all of the people will be dumber.

A new technology promises to turn cellular phones into mobile blogging tools.

The application, called “Rabble,” streamlines the now-cumbersome process for publishing text or images from a cell phone to a Weblog. It also creates a way to search mobile blogs for items of interest — from homes for sale in a particular neighborhood to updated tour information for a favorite band.

What will they add to cell phones next?

The Hilton hotel chain will be introducing clocks with patented, easy-to-set alarms and station presets.

Hilton will install 250,000 new clocks in 975 hotels across six of its brands from March through July. Hampton Inn clocks will not have the jacks for portable music players.

The clocks, developed by a unit of Timex, include four preset buttons offering local pop, country and rock stations as well as news. Other buttons allow users to set the time in any of seven time zones.

To ensure that hotel occupants aren’t startled by an alarm set by a previous guest, the alarm must be reset each night. That’s easy: The three required steps are printed on the front of each clock.

I’ve never stayed in a Hilton, but maybe I’ll get to stay in a Hampton Inn and try out the new clock radios.

Universal Serial Bus (USB) Flash Drives are replacing CDs, floppy disks and giant e-mail attachments. These key-chain size gadgets are sold for as little as 10 dollars.

USB drives are showing up everywhere, from major electronics retailers to campus bookstores. No. 1 PC maker Dell now lets shoppers substitute a USB drive instead of a floppy drive on some computers. About 98 million are expected to be sold worldwide this year, a 57% increase from 63 million in 2004, researcher In-Stat says.

I just recently got one and I can’t live without it!

AOL plans to lauch a free Web mail service later this year.

The move furthers AOL’s strategy of opening its doors to nonmembers and will place the company on par with portal rivals MSN, Yahoo and Google.

The new Web mail service integrates AOL Instant Messenger presence awareness, drag and drop capabilities, a new address book, and the ability to rescind unread e-mail sent to other AOL members within a revamped user interface.

I’m excited about the new AOL mail. I’m an avid user of AOL instant messenger and would love to have an e-mail address to correspond with my screen name.

More people than ever are driving while talking on their cell phones, according to a survey released.

The survey showed 8 percent of drivers, or 1.2 million people, were using hand-held or handsfree cell phones during daylight hours last year, a 50 percent increase since 2002 and a 100 percent rise in four years.

The District of Columbia and New Hampshire no longer allow talking on hand-held cell phones while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Some communities, such as Brookline, Mass., Santa Fe, N.M., and Lebanon, Pa., require handsfree cell phones, but about a half-dozen states prohibit local governments from restricting cell phone use in motor vehicles.

I am guilty for talking on my cell phone while driving. I do know that talking on the phone can be distracting. I’m glad South Carolina does not have laws like D.C. and New Hampshire.

The New York Public Library is putting thousands of images online for free personal downloads.

The NYPL Digital Gallery will have 250,000 images available beginning Thursday, and the collection will grow to 500,000 images over the next several months, library officials announced Wednesday.

This is a great idea for a library, especially one as big as this one. Students could use this resource for projects without having to ride to the library and scan pictures.

The world’s first mobile phone virus has spread to the United States from the Philippines.

The virus, called Cabir, has spread slowly into 12 countries and marks the beginning of the mobile phone virus era, which could one day disrupt the lives of many of the world’s 1.5 billion mobile phone users.

The biggest impact of the relatively innocuous virus, found in about 15 variations so far, is draining mobile phone batteries, said Mikko Hypponen, director of Finnish anti-virus research company F-Secure (FSC1V.HE).

I wonder how we would know if our phone has been tampered by the virus. I think it’s great that phone companies are now offering phones with anti-virus software, but what about those of us who have phones with out the software? Is there anyway we can get it?

Blogs fit in Dalzell’s “free trade of ideas” because anyone can publish a blog and express their feelings on it, but as the University of Oregan proved, not all information on blogs is the truth.

