Nokias bendable future phone

We have seen bendable displays in the past from Samsung, LG and Toshiba, but none of them have really put it into a functional prototype.

Now Nokia had their Nokia World in London and Tapani Jokinen, Head of Design at Nokia showed off their bendable phone and how it would react when you bend it different ways.

The user will control this flexible Nokia Kinetic phone by bending, twisting and even squeezing it. Different bends will result in different functions on the phone and he had a good point when he said that it makes it much easier to use in the cold winters in Finland when you are wearing gloves.

Check out the video:

Pretty cool!

@maniac13

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@eunmac talks Mobile Marketing on Gruen Transfer Sessions

OK, so our ever-so-modest founder, Iain McDonald (@eunmac) is likely to have a whinge about me putting this up on our blog, but I love it so it’s going up anyway.

WATCH: The Gruen Sessions – Mobile Marketing

PS: is it just possible that he managed to surpass me on the hind leg donkey talk-off? 😉

Jen x

My Gadget wish list for 2010

In my line of work (and because I love it) I come across a lot of cool gadgets and usually (at least if you ask my wife) I spend too much money on them.

So this year I will follow my moms advice and make myself a list.

Usually I start these lists with the least and work my way up to the best, but I want to start with the device I really really want this year.

1. Samsung Galaxy S

I have been using my 8310 blackberry for too long and for a while there I was carrying around 3 devices to do my phonecalls, emails and browsing and gaming, but the Samsung will be able to do all that.

So why do I want it?

for a start I don’t like the iPhone (don’t get me wrong I think it is a good phone for “normal” users), but it just doesn’t do what i want from a phone.

apart from that here is my  shortlist on why I want it:

* 4 inch WVGA Super Amoled screen (finally a device i can use outside)
* big (as in big capacity) battery – 1500mAh
* 16GB internal memory + extendable with micro sd
* wireless n
* camera capable of 720p video @ 30fps
* support of MPeg4, H.263, H.264, WMV, RV, DivX, Xvid and MKV – no more converting movies
* Samsung Social Hub – no more opening up app after app after app – I just have it all in one inbox – sweet

 

2. Tablet

I had a chance to play with the iPad for a few weeks now and I have to say I am not impressed – especially since Apple announced the AU pricing for it today and again, Australia gets screwed – all you really get is a big iPod

so what do I want in a Tablet?

iPhone OS 4.0: The 7 “Tentpole Features”

A few hours ago, Mr Jobs delivered a presentation introducing the next version of the iPhone operating system. Expected to be released  around the middle of the year for all existing iPhone models, its reported to bring 1500 new APIs to developers as well as more than 100 new user features, seven of which he discussed in detail.

These are the “tentpole” features highlighted briefly.

1) Multitasking

At last! Run multiple applications and swap between them on the fly. Previously only possible on jailbroken phones. This feature will only be available to the 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd Generation and later models.

2) An improved email application

The mail application is getting a major overhaul with a unified inbox, multiple exchange accounts, threaded conversations and the ability to open file attachments in applications.

3) iAds

Apple will be providing application developers access to in-app advertising to help generate revenue on cheap and even free applications. Ads are built using HTML5 and come up at the bottom of the screen like in-video YouTube ads. They can be closed by the user.

4) Game Center

Basically, it’s Xbox LIVE for iPhone games. Their are already a number of systems such as Plus+ and OpenFeint, but a single Apple-run system would likely attract a lot more users.

5) Folders

Another “about time”! With the capacity on idevices increasing yearly, users are installing more and more applications at a time. Now we will have a way to organise them into folders. Folders appear as icons with smaller icons inside.

6) iBooks

Basically, the iPhone/iPod version of the iPad ebook platform. Books can be purchased and read on the device as well as track bookmarks.

7) Enterprise features

Apple is working to make the iPhone more attractive to big companies with a number of new enterprise features such as email encryption, remote administration and application installs, Exchange 2010 compatibility and more.

Tested.com has a detailed breakdown here. Great site, too!

These all look great, but I can’t wait to see the other 93+. I’m sure some of them will give hints about the next iPhone hardware’s features. Going on previous years, we can probably expect a new phone in June and a new iPod in September.

@bradyohalloran

(via Tested.com)

Apple revealing iPhone OS 4 on April 8

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little bit sick of seeing iPad news everywhere. *Looks down at previous post*. Personally, I’m more interested in seeing what Apple has in store for the iPhone. It’s pretty obvious they’re going to be releasing another one this year and many of us that got a 3G are going to be ending our contracts soon.

Good news is, we don’t have to wait long! Apple will be revealing where OS 4 is going at an event on April 8. Strange to do such a major event so close to the iPad launch, but I’m not complaining.

There have been a lot of rumors floating around about what the next phone might have – higher resolution screens, multi-core processors, front-facing cameras for video calls. Seeing what OS4 brings will give us the best hints yet of what we might get later this year.

With all the competition catching up – and perhaps surpassing – the iPhone, they’re going to have to bring something pretty good to stay on top.

