As co-founder of tech site Digg, Kevin Rose is pretty well connected in the gadget world. So when he says that Apple is planning to release a mobile iChat application for the second-generation iPhone, he gets attention.
Apparently, the next iPhone will have two cameras, one on the back as now, and one on the front. The app will let users videochat from iPhone to iPhone, or from iPhone to people running iChat on desktop Macs.
Now, being the co-founder of Digg hasn’t stopped Rose from making inaccurate predictions before - he once claimed the first iPhone would have two batteries - one for music and one for calling - and turned out to be wrong. But his new rumour is worrying for a different reason: mobile video chat sucks. It sucks royally.
Continue reading ‘Why would you want video chat on an iPhone?’
Web 2.0 celebrities are ten a penny these days, which is why it is all the more impressive that Nokia has managed to create one of its own convincing counter-culture characters, all in the name of promoting the N82. Enter Stavros, the (presumably Greek) genius of what he has termed ‘position art’.
The idea is that Stavros is a pretentious artist who has managed to stumble upon an idea for a new kind of art that, though a little tongue in cheek, looks like lots of fun. Basically he uses the GPS in his N82 to plot a routes through cities that make pictures. In his own words, the world is his canvass, and the N82 is his brush.
It’s an interesting publicity stunt, not least because in spite of the fact that Stavros and his ‘position art’ is a bare faced attempt to tap into web 2.0 subculture to promote a product (a path that many have failed at before), Stavros is genuinely quite funny. With his polo neck, horn rimmed glasses and broken Borat-esq English, Stavros is hardly an original character, but he is certainly an amusing accompaniment to Nokia’s aggressive push into the GPS market. How long before some less than web savvy artists miss the joke here and have a go at carving their own niche in ‘position art’? Actually, that probably won’t happen but it would be great if it did (especially for Nokia).
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After Motorola’s leaked 2008 product line-up video a short while back, there has been plenty of speculation as to the mysterious Motorola Kodak camera phone that popped up in it. Well, thanks to some sterling sleuthing from the folks over at Unwired View, a few more concrete(ish) details about the device (and a lovely pic) have been confirmed.
The handset is to be dubbed the MotoZINE ZN5 and by the look of the pic, will be a pretty sleek candy bar with one end being mildly bloated to accommodate what we are hoping will be a pretty high spec camera lens. Apparently the ZN5 will be 2.5G with GSM/GPRS connectivity and will runs on Montavista Linux 2.6.1 OS. It will also include a 320×240 QVGA display and a 5 megapixel camera (hopefully with flash and some sort of fancy zooming capabilities).
There are also reports that the ZN5 will have a 3.5mm headphone jack, will be able to record Mpeg4 video and will have some sort of TV-Out function (handy for looking at all those videos and snaps). Obviously this is all subject to change until we get the official press release from Motorola, but as a first pass at the spec sheet the MotoZine ZN5 is looking like a pretty nifty camera focussed handset. More details as soon as we have them.
(Via Unwired View)
Just before all of Easter’s festivities kicked off, and we became so overcome by the heroic consumption of chocolate eggs that we lost the ability to move, we were asked by the good folks over at fring to pen a guest piece on a topic of our choosing. The result, ‘Is fring the missing link for mobile online storage services?’ can be read by clicking here. Enjoy!
At the moment 5 megapixels is about as good as it gets in mobile photography, but Samsung seems intent to throw the cat among the pigeons with a fresh techie wonder straight out of its research and development lab.
The company has come up with an 8 megapixel complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) sensor designed exclusively for camera phones. Basically that translates into ‘one seriously awesome camera phone lens’. Not only is it compact (just 28mm x 15.3mm x 8.5mm) but apparently it is much better in low light conditions too than the sorts of lenses you would find in most camera phones already on the market.
There is also built in anti-shake technology, face recognition, and Samsung’s “Smile shutter” system, which automatically takes a snap when it detects that everyone in the frame is grinning like a village idiot. Apart from that last bit, it all sounds pretty impressive and the unit is set to go into production in early 2009. Could this be the first seed of a successor to the as yet unreleased Samsung G810? Maybe.
