The automatic garage door opener is one of those under-appreciated gadgets that—as far as I can tell—hasn’t gotten a serious upgrade since the mid 70s. Seriously. You show me a cellphone, I can give you a rough idea of how old it is. You show me a garage door opener, and I’d have a hard time knowing if you installed it yesterday, or 30 years ago. So it’s nice to see Craftsman bringing their AssureLink Garage Door Opener into the 21st century, allowing you to open and close it from an app on your smartphone. Instead of a giant, clunky remote that looks like it predates even the VCR.

From what I can glean from the Craftsman website, the AssureLink opener connects to your home’s wireless network using their “MyQ Technology” which appears to provide similar connectivity to other devices around your home. So not only can you use your smartphone to open or close the door, but you can remotely monitor its status, and close or open it while away. If a friend was stopping by to borrow a ladder, you could even program it to open and close the door for a set amount of time. Handy! It’s also got the requisite safety sensors so it won’t come down on something or someone when being closed from afar. So as a tool for tomfoolery, it seems limited. The Craftsman Garage Door app is of course free, while the actual opener is slightly less free, at $275.49.

[ Craftsman AssureLink Chain Drive Garage Door Opener ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

CES 2011 is just around the corner, and while endless aisles of 3D TVs and I suspect more tablets than I’ll ever care to poke at have a tendency to wear away at a blogger’s soul, there are hidden gems that make the whole experience worthwhile. Last year it was Qualcomm’s Mirasol displays that got me really excited, and this year I have a feeling a small robotic ball recently dubbed ‘Sphero’ could do the same.

Originally shown as a prototype back in June, the slightly mishapen, smartphone-controlled ball has recently undergone a bit of a facelift for its debut at CES, and the rendered pictured above makes it look a lot slicker than its predecessor seen in the video I’ve included below. But what is it? Well in its simplest form it’s kind of a rubber ball for the 21st century. The ball is the most universal toy of all time, allowing you to play an endless number of games with it. But instead of whacking it with a bat, kicking it into a goal or throwing it through a hoop, you control the Sphero over Bluetooth via your phone’s tilt sensor, steering as it rolls around a flat surface. So imagine you and a friend placing your Spheros on a table and playing a quick game of sumo trying to knock the other ball off, or as a not-so-virtual game of golf where hitting the ball on-screen results in the Sphero actually moving towards a hole.

The company behind the Sphero, Orbotix, has already created an open API so that iOS or Android developers can write games or apps that interact ball which is great because while there’s already exciting potential, you just know that some brilliant idea is going to come out of left field that will make the Sphero a must-have product. We’ll have more info and hopefully a hands-on look at Sphero as part of our upcoming CES 2011 coverage starting in January.

[ The Orbotix Blog - The Ball Revealed – Sphero ]

Touchscreen displays not only make portable devices like smartphones and MIDs easier to interact with, but they also remove the need for a dedicated keyboard, which can take up a lot of space. However, if you still prefer the tactile feel of a hardware keyboard, the compact smallQWERTY keypad from Mobience could be a reasonable compromise.

Even though its name includes the term ‘QWERTY’ the keypad doesn’t have 26 alphanumeric keys, instead it includes a 12 button numeric keypad like on a traditional phone, with 8 additional function buttons. Typing out words either requires you to hit certain buttons multiple times to get the letter you need, or hopefully it uses a software trick like T9 to predict the word with minimal presses. Unfortunately there’s no information on when this device might be available, and the fact that the Mobience website is currently just a GoDaddy pageholder doesn’t bode well for anyone wanting to get their hands on one.

[ AVING USA - Mobience to develop 'smallQWERTY' keyboard for MID and smartphone ] VIA [ DVICE ]

Despite the fact that the global economy is very bad, smartphones are still growing at a significant rate. More and more computer companies are announcing that they are entering the smartphone market in an effort to improve their profits.

The latest company to announce that they are entering into the smartphone market isn’t a computer maker, but a company known for LCD TVs, digital picture frames, and PC monitors. Viewsonic has announced that it intends to enter into the smartphone market with phones aimed at video, gaming, and Internet browsing with larger screens.

Viewsonic offers no details on products at this time, but says that its smartphones will launch first in China and then come to the U.S. and Europe later. All that Viewsonic is saying about its smartphones at this time is that they will be 3G enabled and integrate well with its other product offerings.

[ Viewsonic ]

By Shane McGlaun

The first Android smartphone to hit the market was the T-Mobile G1. The device was met with enthusiasm by many fans of open source phones, but there were some teething problems with the new OS. It took Google and T-Mobile a bit to get things sorted and other smartphone makers and mobile carriers watched to see how the G1 did before jumping into the Android waters.

Now that the kinks are mostly sorted out of the Android OS, more and more new smartphones are being announced that would run the operating system. Strategy Analytics says that in 2009 Android will be the fastest growing smartphone OS with a predicted growth rate of 900% for the year.

The second fastest growing OS for 2009 is predicted to be the iPhone OS with 79% growth over the year. Google is expecting big things from Android this year and the OS is set to hit the netbook market as well. Dell is working on Android netbooks and HP is considering the OS for its netbook line as well. The research firm says Android is in position to become a top smartphone OS over the next 2 or 3 years.

[ Strategy Analytics ]

i-mate announced recently that its line of Ultimate smartphones is now available in the Americas, including the Ultimate 8150. The Ultimate 8150 runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional and features WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

The phone operates on WCDMA/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks. Internal memory includes 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM. Memory expansion is available via a microSD card slot.

Other features include a 2-megapixel camera with flash, autofocus, 4x digital zoom and the camera is video call capable. The screen is a 2.6-inch touchscreen and the phone has a built-in FM tuner. A video output is also available for output to projectors and secondary displays for Office applications included on the phone. The i-mate Ultimate 8150 is available direct from i-mate for $725.

VIA [ i-mate ]

The original Samsung BlackJack was a big seller for AT&T and one of its most popular smartphones. Samsung and AT&T announced that a new updated BlackJack II would be available later this year. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 in San Francisco showed the phone publically for the first time yesterday.

The BlackJack II looks a lot like the original BlackJack with a full QWERTY keyboard and a large 2.4-inch QVGA color display and it uses the Windows Mobile 6 OS. AT&T squeezed some interesting new features into the new BlackJack II including AT&T Video Share that allows users to share live video during a voice call from the BlackJack II’s built-in 2MP camera.

Other interesting features include built-in GPS with support for location-based services, RSS reader client, significant improvements in standard battery life, and increased standard memory. The BlackJack II will also offer over-the-air synchronization of contacts, calendar, and task lists with Microsoft Exchange Server or AT&T Express Mail. The phone is expected to cost $149 with a 2-year contract.

VIA [ AT&T ]