Tokyo, Dec. 16 : More than six years after it experimented with mobile phones, the North Korean Government has launched a mobile phone service.

Described as one of the world''s most secretive and tightly controlled states, the launch is seen as striking in a country where the tuning of television sets and radios is limited to state channels and internet access is restricted to senior government and military officials.

Officials concluded a deal with the Egyptian telecommunications group Orascom to launch a third-generation mobile network, but the service is likely to be available to only a few of North Korea''s 23 million inhabitants, the Guardian reports.

Seoul - In a country known as the world's most guarded safe haven for domestically produced phones, South Korean mobile phone carriers said they are ready to launch overseas-made handsets from Apple, RIM and Nokia.

Carriers are already in the final stages of getting non-Korean phones into the domestic market for consumers who have been anxiously waiting for trendy headsets like Apple's iPhone, after regulators lifted a rule requiring headsets to include include local software, which effectively closed the market to foreign producers.

South Korean regulators last week announced that of April 1, 2009, the mandatory Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability will be discontinued.

London, Dec 4 : Mobile mogul Nokia has announced the launch of a system that would link your cellphone to automatic home systems and help control heating, home security cameras and even draw curtains.

The Nokia Home Control Centre is a wireless router, which can interface with equipment around the home.

The company has collaborated with European energy company RWE to manage heating systems and is hoping other firms will sign up soon.

The gadget is being demonstrated at Nokia World in Barcelona.

"We believe that the mobile device is the ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home," BBC quoted Teppo Paavola, vice president of business development at Nokia as saying.

Washington, December 2 : An Israeli mobile phone provider has started a Koran text service that enables users to tap into verses of choice from the Holy Book at will.

Pelephone has revealed that those subscribers to the service have the Koran available onscreen so that they can scroll through chapter and verse.

The service is available for the modest sum of 1.50dollar per month

"We are providing something to subscribers who want to be connected to these texts any time and any place. So naturally we are targeting a population that would use this type of service. Our Arab sector customers are very enthusiastic," Fox News quoted Pelephone Product Content Director Moti Cohen as saying.

London, Nov 28 : The Vatican has warned that people obsessed with modern technology, such internet and mobile phones risked, are risking losing their souls.

Washington, November 21 : Devices like cell phones, digital cameras, and notebook computers may soon be available with longer running times, thanks to Korean researchers at Hanyang University who have developed a new material for anodes that are used in their batteries to absorb lithium ions.

Research leader Jaephil Cho has revealed that the new material involves three-dimensional silicon structures that are highly porous.

Lithium ion accumulator batteries produce current by moving lithium ions. They usually contain a cathode (positive electrode) made of a mixed metal oxide, such as lithium cobalt oxide, and an anode (negative electrode) made of graphite.