@bradyohalloran

(via Engadget)

Pepsi powered mobile phone

My iphone ran out of battery last night … pesky thing. I’m too impatient to wait and see if Steve has a solution to this problem so I started searching. Anyway, I stumbled across this piece of innovation: a phone that runs on pepsi … well any fizzy pop.

This little beauty is made possible thanks to a bio battery:

Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable. Meanwhile, it brings a whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea.

Genius. More here

@handypearce

Orange friend-o-meter

An interactive quiz to promote the launch of the Motorola Dext (‘The Super Social Networking Machine’). This quiz connects to twitter, facebook and myspace and tests how well you know your friends by pulling data from their profiles and feeds.

Pretty cool ‘eh.

@handypearce

Are Your iPhone Apps Phoning Home?

I-Phone-Home is a new website dedicated to reporting on iPhone apps that “phone home”, or contact the developer over the Internet, without your consent or knowledge. In one case, it was determined a fairly popular app was phoning home to the developer with your phone number…

Disclaimer: Amnesia Razorfish in no way endorses the jailbreaking of iPhones.

Details emerge for iPhone OS 3.0

Yesterday, Apple released details about the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 which adds a bunch of new things iPhone owners have been asking for… but leaves a few out.

The next version of the OS, which will arrive mid-year will offer developers “over 1000 new APIs” to work with.

Highlights of the feature-set include:

• Cut, Copy and Paste! – and about time too.
• MMS! – Quite frankly the lack of MMS was embarrassing to me and a source of amusement for those around me.
• In-App purchasing – A cool idea, but a way for iPhone app developers to potentially nickel-and-dime us to death.
• Peer-to-Peer connectivity – LAN games? Sweet.
• Push notifications – Developers will be able to build message, sound and badge alerts into their apps.
• Landscape keyboard available everywhere – Write texts and emails with a larger keyboard.
• Voice memos – No need to buy a separate app for this now.
• System-wide search – Easily find things in your messages, notes, mail and media files.

Sadly, the capability for applications to run in the background and (official) video recording using the camera is still out.

TUAW.com have a feature round-up here.

Apple have also released a video of the full presentation here.

Microsoft Tag reinvents the QR Code/Data Matrix

Microsoft has released its answer to QR Codes and Data Matrixes with the appropriately named Microsoft Tag.

Using colours and shape-orientation, the tags are designed to display more information in a smaller place, as well as work when out of focus, which works a lot better with mobile devices where the focal distance is fixed.

Readers for many mobile phones (including the iPhone!) have been released and can be downloaded by browsing to http://gettag.mobi on your mobile device.

You can read more, and make your own tags at http://www.microsoft.com/tag/

I was very impressed with how well it worked on my iPhone. I’ve tried lots of QR/Data Matrix readers out but the poor quality of the camera in the iPhone has always let me down. The Tag worked without a hitch.

They’re still in beta, so no word on if there will eventually be a cost to use these.

Don’t talk while you are driving

Looks like you soon won’t be able to do that at all.

University of Utah engineers have invented a wireless car key device to stop motorists from talking on their cell phone or sending text messages while driving.

Each driver of a car would have a separate key device. When the key is extended from the device, it sends a signal to the teenage driver’s phone, putting the phone in "driving mode" so it cannot be used to talk or send texts. The phone displays a stop sign while in driving mode.

The University has licensed the Key2SafeDriving technology to a private company, which hopes to have the device on the market within six months, possibly through cell phone plan providers.

New domain to be web’s phone book

Companies are now able to purchase domains atop the .tel Top Level Domain, which it’s hoped will become the new “online telephone directory”.

Called .tel, the domain is intended to act as a universal contact point rather than as a hook on which to hang websites.

Owners of .tel domains will be encouraged to populate it with details about how they can be contacted.

Read the full article from the BBC.

Never charge your phone again!

OK OK don’t get too excited yet because it’s still theoretical.

But Cagin (a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University) and his partners from the University of Houston have found that a certain type of piezoelectric material can covert energy at a 100 percent increase when manufactured at a very small size.

Cagin says: Even the disturbances in the form of sound waves such as pressure waves in gases, liquids and solids may be harvested for powering nano- and micro devices of the future if these materials are processed and manufactured appropriately for this purpose.

Which means that you could charge your phone while you are talking on it. Imagine a self-powering cell phone that never needs to be charged because it converts sound waves produced by the user into the energy it needs to keep running.

Splash Proof coatings for your (i)Phone

Have you ever dropped your phone accidentally in water or have you been surprised by rain while out jogging and listening to your iPod?

You don’t need to be worried about it anymore as there is Golden Shellback.

It’s a unique coating that protects critical operational equipment against damage and loss of function caused by exposure to weather and moisture. It is ideal for application in the electronics industry.

It produces a vacuum deposited film that is nonflammable, has low toxicity and has the ability to weatherproof electronic devices and other surfaces.

 

check out their website here.

and here is some pricing.

