http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...l_040401115552
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Tech-crazy Swedes nearly choked on their morning coffee on April Fools' Day when the country's largest newspaper reported that billions of dollars had been unnecessarily invested in next generation mobile phone technology since old mobiles aimed at TVs could show movies.
AFP/File Photo
The April Fools Day joke in Dagens Nyheter on Thursday quoted a researcher at Sweden's top engineering school KTH, Hubert Hochsztapler, as saying that he made the remarkable discovery by fluke.
"When I was programming my video recorder one evening I happened to pick up my mobile phone instead of the remote control. When I punched in the Showview number (of the program to record), I discovered to my surprise that I could see the film on the display of my old GSM phone," he said.
An illustration accompanying the article showed that if you shake your GSM, or second-generation, phone hard enough, you can access the new high-tech third-generation (3G) frequency which is only supposed to be available to 3G phones.
Sweden is home to mobile phone giant Ericsson (news - web sites) and has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates.
Special masts have been erected across the country to accommodate the arrival of the 3G technology, which is designed to provide e-mail, high-speed Internet surfing and live sound and image broadcasts to compatible handsets.
"Our discovery shows that the 3G development is completely unnecessary. We can start to tear down the masts tomorrow," Hochsztapler told Dagens Nyheter.