For some weird reason which probably should not be analyzed too deeply, Hyundai has decided to create a cell phone based on a dolphin. For real. See the picture? Yep, it’s a dolphin phone. The side view is the only really interesting bit, otherwise the phone is mostly ho-hum, with a 240×400 touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, FM tuner, and a Yamaha speaker thrown in. It should cost an unlikely $320 when it’s released in May. Here’s what the actual phone looks like:
Except, you know what? To my dubiously trained eye, this looks a lot more like a whale phone. See for yourself, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
At Mobile World Congress 2009 this week, LG was displaying a new cell phone with a solar panel battery back that won’t need to be plugged in until the sun goes dead in 6-odd billion years. Ten minutes of sun gets you three minutes of talk time, which is not half bad… The phone is due to be released in Europe by the end of this year, but hopefully LG will take the obvious step of just manufacturing battery backs with integrated solar panels, which would allow existing handsets to be quickly and easily converted to solar charging.
The other thing in that picture is a solar powered Bluetooth hands-free speakerphone, the LG HFB-500. LG was giving these out at their press conference at CES, and it was just too nifty to include in our CES swag giveaway (sorry). It comes with a suction mount to stick it in the windshield of your car, as well as a power adapter that you’ll ideally never use. It’s got an on/off button (it shuts off automatically), a big call answer button, and some volume buttons. That’s it. I’ve had it up on the windshield of my car since January, and I’ve never had to charge it, it’s just always there and ready to go. The LG HFB-500 costs $70 or $80 depending on where you look, which is maybe a little steep, but having gadgets that are ever present and functional without any plugs or maintenance whatsoever is worth a little extra money, I’d say.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the GSM Association (which includes such members as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, and AT&T) has agreed for seriously we mean it this time they swear that they’re going to make allmost the majority of handsets micro-USB charger compliant soon by 2012. I’m sure they’re just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, and not because the European Union was threatening legal action, but let’s just say I’ll be more than a little bit shocked if cell phone manufacturers manage to give up the lucrative proprietary accessory market just because it’s a good idea that will make things easier for consumers and better for the environment.
LEGOs LEGO bricks are becoming popular gadget components; recently we’ve seen them in everything from USB hubs to digital cameras. But unlike those gadgets, this LEGO cell phone from Alcatel actually takes advantage of the whole point of LEGOs LEGO bricks, which is that you can take them apart and put them back together differently.
One of the features of the phone (which is otherwise fairly blah) is a basic white body, with modular LEGOy plates that can be snapped on to change the color scheme. So yes, it’s just a geeky version of interchangeable faceplates… But that’s what makes it awesome, right?
Disclosure: I don’t have an iPhone. But, I know people who do. As far as I can tell, none of them use their iPhones for much besides demonstrating to other people how cool their iPhones are. OLO Computer is trying to solve this gigantic and obvious uselessness problem with the iPhone by endowing it with a real keyboard and a largeish LCD. Despite the laptop form factor, the OLO doesn’t appear to have any guts inside it. All it is, is an alternate input and output system for your iPhone, which does all the hard work while also doubling as a multitouch trackpad.
Details on the OLO are pretty much limited to the picture, and the slogan “sorry, but your PC is out!” Whatever that means. It’s a good idea, but I’m skeptical, since it looks like there’d have to be some pretty serious hardware and software integration with Apple’s precious, and Apple doesn’t like people messing with Apple’s precioussssss that much.
Don’t you just hate those tiny little Bluetooth headsets that are for all practical purposes invisible and make the people using them appear to be babbling to themselves like weirdos? Yeah, me too. If you don’t want to be mistaken for a crazy person, get yourself one of these hands free cell phone holders that triples up as a random gadget holder and therapeutic neck brace. It’s made of foam, and shaped with a little slot that holds your phone up against your ear just like your hand would if you weren’t so lazy. The stretchable semi-transparent rubber skin holds the rest of your electronics conveniently at neck level, where the arterial blood keeping your face beet red in a perpetual state of embarrassment should keep everything toasty warm.
Thankfully, there’s no information on cost or availability.
It won’t surprise you to learn that this cell phone that looks like an iPhone but isn’t comes straight from China. It may surprise you that this cell phone has a little projector stuffed into it. This certainly isn’t the first tiny projector we’ve seen, and it’s not even the first portable device to incorporate one, but it does seem to be the first cell phone to use the technology (not Motorola, who my money was on).
Admittedly, the design (by ChinaKing) doesn’t appear to be especially refined. The projector looks to be rather unceremoniously kludged onto the end of the phone, making it perhaps half again as long as a projector-less model might be. The projector itself is LED backlit, and can supposedly project a 30″ 640×480 image for two hours. I don’t think I believe it, and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see one of these anywhere within reach of Apple’s litigation department in any case.
I know it can’t hold a candle to the Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker with Sprinkle Dispenser, but another little rumor that was confirmed on Monday was the release of the 3G iPhone 2.0. It’s been hyped for months and ultimately the specs on the 3G iPhone come as no big surprise, except for the price… The 8 gig version is only $200 with a contract from AT&T. Doubling the storage to 16 gigs will run you an extra $100, and the 16 gig version comes in black and white. That’s right, white is now the new black which was the new white.
What it has:
-3G connectivity. It’s nearly 3x faster than EDGE, and is getting pretty darn close to full blown WiFi speed. This is the serious, it’s-a-big-deal upgrade and the reason that you’re going to start seeing the now old and busted first gen iPhones cropping up on eBay for a nickel.
-For real GPS, enhanced with cell tower triangulation, that’ll geotag pictures. This is the other big upgrade.
-Simultaneous voice and data communication, so you can stalk people on Facebook while you talk to them.
-Smaller size without shrinking the 3.5″ (480×320) screen.
-Much better battery life: 10 hours 2G talk time, 5 hours 3G talk time or web browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
-Access to an online 3rd party applications store where you can buy all kinds of software to waste your time with.
-A $200 price tag that means you may actually be able to rationalize purchasing one based on its features rather than the just the fact that it’s a new Apple product and if you don’t buy one society will shun you.
What it doesn’t have:
-Integrated Flash (the software kind, not the bright light kind, although it doesn’t have that either).
-A decent camera, the kind that can take video. Or one it the front to let you video chat.
-Stereo Bluetooth, or the ability to act as a Bluetooth modem, which is wicked super lame.
-A way to activate it without going in person to an AT&T store.
-A cheaper pricetag (my current AT&T contract doesn’t expire until December, so I’m allowed to complain about it… I don’t know what the non-contract unit price is going to be, but my guess is that it won’t be pretty).
I’m absolutely not an Apple fanboi, but I have to admit, I’m sorely tempted by this phone. According to Apple, 56% of people that wanted an original iPhone but didn’t get one say it was due to the price, and Apple seems to have taken that to heart and made 2.0 better and cheaper at the same time. What a concept. Despite my vague distrust of the Apple culture, I’m not too jaded to recognize a good product when I see one, and I’m pretty sure that the 3G iPhone qualifies.
Related Tags: Animals, cell-phones
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