After a university employee was told to remove a “Support the Troops” sticker from his truck - state policy prohibits personal stickers on state vehicles - bloggers accused the university of banning statements of support for the military. UO President Dave Frohnmayer said the accusations were untrue.

“The danger in blogging is that there isn’t that level of checking,” said John Russial, an associate professor in the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. “Information can get out there and it can be spread like wildfire, when in fact it might not be true.”

Journalism is a source of information people go to… to get the facts… the truth… the real news. People view journalists as professionals, but even Matt Drudge, of the “Drudge Report”, proved that one does not have to be educated to get the news out. Blogs are now becomming a source of news. They not only tell the news, but depending on the contributor, give an opinion as well.

Blogger information can be suspect, but the practice is on the rise, and traditional news organizations are watching the “blogosphere” more closely, looking for story ideas, Russial said.

Some journalists criticize bloggers as poor reporters, but others see bloggers as valuable watchdogs.

“Blogs have formed to monitor individual newsrooms and even certain journalists,” wrote Kelly McBride, of The Poynter Institute. “In response, journalists will get better and tougher.”

Bloggers can develop credibility the same way that traditional news organizations do, by building a reputation for accuracy, Russial said.

The more blogs become used, the more they will be accepted. Bloggers need to make sure all of their information is true and credible in order to continue posting their blogs.

Recent research shows that one of the most successful ways singles have found to find love is online.

Nearly all would-be Romeos and Juliets who used dating Web sites found someone to hook up with, says Dr Jeff Gavin, an expert on cyber dating who has conducted a poll into finding partners online.

“Ninety-four percent of those surveyed saw their ‘e-partner’ again after first meeting them, and the relationships lasted for an average of at least seven months,” he said.

Chatting with and getting to know people off the internet sounds like a good way to meet others, if done carefully. You never know if the person you are talking to is some psycho stalker.

Rolling Stone magazine has decided not to reject an ad for Zondervan’s new Bible translation. The advertisement will run unchanged this month.

“We have addressed the internal miscommunications that led to the previous misstatement of company policy and apologize for any confusion it may have caused,” Lisa Dallos, spokeswoman for Wenner Media, Rolling Stone’s parent company, said Monday. She declined to elaborate.

The ad, which will run unchanged in mid-February, doesn’t mention God. But it describes the Bible as “real truth” and carries the new translation’s slogan: “Timeless truth: Today’s language.”

Like I said in an earlier post about this topic, God will make a way and he obviously did. God allowed the executives of Rolling Stone to change their mind. This will be a great advertising and witnessing tool for Zondervan.

Commercials to be aired during the Super Bowl might be taking a more provocative angle this year.

So much for the much-talked-about “G-rated” Super Bowl. Cialis, maker of an erectile dysfunction (ED) drug, and Unilever’s new Degree for Men deodorant will be showing up with provocative ads for Fox’s airing of Super Bowl XXXIX on Feb. 6

I don’t believe that Fox should air these provocative commercials. So many children watch the Super Bowl and I feel as if these commercial might place images in their heads that will cause then to ask questions. The Super Bowl is family oriented and, even though the Janet Jackson catastrophy happened last year, I feel as if the Super Bowl company should strive to keep the game as “G-rated” as possible.

The magazine Rolling Stone recently rejected an ad from the nation’s largest Bible publisher, Zondervan.

The magazine rejected Zondervan’s Bible ad just weeks before its scheduled run date, citing an unwritten policy against accepting ads containing religious messages.

Zondervan executives say the entertainment magazine was key in its $1 million campaign to reach young adults who have rarely, if ever, seen Bible ads before. Surveys show that 53% of this age group read the Bible less than once a year or never, although they are huge buyers of books on spiritual and religious themes.

I’m sure Zondervan can find other ways to post their ad. Why not post it on a billboard on the side of the highway? Everyone would see it then. And from the Christian aspect, God will always make a way for things to work out even if it doesn’t happen on the first try.