(Via Trusted Reviews)
We have already heard of telescope add ons for mobile phones for looking at very big things that are far away, but now a small group of researchers from the the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a mobile add on for looking at very small things close up - we believe the technical term is a ‘microscope’.
The device can take high-resolution images of patients’ blood cells which can then be sent from the phone. Apparently the mobile microscope could have far reaching diagnostic implications where doctors in remote areas could take pictures of blood from patients suffering from blood disorders before sending them on to specialist centers for analysis.
The compact device will come in 5 and 60 times magnification variants and both are said to be reasonably cheap to produce. There are already plans to test the device in Uganda and Kampala over the summer and the research group have high hopes of finding a manufacturer for the device soon.
(Via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog)
Apple may be about to join the likes of Nokia and Omnifone by offering an ‘all you can eat’ download service for the iPhone and iPod so reports the Financial Times. According to the FT’s insider tipster, the story goes that Apple is in talks with music labels as part of a plan to spur sales for iPhones and iPods but has come up against a brick wall with executives who feel that Apple’s suggested $20 per year subscription is far too low. If Apple is unwilling to budge, there may be no deal at all and hence no all ‘you can eat’ service, at least for now.
The other side of the tale is that Apple is also considering a more conventional subscription based model with a monthly fee which certainly makes sense for contract locked devices such as the iPhone. There is all sorts of speculation swirling around the internet about this today, though as is typical, Apple has not supplied any official comment.
Our guess is it isn’t a matter of if but when and it’s interesting to see how mobile music services, such as Omnifone, may be starting to have an impact on how the business model for digital music at large evolves.
(Via Apple Insider)
A German truck driver pulled over for using his mobile behind the wheel recently, concocted what has to be either one of the most ingenious, or one of the most ridiculous excuses in the history of mankind. When the boys in blue (or green and khaki as they wear over there) questioned the 43-year old, he claimed that he wasn’t using it to talk but to “warm his ear” in order to alleviate the pain of an earache he was suffering at the time.
He didn’t stop there though, following through on his claim, the man later produced an itemized telephone bill that proved wasn’t using the phone at the time he was stopped. The court that heard the case in Hamm accepted the excuse and let him go scot-free. It really puts excuses like ‘my dog ate my homework’ or ‘she was helping me relieve tension in my back’ firmly in their place doesn’t it?
(Via switched)
Well if it’s good enough for sex, chocolate and World of Warcraft, then it is good enough for texting and emailing (just ask Blackberry owners) so reports Ottawa Citizen.
According to an editorial in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Internet addiction or compulsive e-mail/text messaging (among other things) is a common enough compulsive-impulsive disorder to warrant a place in psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders.
Apparently text and email addiction have all the classic hallmarks; cravings, urges, withdrawal an increased desire for better equipment and software, or more and more hours online. Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, claims that sufferers can lose track of time and neglect “basic drives,” such as eating or sleeping. Worse still, relapses are common among sufferers and in some cases psychoactive medications or hospitalization are necessary.
He argues that the phenomenon warrants being included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry’s official dictionary of mental illnesses. The next edition is due out in 2012 so it will be a while before we know if text and email addiction make the cut. It seems likely though, we can think of several people we could have sectioned if this comes to pass.
(Via textually)
Nokia has finally made good with an official announcement about the long rumored black Nokia N82. Besides the colour change, the device remains exactly the same in every other respect with a 5 megapixel camera, A-GPS, HSDPA connectivity and wi-fi.
So not that exciting really then but it does bring Nokia’s Nseries into alignment aesthetically. With the N81, N96 and N78 all sharing a similar piano black finish and other echoing accents, the N82 will now appear much more like part of the family. Could it be that Nokia is set to take a much stronger approach to creating brand identity for its handsets in the wake of the iconic iPhone?
That might be a bit of a leap of faith on our part but it certainly seems that way. Hit the jump for more shots of the N82 in its shiny new clothes.
Continue reading ‘Nokia announces black N82′
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