Nokia Develops a Smart Home Platform

Nokia’s Home Control Center will be the basis for next generation security, smart home solutions and household energy management systems.

The platform is open allowing third parties to integrate their own smart home solutions and services; its core consumer value is the plug and play experience across all solution areas with high security levels built in. All solutions based on the platform can be used through a smart phone or PC locally or remotely. Consumers can monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion. In future, entire systems within the home can be connected to the Nokia platform, including security, heating, and ventilation systems.

sweet! I don’t even have to get off the couch now 🙂

read more here.

Samsung concept phone unfolds

Cellphones are caught in this awkward spot where they’ve got to be small — like pocketable, doesn’t-look-ridiculous-on-your-face small — and yet somehow big enough to pack an expansive, pretty display that’s capable of displaying a lot of stuff at once. That’s a paradox that has forced manufacturers into some curious form factorsover the years, but ultimately, if you want to somehow cram the desktop viewing experience into a device the size of a pack of cigarettes

Samsung’s new concept phone shown off at the FPD International show in Yokohama comes into play, opening like a book to reveal a flexible OLED big enough to handle those cute puppy videos that no plain-vanilla, 2.5-inch display can do justice. There’s no word on when a so-equipped handset might see production

Bendable, ultra-thin fuel cells coming soon

MyFC is a fuel cell company that is showing prototypes of fuel cells that could be built into cases a la the Mophie. The cells run on small hydrogen packs and can fold over surfaces. They could even be embedded inside cellphone bodies.

The company has two products, the 1636 chip that fits inside a charger-sized enclosure and the FuelCellSticker, the bendable model. The maximum output is 0.9W at .5V while the four-cell model outputs 3.2W at 2V. It is .11 inches (3mm) thick and weighs a mere .2 ounces (5g).

The company is currently making these devices to order and they are reasonably priced at consumer levels. The 1636 reference design works now while the bendable models are available in any shape and size.

Don’t look for these at Circuit City just yet, but they’re amazingly close to production.

Microsoft takes multi-touch beyond the screen

Microsofts SideSight research project promises to do away with that pesky need to actually touch the screen. To do that, Microsoft proposes to employ a whole range of proximity sensors around a device, which would be able to detect gestures up to ten centimeters away, with a quick motion towards the device representing a click, for instance, or a twisting motion letting you rotate an image.

While Microsoft has actually built a prototype of sorts using an HTC Touch (seen above), it still has quite a ways to go, as the sensors on the prototype actually just connected to a PC via USB and then relayed back to the phone using Bluetooth. Eventually, however, Microsoft says that the system could allow for multi-touch to be used on very small devices, which could possibly even use printed sensors that would cover the entire casing.

full story here.

Nokia 5800 Music Xpress first thoughts Vs iPhone

I held off buying an iPhone 3G, partly because I really like my N95 but mainly because the iPhone lacked a few features I use like video calling, MMS etc. The 5800 MusicXpress is the latest challenger so here’s the first look:

What’s good about the Nokia 5800?
– GPS, Bluetooth 2.0
– Flash 9 built in to web browsing (yeahhhhh!)
– Video Calling, VGA res 30fps
– 640×360 screen
– MMS
– TV out
– 3.2 Mp camera with dual flash Carl Zeiss
– Touch screen (but does not look as good as iPhone
– Accelerometer (for switching landscape / portrait modes)
– Weight (109g)
– Price (est 279 Euros)
– All you can eat music downloads coming soon (here)

What’s Bad
– Can’t see any multi-touch in use.
– Nokia just don’t get UI as well as ‘others’ do. It’s still clunky.
– No transitions (moving between any content causes page refresh).
– Fonts + Menus still too big! (This phone has great resolution but Nokia just made everything bigger Argh! Nokia… please – when browsing contacts some of us want the option to not have to scroll through 500 pages of contacts when we could simply see more on one page).

Accelerometer Game on the Nokia 5800:

Verdict:
Q: Should I buy a Nokia 5800 instead of an iPhone 3G?
A: If you want heaps of features then it’s a YES. If you are obsessed with having an eye-candy interface then it’s a NO.

City Sense – social media, GPS enabled phone app.

LBS (Location Based Services) are relatively untapped at the moment but nice to see some interesting social LBS apps appearing. CitySense (here) have an app showing you where to go based on density of activity in San Francisco. It’s not the first, there have been a few – loopt.com have been offering social GPS tools for a while and even Optus had their GPS friend finder app (which unfortunately was a rip off charging >50c to show you the location of a mate).

Now that data plans are looking healthier and there are more phones with GPS, all we really need is better batteries – we all know GPS sucks the juice big time making these apps on your phone a little painful to have running. Alternatively it would be easier for us all if telcos could offer triangulated GPRS data to third parties. Yes, I know… privacy issues but nothing that couldn’t be overcome through permission based apps. IMO proprietary systems like CitySense will probably see limited success until the telcos finally switch onto the need and wide ranging consumer potential for LBS.

Credit to Jon Moss (Appleofmyi) for his post (here) on Citysense. Thanks Jon!