Listen up, readers in India: ASUSTeK Computer, Inc. (ASUS), a provider of digital home solutions, on Monday launched what it calls “the world’s first wireless music Skype phone,” in the Indian market.

The AiGuru S1 provides free international calls via Skype, WiFi connectivity, wireless music player functions, and remote controller features.

“The goal of digital home technologies is to share computer resource with other electronic devices around the house and provide greater convenience,” said Joe Hsieh, director of ASUS’ digital home business, in a statement. “The AiGuru S1 packed several practical features for easy and wireless access of PC functions.

I thought this was kind of interesting when I saw it: WiMAX day reports that the subway operating company in Seoul, South Korea—Seoul Metro—is planning to begin installation of wireless Internet access in its underground trains next year.

The service will be provided by KT, using WiBro technology. Access will be available in some trains and stations this coming January, with coverage of the entire system by end of 2007.

The English version of chosun.com notes that the WiBro installation is a sidebar to Seoul Metro’s $439 million project replacing hundreds of aging subway trains, slated to be complete by 2009.

Last week I wrote an article about a new location-based service from Helio that lets friends find out the location of their nearby friends using a mobile phone.

Apparently, this type of service is becoming more popular, especially for younger mobile phone users; today an announcement landed on my desk about a similar service being launched by Boost Mobile (a Sprint Nextel brand) and loopt (a social mapping service startup in Palo Alto, CA).

The service, Boost loopt (try saying that ten times fast), “leverages the only 100 percent GPS-enabled wireless network to automatically update the location of everyone in a private network of Boost customers and displays that information directly on a map on the phone,” the companies said in a press release.

In a statement, Boost Mobile’s Director of Value Added Services, said: “Fourteen to 25-year-olds are committed to their social circles and constantly want to know where their friends ‘are at.’ They also comprise the majority of Boost Mobile’s customer base. 

In a recent blog entry, I wrote about T-Mobile’s dual-mode (WiFi/Cellular) service being rolled out in Seattle. In the entry, I posed the question: “are consumers actually interested in dual-mode services?”

A definite “yes” answer came from a reader who asked to be identified as Levi from Nairobi, Kenya, who is attending graduate school in the U.S. and wants a cheaper way to communicate with friends and family back home.

India’s telecommunications and electrical infrastructures, two arguably key elements necessary for technological advancements, leave something to be desired. By some estimates, for example, annual investment of $20 billion is needed to bring the country’s electrical grid up to snuff to meet yearly demand increases of about seven percent.

But, the country is pushing ahead into the twenty-first century despite the obstacles. Red Herring reported in its Oct. 30 edition that Aircel Business Solutions has committed as much as $100 million to build a WiMAX network in the southern city of Chennai.